First in a series….
This was a solution developed for a client who wanted a deep portal experience for their target users, built through the integration of a variety of third-party services. Google Custom Search on a set of curated and keyword-filtered websites. Yelp for finding relevant business listings. Amazon’s E-Commerce API for promoting and selling featured products and building promotional partnerships with specific vendors. Ning as the community glue which would tie everything together. All of these components would be put together under a single skin, navigation and information architecture to create what should be a fairly seamless experience.
This approach can be used for pretty much any niche or target demographic, as well