Slightly older social networkers

With its two new sites, consumer products giant Procter & Gamble (of Pampers and Tide fame) just may help shape social networking for the 18-to-49-year-old age group. Its women's site Capessa, for networking about "parenting, pregnancy, and weight loss," won't push self-produced video so much as encourage users to be interviewed about their experiences by professional producers, the Wall Street Journal reports. The other site's a little less predictable as a P&G project. It's launching the People's Choice Community this week, the day after CBS airs the awards shows of that name. The focus of these sites is market research, according to the Journal: They'll "act as continuing focus-group-type environments where P&G - by monitoring consumer discussions on the sites - can learn more about its target audience's likes and dislikes and what consumers in different stages of life care about." Just another sign social networking's here to stay. (P&G's also going after younger consumers – its Herbal Essence shampoo has a profile in MySpace, the Journal says.) In its report, Newsweek leads with the story of a 58-year-old art historian who socializes in Eons.com, at which "you have to be at least 50 to join." Newsweek cites research showing that the 50+ demographic could "explode" from the current 1 million to 20 million and says there are "215 million social networkers regularly active today."