Eons Is to TeeBeeDee as MySpace Is to Facebook

One site focuses on sex, work, and relationships. The other more politely calls it "dating" and offers everything from brain fitness exercises to obituaries. Just like MySpace and Facebook attract different sorts of young adults, so do the boomer sites like Eons and TeeBeeDee. Both are trying to cultivate a boomer following, each just sees boomers through a different lens.

According to experts like Danah Boyd who study these sorts of things, MySpace and Facebook have attracted two different audiences. MySpace is associated with a lower economic, less educated demographic while Facebook smacks of the college educated crowd from which it was born. Following suit, the new boomer networks, Eons and TeeBeeDee, are likely to amplify the boomer cultural divide.

Eons, the first major web destination for folks over 50, offers its users community and advice on money, travel, health, finance, and more. There are expert columnists doling out advice on a number of topics from bird watching to life changes. Both the editorial and the user comments have a certain primness, a sort of Andy of Mayberry sensibility. The comments to blog posts are kind and encouraging; the humor is kind of cornball—like the uncle whose jokes made you groan at the family holiday table. The site also tries to bring 50-somethings a bit of their own celebrity world. The feature story this month is about Jane Seymour (if you're under 30 you may not have a clue).

TeeBeeDee (a longhand way of spelling "TBD," the abbreviation for "To Be Determined") smacks of a more leisured, hipper and privileged class. It focuses on the 40+ demographic, and it's amazing the difference a decade can make. Sex over 40, work, relationships, and mind/body balance were the hot topics over the course of my visits. Totally propelled by community content, the members tend to quote great authors, listen to eclectic but non-mainstream music, and travel to exotic destinations. TeeBeeDee's celebrity story featured Ali G hosting a rather explicit interview with the Beckhams. Biggest problem, the site has a homogeneity of voices, probably because it's all based on inviting your friends to join you.

TeeBeeDee's is certainly holding a different cocktail party than the one on Eons. TeeBeeDee asks members to talk about where they've had their wildest sex-capades; Eons members talk about the difficulties of getting intimate after 50—never mind the wild sex. If Eons is Mayberry then TeeBeeDee is Woodstock.

Created by the founder of Parenting magazine, TeeBeeDee took a lesson from the women's service magazines with topics and headlines that capture our imaginations. Eons, founded by Jeff Taylor (the same guy who founded Monster.com), brings a bit more utility and handholding advice to an aging generation. Eons has been around for a year and a half; TeeBeeDee is just getting started. Both sites fill an important space in the ages and stages of the Internet.

Why don't you visit each of them and tell me if my insights are on target? Which one would you spend more time on? Boomer web sites are being launched daily so I'll be taking a look at some of the others in upcoming posts.