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Yes, it was originally advertising agency Modernista! that threw away their Website in favor of simply patching together all of their information across various social networks and services. Nearly a year later, Skittles has done the same thing.  If you point your Web browser to Skittles.com, you will not be greeted by the familiar sight of a highly “experiential” or branded site complete with games and promotions—instead, you will go to a Twitter search result page that shows you what people are saying about the brand in real time.

The “siteless website” then places a “widget” above the Twitter search result and lets you navigate to other destinations, mostly distributed across the Web, from product pages on Facebook, to video channels on You Tube, to simple product information on Wikipedia and don’t forget photos on Flickr.

While I would not recommend agencies or professional services firms to go the Modernista! route (people aren’t talking about you like they are about products)—this is an interesting tactic and raises a few issues. For one, as Modernista! has taught us, you can’t fool around with your Wikipedia entry. And secondarily, the tactic is still experimental. (currently Skittles requires you to enter your date of birth every time you visit the “site”—a less than ideal experience probably caused by a tech glitch.)

Another reason this is worth watching closely is because we’re seeing a social media reality play out in real time. While you can listen in on, respond to and potentially even influence conversations—you cannot control them.  Currently, pointing your browser to Skittles.com will also result in some profanity showing up (via Twitter). Note: Skittles does have age verification in place, as mentioned earlier but you can see the updates behind it.
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