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Mars' sugary, fruity candy product unveiled the new Skittles.com site this week, which essentially isn't a full page at all, but a widget that guides visitors to outside social media sites. Click on the Friends tab, and you're taken to the Facebook home page. Click on Chatter, and you're transported to a Twitter page filled with Skittles-related Tweets. From the media tab, you can see Skittles videos directly on YouTube, and Skittles pictures on Flickr. And to find out about Skittles products, click on the products tab to learn more on Wikipedia.

With the new site, Skittles has essentially handed the keys to its official brand conversation to the consumers. The bold approach has gotten a slew of marketing blog buzz, and the brand has nearly 600,000 friends on Facebook. At the same time, there's been Tweets and Facebook posts that have very little to do with Skittles, and others that could be considered negative to the brand. "I threw up the last time I ate Skittles," posted Tyler on Facebook. "I don't like to taste the rainbow."

Click here to take a tour of the revised Skittles site (and look at its obvious inspiration, the nearly-year-old site for Boston ad agency Modernista!) and tell me, What do you think? Do Skittles and Modernista deserve kudos for showcasing social media over its own content? Is this the way of the future, or a short-lived stunt? Do consumers have too much control, or perhaps still, not enough?

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