I just saw a goofy Travelocity commercial during Monday Night Football that was set up as a breaking news story about the Travelocity Gnome disappearing. Mildly funny, but unremarkable except for the fact that there was a URL at the end of the commercial pointing to GnomeWatch.com. Being a sucker, I typed it in to see what was there.

I was surprised to be redirected to a Yahoo 360 page for a user called GnomeWatch. The page is highly customized with a ton of external content complete with Yahoo videos and a Flickr photostream. For those that don’t know, 360 is Yahoo’s social networking platform (similar to MySpace, ESPN Fan Profiles, etc.). Just like shows like FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia have done on MySpace, Yahoo and Travelocity are trying to get people to add GnomeWatch as friends, join the GnomeWatch group (hosted by Yahoo Groups) and watch videos (hosted by, naturally, Yahoo Videos).

I can’t imagine that enough people will care about the Travelocity Gnome to sign up for the Yahoo Group, but anything that gets people to realize that Yahoo even has 360 will probably be a good thing.

Of course, considering the recent rumblings coming out of Yahoo-land, perhaps this is something that should die.