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August 31, 2005

Social Networking, Doesn't End In ..STER & Best Made With A Handshake

I've received alot of invitations to friendster over the years, of which most I ignored. I assumed I didn't have the time for it, was in a relationship and had my own friends already. I know, I sound like a snob. With all the buzz in the biz over social networks, the birth of Googles Orkut, yahoo360, Linkedin, weblogs and wikis, I knew I had to give in and see what all the hype was all about.

I have selectivly used it from time to time but more as a voyeur then a participator. Friendster is a nice "lighthearted" social network I would use if I was still in college. I've observed people who poach on other peoples relationships, chat them up online, get approval and add them to the growing list of "friends"... people collecting other peoples relationships when no real relationship exists. Anyhow, word is on the street Friendster is in trouble.

I still believe the most powerful (strong) social networks are those you forged real time - face to face. Check out Net Party. It's a model that takes advantage of the webs ability to connect people and then organizes real events in all the major cities.

UPDATE: 10/01/2005

It’s a particularly bad day to be a stalker. Out of seemingly nowhere, old-school online network Friendster (which, much to our delight, still exists for those of us feeling too “old” for the hip kids on MySpace) has added a feature which allows members to see who has viewed their profile in the past month. So if you’ve looked up that hot chick in accounting, she’s going to know it as soon as she logs on.

For future reference, there is an option that allows one to view anonymously so that the objects of your internerdy desire will remain blissfully unaware of your obsession, but it would’ve been nice for Friendster to give some advance warning. Instead, we now know that our profile has been viewed 192 times since September 1, 2005, and we’re so telling your significant other what you’ve been up to.

Posted by Steve Hultgren at August 31, 2005 12:09 PM