Networking sites are very popular at the moment and are one of the very few types of online activity that are attracting VC investment. Friendster is no exception and has already attracted around $25 million while still being in beta mode.
The growth of its user base has been amazing: from 0 users in March this year to over 2.3 million users at the moment and growing fast. See Stefan’s article for a deeper analysis of the service.
The registration process is painless. Only name, email address and password are needed and you can start searching for friends and browse their network immediately. Later you can go on and add further information to your profile. This includes the standard music preference, books and other interests.
First I was a bit hesitant to the idea of cataloguing people like that and my spell check kept on insisting that I’d change Friendster to Fraudster all the time. Or maybe I was just jealous that I did not come up with the idea my self; so simple yet genius! Still it was too tempting to see whether the old six degrees of separation theory works so I signed up after only short amount of hesitation.
Another related project on this theme is the FOAF (friend of a friend) project. This requires however a more tech savvy person to be able to edit their own XML profile and to host it somewhere. On the other hand I feel more in control of a profile of me that I manage my self.
Once you have created an account, search for David Kaspar and add me to your friends. Then you will be able to see my profile and browse my network.
The only problem I have with Friendster is that you may only see a person’s profile if they’re in your personal network. I’m listed with the email address associated with this comment, and even though I’m logged-in, I still can’t see your profile. Phooey!
Hey D,
thanx for pointing that out.
I have now modified the post to say that it’s best to search for “David Kaspar” and then add me.
Try again!
friendster?! it’s a good thing to be a member of it!