Friendster

Friendster is popular social networking site that aims to enrich relationships in the online world through its patented process of creating a circle of friends. With the name saying it all, it users are encouraged to share interesting stuff with their friends, peers, and relatives; both, to initiate development of cordial relations and also deepen the already existing ones. The website claims to be the 3rd largest social network and 9th largest in terms of traffic. It has a huge user base, with 30 million being the magnitude of total registered persons gained in 2007 and millions adding each month to it. Anyone who is above 18 is legally permitted to jump into this pool that already, boasting of millions of beneficiaries. One can utilize the ubiquitous feature of uploading photos and albums in the profile. By searching on the e-mail address book, one can know the friends who are already availing the ‘Friendster’ service. Invites can then be sent to them. Besides this, the registered members can play games, create blogs or view the featured ones. The application has people in the age group of 16-30 as the target population and has been doing a lot to lure the crowd. Moreover, it has succeeded too, proved by the ever increasing member base. With its headquarters in San Francisco, Friendster was founded in 2002. Friendster was the first popular social networking site. Google offered to buy Friendster in 2003, but they refused. Most users switched to other social networks like MySpace and Facebook because they introduced more innovative features. This application differs from the similar players with respect to the extent to which it allows the users the customization of their profiles. One can choose out of about 40 skins to stick to. Besides, users can easily get to know about the last 100 persons who visited their profile. This is definitely a welcome change as other players of this ‘social networking area’ are limited to only a few of recent visitors. The success has been carried with the introduction of a new website, by the name m.friendster.com. Subscribing to this, one can have alerts on mobile phones, regarding the changing scenario of Friendster. One of the unique features includes ‘Google Map Maker’. This enables members to mark one’s favorite spots, add roads, parks for rural areas that are unmapped and help users in finding small businesses of a particular area by tagging them. The home page boasts of a neat outlook that ingrains an aesthetic appeal. The logo has the name of the application in grey with a small animated smiling face tucked on the left of it. This carries the entertaining and friendly feel of the website; however there is nothing much that is worth mentionable. Various shades of blue on a white background give it an ordinary look. Apt utilization of space is lacking. However, despite these loopholes, it makes up for them, owing to the really useful features it comes with. Few of the quiet ads are seen here and there. Navigation is fast enough not to pose many problems. This optional process asks for the usual information like e-mail address, password, first name, last name, date of birth, gender and country. The account is created in a few seconds. However, no confirmation e-mail is sent. Also, no credit card details are asked for. The site is venture funded by DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, IDG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers etc. Several advertisements, given place on various pages add to the revenues of the firm. This application is suggested for people who are into spreading their social network, either to experience the adventurous feel of bumping into unknown people or for remaining in contact with business associates. It can also be used by artists, musicians etc to build a fan base.