What are myspace and friendster?
The popular social networking websites MySpace.com and Friendster.com are all the rave among the computer savvy population.
The Websites’ function similar to the game six degrees to Kevin Bacon, in which a user creates a personal network consisting of the users friends that connects them to an extended group of people that a user is connected to via chains of mutual friends. The user must first create their personal profile which includes everything from basic information such as age, location, and interests as well as the ability to upload pictures.
Some basic information about Friendster
Friendster, Inc. is a privately held corporation, headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. The company was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Jonathan Abrams, and is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures, and individual investors.
Jonathan Abrams is the creator of http://www.friendster.com. Abrams was previously the founder & CEO of HotLinks, and has worked in senior engineering roles at companies such as Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University.
Friendster testimonials
My friend got me to join Friendster, and so far I am really having fun with it. I have already invited five people to join up with me. I invited them because I am so far from them since I moved away, so this is a fun way to keep in touch. I like Friendster because I can connect with people all over. I have already found another person who likes to scuba dive.
Lesly, 27, single, from Riverside, CA (member since August 2002) says:
We all know that meeting people out in the wild is a risky proposition. With Friendster, you meet people through people that you already know and trust. So it's like having an infinite social network.
Christian, 32, single, from San Francisco, CA (member since May 2002) says:
Some basic information about MySpace
The http://www.myspace.com emerged onto the internet in September 2003 and has since acquired approximately 600,000 members. Though the My Space Website functions quite similar to that of Friendster.com, it offers users a variety of more aspects to utilize that friendster does not have. On MySpace personal profiles can be personalized with color, graphics, and sound. The user has the ability to write Journals on their site to share with their friends and extended network such as ‘Thoughts of the Day’ or movie and restaurant recommendations. The user can also use the Bulletin Board to post messages that are sent to all of their friends.
The website includes picture ranking, a classified section and the ability to comment on other user’s pictures in addition to many other effects that make the site more user friendly. The MySpace Network also has over 84 group profiles within categories such as musicians and bands, area or location, and schools and alumni to name a few.
The brains behind the MySpace Network is 29-year-old Tom Anderson, a graduate of University of California, Berkeley with two Bachelors Degrees’ in English and Rhetoric. Anderson later received his Masters Degree in Film Theory at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“I wanted to combine the features of a lot of cool sites such as Xanga, AsianAvenue, Friendster, HotorNot and Craig's List,” said Anderson. “All these sites seem to have features that would fit together quite well, but no one had done that.”
MySpace operates out of an office located in Los Angeles. “Maintaining the site is a full time job,” said Anderson. “I’m the President and there is a staff of about 20 people working on the site.”
What can be expected in the future from MySpace? “The site is only about 20% of what it will be,” said Anderson. “We keep changing and improving it everyday.”
MySpace testimonials
“I think that MySpace is a better and easier site to use than Friendster. It is faster and you can do more on MySpace that you can’t do on Friendster,” said Michelle Kerfoot, a Recreation and Leisure major at California State University, Long Beach. Kerfoot is a member of both MySpace and Friendster.
“I definitely prefer MySpace over Friendster,” “the sites just all around better than friendster. Friendster has become too slow to use and doesn’t offer half of what’s available on MySpace.”
Whether you choose to amuse yourself through Friendster, MySpace or both, the social networking sites are the trendiest spots to be online right now. You can access the My Space and Friendster Networks via the following links:
I decided to include each of the above links because they are direct connections to the two Websites discussed in this paper. They also include the company logo’s which I thought were important for brand recognition. I’ve also included examples from my personal profiles: