Neha Tiwari Pvt. Ltd.

While I was out for tea this last weekend, a friend of mine asked me if I had a Friendster account. Ah Friendster, the poor predecessor of Myspace and Facebook that got left in the dust. The site boasts of having “over 50 million profiles,” which is not much compared to Tom on Myspace’s 203 million friends. No offense to Tom, but not even everyone is his friend [some people choose to delete him...I've been nice and kept the fellow Cal alum]. After opening their doors to every Tom, Dick and Harry on the planet, I am sure that Facebook has a sizable community as well. For some reason, I think that Friendster might be doing okay overseas, but is really tanking in the States. Even their dorky Jansport backpack backgrounds can’t save them now.

Why all the bitter blood over Friendster, you ask? Well here’s a little story on my recent user experience. I logged on after approximately 3 months to add my aforementioned chai-going pal. I had a number of changes to make as I realized that most of my pictures were outdated, my favorite tastes had changed, and my “about me” section sounded uber-dorky. I also saw that they had swiped the personalized URL idea from Myspace, and the “It’s complicated” relationship status from Facebook. Way to go, wannabe copycats. I submitted my fancy URL like 4 times, and it kept leading back to my old page without the modifications.

After that, I decided to edit the text and photos. After making my grand total of photos on the site a lucky number 13, I was told that I could post 980+ more photos of myself. Do the internets really need like 1,000 pictures of me being a total dumbass? I think not, thus making this an unnecessary feature. Revising the photos and amending the text took several attempts, despite the “changes successful” message that I received after every update. In addition, I checked out their media section with videos from You Tube, and presumably, music. I eventually gave up because of the lack of direction on how to insert a different video on the profile page, or embed a music player. The only item that was really easy to update was the new “Featured friends” section. Think of it as the “Top 8″ on Myspace, but a tad less seamless. Finally, I tried to alter the background to something more me, which for some reason didn’t stick. Most likely because it was an indirect message–Friendster is so NOT me anymore.

I would seriously consider just leaving the service altogether, but this one has a reason to stay as well. You see, I’ve found that many of my friends who are like 3+ years older than me really dig Friendster. They’ve never branched out to Facebook or Myspace, as social-network ignorance was web bliss to them. I don’t think it is as interesting or intuitive as either of the other sites, even though Friendster have obviously put some effort forth in the cool movement. Needless to say, their impersonation tactics have deemed them to be quite un-rad.

Reason number two for continuing on the site is my ethnic community. I have no idea why almost every Indian person I meet really loves to connect via Friendster. I understand that is was the friend site of the millennium, but it’s time to move on. Trust me guys, you can have fun with all your Bhangra buddies and post 100 bulletins on Myspace or Facebook all the while looking much more net savvy. It was even the only social-networking site that my anti-blogging older brother attempted to join, which is pretty weird in and of itself. He has since left it due to discovering its incredible lameness, and lack of successful networking.

I predict a slow and painful death for Mr.Friendster. Meanwhile, I’ll login again in 3 months when the next IIT professional asks me to add him. Or maybe this time I’ll ask him to get with it, and add me on Facebook instead. A little updating will definitely do him [and every Friendster loyalist] some good.