Friendster helped kick off the social networking craze. A few years ago Friendster membership spread like wildfire across the Web. And every touted that this was the new way of social interaction on the Web.

But a most people know, these things start to bore you if not updated. I remember when I first got on to chat rooms. I loved the idea that I could just enter a room at any hour of the day and be connected to people to talk to. This became an obsession for about a week. But, the friends you make in these situations are a dime a dozen and you simply grow tired of the experience.

The same was true for Friendster. People loved the idea at first of meeting new people through a connection of some sort. And it was amazing to see how many people you were connected with. But, after while you start to realize, “what’s the point?”.

Then comes the business networking ideas. I never like Ryze.com or LinkedIn. They always seemed to be for overly desperate sales guys. I now get Spam emails from people asking me to join their network, so as to make their lives easier. I hate that, but that’s a whole other blog posting.

But when MySpace reared it’s pimple laced head, it showed Friendster a thing or two about how people want to interact, and the audience that will actually continue with a site. The fact is, as an adult I simply do not have time to keep up on things like Friendster, MySpace, or any other social networking site. I’m incredibly busy writing blog postings about them. So, that leaves teenage girls, and the men who love them. MySpace, Xanga, and Facebook get significantly more page views in part because of the type of audience, and the insane amount of pictures these people put up.

Friendster has a plan though. It has taken another $10 million in venture capitol (you would think after years and years of operation, they would be profitable by now) so that they can build some “me too” technology to compete with MySpace. But it’s not money they need, it’s a better mindset on what people want from their social networking site. What will make a site sticky…a portal even for not just teenagers, but adults as well?

Will Friendster be able to compete with MySpace? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean I think MySpace is going to rule the world much longer either. As fast as it ascended, it will fall. I think there is something new out there being built that will grab the interest of these teenagers away from Rupert Murdoch and become the next big thing. If you’re interested in seeing some of the amazing things coming out in this market, just keep track of blogs like Techcrunch, or Techdirt.

From the sound of Lindstrom, Friendster CEO, it seems like they are going to try to be more like LinkedIn as well. Who uses these things? I don’t mean who signs up, but who actually uses these things on a daily basis? No one I know.

It will be interesting to check in on this subject again in six months. I’m sure Friendster will still be developing it’s new, next best thing. And MySpace will still be riding on top. But I’m guessing a year from now we may start to see a different story emerge.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 10:47 amand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.