{ 3:41 PM }
Once upon a time everyone was hooked on this little site called Friendster. That is, until everyone discovered the joys of Pet Society + Restaurant City + Farmville + better social networking strategy otherwise known as Facebook.
I haven't opened my Friendster in ages. The last time I did, was probably March this year, but even then I'd already moved to Multiply (until they had that shitty makeover which made it harder to use). But in December 2008, I'd already signed up for Facebook, the time when Pet Society was still slowly growing in popularity. I moved to other social networking sites and stayed away from Friendster for various reasons -- one, I had 1000+ friends, most of them accumulated during my elementary days, when "paramihan ng friends" was all the rage. Even those I didn't know, I added them, just so I could compete with my friends and classmates in the next school day, exclaiming, "ah, mas marami na yung friends ko sayo sa Friendster!" but then high school kicked in, you mature, and you realize....."WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS?" because the next thing you know, random people are commenting on your profile, saying things like "hi cutie, can i get ur number?" and even at one point, lewd messages, which just drew the line for me. Second, Friendster wasn't about connecting with friends anymore...it became an epicenter for attention whoring, much like the Asian counterpart of what MySpace was to Americans. cliche and tasteless emo shots, even slutty ones, and tacky "shoutouts" were sprawled on the updates on my Friendster homepage. I'm not being snobbish, but really, who would want to visit a site with tons of updates all looking and sounding the same? Also, my inbox was piling up with spam, and so were the bulletin boards, which were just really used to spread chain messages and other pointless posts just to grab attention.
When I finally got the hang of Facebook, I started out with a few friends whom I knew personally, until I discovered that slowly but steadily, more of my friends and acquaintances were moving to Facebook, obviously for similar reasons. I have to admit, Facebook is clever, even if it's already being this "next big thing". For one, you can easily choose not to add people you don't know, and Facebook's functions are more personal. On people's pages, unlike in Friendster where the main attraction was the "About Me" page, which was just really an excuse for people to put various HTML and CSS graphics which just slowed down bandwidth, on Facebook you have walls. Walls are much more functional than Friendster's "comments/testimonials" page. For one, it's faster to reply to Walls, which make it easier for spontaneous conversation, while on Friendster you have to surf through pages just to reply to the person you're talking to. Plus the great thing about having Walls as the main function of the profile page makes it about interaction, and less about attention. Which, should really be the purpose of social networking in the first place.
Also, on the homepage, instead of just the usual updates, you have a news feed that actually works-- who commented on whom, what photo you're tagged in, who replied to your post. Facebook really makes it all about interaction, making it much more accessible to friends with friends, be it someone who hasn't seen a certain person in the longest time, or classmates who choose to bond over Facebook. The other great thing about Facebook is the apps. Admit it, every Facebook user has used an app. These applications are the great additional functions on Facebook, and what makes Facebook stand out among networking sites. They just make the Facebook experience a lot more fun, and allow variety when the typical Facebook routine starts to get tedious. Games, quizzes, etc.
I thought all was well, until I saw this.
*click to enlarge* Friendster has had a redesign, obviously to win loyal users back. I'm not sure if I should love or hate the new look-- the logo instead of looking all corporate, looks like a 5th grader drew it, though it's more colorful than the previous one, the image on the right. I personally think they're trying too hard. It doesn't end there.
And Friendster has the audacity to call Facebook boring. Sure, because their homepage is sooooo original. (Facebook ripoff, anyone?) The news feed, with the huge status box on top. They should have just put the updates on the upper right instead too. Apparently, they're all about Simple and Personal now, aka Facebook with more color. And more customizable. I would have probably enjoyed this a lot more if I were in gradeschool right now, but as someone whose taste has probably matured with age, it's easy to overlook the lack of CSS on Facebook--plus, it's cleaner to look at. I can customize my blogs after all, can't I? :P
so still, Facebook > the new Friendster. One whole redesign won't easily change that. Right now, I don't really see myself going back to Friendster. As I'd like to put it in jest, I've "moved on". :P
*waaaaayyy too much free time on my hands*
