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Make friends with just a few key strokes

When Ernest Wong turned 36 in September, his friend Michael threw him a surprise birthday party at a San Francisco restaurant, attended by six or seven of his closest pals.

It was a pleasant surprise but Wong couldn't figure out how Michael had managed to assemble all the members of his inner circle — some of whom he barely knew — short of rifling through his address book.

In fact, Michael had rifled through Wong's little black book — sort of — Wong's virtual "address book," as posted on a hot new website called Friendster.com.

"He just went into my Friendster list and emailed my friends," said the 36-year-old marketing manager.

The brainchild of an out-of-work Silicon Valley engineer, Friendster.com is one of half a dozen online networking and dating sites that have sprung up in the past year.

The service works by connecting people for free by leveraging each member's social circle.

An ongoing game of six-degrees of separation

The chain begins with one person who signs on to the site, posts a picture and a brief personal profile on a home page, then sends out an invitation to people in their social circle.

As friends sign on, the circle expands, connecting friends of friends in an ongoing game of six-degrees-of-separation.

Members connect with other Friendsters through email, which is filtered through the site, allowing members to connect with thousands of people without ever giving up their email address.

Friendster founder Jonathon Abrams (33) said the idea came to him in early 2002 when he found himself both single and unemployed and surfing online dating and networking services.

"I took a look at those sites and everybody was anonymous and creepy," Abrams said. "It occurred to me that people prefer to meet people through their friends."

"It removes some of the online singles bar feeling of a match.com or a lavalife," said New York University sociologist Clay Shirky in a reference to two popular dating sites.

Friendsters vouch for friendsters, making it less anonymous, less creepy

And of course it helps that Friendsters have photos of other Friendsters to eyeball, added Shirky, who credits the popularity of the service in part to the rise of digital photography.

"It's the face stupid," he said.

Wong, who has been on at least one date with a person he met on Friendster, was swapping out the photo on his homepage twice a day at one point.

"If it's a really cute picture, you get more feedback," he explained.

Whether Friendsters are looking for a date, or just to expand their social circle, having a friend to vouch for you can be a useful asset, a kind of social passport, suggested Ted Castronova, associate professor of economics at California State.

"There's a lot of information on the internet that is not codified. People troll," Castronova said. In the future, a Friendster page, or something like it, could serve as a person's internet credential. "Here are my friends. Here's who I know."

Whatever the reason, the website has been prolifically popular, attracting 1.5 million unique visitors — as opposed to repeat visitors or hits — since it was launched in March, according to the online tracking firm comScore Networks Inc.

Venture capitalists offer backing

The service, which is busiest during office hours on weekdays, and reportedly has a big following among San Francisco's gay community, has grown virally, by word-of-mouth, without any serious advertising.

Sam Hunt, a 22-year-old publicist in Chicago with 97 Friendsters, said he joined in March and for two months only had one friend.

"Then, all of a sudden, every single person I knew was on it. Even people that don't check their email."

The site's success has drawn the attention of venture capitalists and the Sunnyvale, California start-up has secured $13-million in backing from four investors, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Abrams plans to charge for additional services such as video and sound capabilities, while leaving the basic service free, according to the Journal.

Whether there's a business to be made out of the service remains to be seen.

"These networks are a lot like online auctions — just because it's a good idea doesn't mean everybody can be eBay," noted Shirky.

 

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