Friday

For some reason I woke up this morning and suddenly remembered that before Facebook there was Friendster, and I wondered, “What ever happened to friendster”? Like facebook is now, Friendster was the big thing when it was popular. I don’t think they called it social networking yet, or maybe, I don’t know; but if they weren’t calling it social networking at the time, it was the same thing essentially. I never joined Friendster, and I’m not among the 50% of the American population that’s on Facebook.

The other day I saw a headline suggesting it’s possible Facebook and Google can disappear in the next 5 years. I doubt it strongly; but I’m willing to bet people didn’t anticipate Friendster would disappear either. Or am I just over estimating the popularity of Friendster when it was around? When I checked to see if friendster.com was still around I discovered it’s now a games website with the slogan “Living the Game” and the following statement printed on their homepage:

Comment on your friends photo? #fail. Having a deathmatch with your ex? #epic. Want free games that’s fun? Well here’s Friendster! We’re back and we want to reward you in for having FUN! More than that we’re also about putting the social in your online life, check out our new and advanced ways of making new friends or reconnecting with the old ones. (friendster.com)

I think what might spare Facebook the same fate as Friendster is the fact that it has managed to become a way of life for people; and in doing so, the people behind it have become so super rich they can easily afford any expense that might become necessary to spend to trounce anything that might come up trying to compete. Unless someone like a Messiah can come along and convince tens of millions of people to delete their facebook accounts, facebook isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Image of Mark Zuckerberg by Guillaume Paumier