'Friendster' forges old, new frienships online

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor/vmahmud@yahoo.com

Friends of mine have been pestering me for months to join this new internet-based social networking system called Friendster (www.friendster.com).

It is basically a website for meeting new people, based on the referral or recommendation of those you know.

So instead of getting together out of the blue with complete strangers in Internet chat rooms or message forums, Friendster is touted as a relatively new innovative way of forging friendships and relationships through mutual people online.

It has been said that there are only six degrees of separation between any two people on the planet. For example, you may know a friend who has an acquaintance to an associate with an individual that is related to Sean Connery.

That's about four degrees of separation. It's probably a lot less for people based in Indonesia.

Currently a student overseas, I showed the website to classmates in Australia who turns out to have already joined the system. After inviting them online in Friendster, I was amazed to learn that one of them was separated to me by only 2 people: his childhood classmate who is now studying in Holland is friends with my office colleague in Jakarta. What a small world!

After signing up for this free service (an active e-mail account is required), users can immediately reach out and form links with known people as well as see whom their friends are linked to.

A search engine is available in the gallery section to find new friends within your direct or not-so-immediate circle of associates. You can even search within the entire network and meet new people from the other side of the world.

Once you find someone, Friendster will be able to identify any association they may have. For example, Bruce is friends with Bill that is linked to Budi who is close to you.

"Inviting" friends is a mutual process. Invitations can be sent or received and the other party must approve in order to be linked directly.

With Friendster, you can also find out who they are by way of their Web page and, more importantly, whom they know. The people they are linked to could be used as a form of reference. You can even send messages to your closest link to enquire about them.

As a member, you can restrict the amount of information displayed online to your circle of friends. This is ideal for those who would like to join this new system but still retain some form of privacy.

There are even communications features such as the bulletin board to broadcast messages, invite or even start off discussions within your network of friends and acquaintances. Overall, this is slightly better then meeting total strangers online, but like in any relationships, making new friends, which can be a hit and miss proposition.

Not only can you search from your increasingly large sphere of friends (close buddies, acquaintances or "friends of a friend of a friend"), you can also find people based on organizations such as schools or companies as well as sharing common interests, such as music, movies or books.

If you cannot find your particular group, make an account on its behalf to become a virtual focal point for its past, present and future members. For those who have unique hobbies or passions, Friendster would be able to meet likewise individuals towards forming a gathering online.

Friendster is still in beta, which means that the Site is still in its pre-opening stages. As such, error messages or delays are not uncommon. That has not stopped millions of people from using the system to keep in touch with friends as well as making new ones.

Friendster is not the only social networking system of its kind. There are also Tribes (www.tribe.net), Friendzy (www.friendzy.com), Friend Surfer (www.friendsurfer.com) to name a few, so shop around. But a good starting point is to use one that most of your friends are currently using.

Granted, these websites are no substitutes for face-to-face meetings in person but it can at least be a starting point.

Also, the initial interest for using Friendster may wane over time, as the features at the moment are only to identify and list the number of friends an individual may have. However, considering this is still the early stages, the site may be adding more features in the future.

But one thing is for sure, it proves that you can never be lonely online.