From today going back to recent past the social media world is dominated by Facebook. It’s Facebook everywhere. Most of the other services we use today can be linked to Facebook. Even the apps on our phone that have nothing to do with social interaction is asking you to logged into Facebook. I had configured a smart plug that was asking for Facebook credentials, that’s just too much. I am sure many of you can’t even remember a world without Facebook. But I can. Although I can’t recall much of it clearly, it was a different game back then but we are still able to connect with friends because back then before Facebook we have Friendster.
Friendster back then was pretty much like Facebook today. I say pretty much but not exactly. It was like a prototype of social networking sites we now know today. The site allows a user to communicate and interact with another user on the platform. In 2003, it was as hot as Facebook is, Google even tried to buy Friendster for $30 Million dollars. But just 3 years later, Friendster has a massive decline in user following. Although many users have fled from Friendster to Facebook, the site managed to stay pretty much active until 2009, at least in Asia. In 2011 it relaunched as a gaming service, but in my honest opinion, it was too little too late by then. And eventually it died.
Currently, it’s pretty hard to see references for Friendster, like photos or videos of it, so I will just try to list down some features of Friendster that I can construct from my memory.
Messaging
The early version of this social networking site also showcased a simple messaging feature. Although it was more like a messaging function that is commonly seen in forums, it allows users to message just about everyone on the platform. It is so far from what we know how messages work in Facebook now. As of today, when you log into Facebook on your computer and you use a browser, you can chat with multiple friends at once while you continue browsing your feed. In Friendster, you can only do one thing at a time, since clicking the messages button will take you to your inbox. It does not have chat capabilities like Facebook does have right now. Also, Friendster has no mobile application.
Friends
It is pretty much the same as Facebook’s friends page now. You can add people using their email address or add a user from another friend’s list. When you add them the system will send those users request notifications that they could either accept or reject. I think the “people you may know” feature of Facebook is absent on Friendster, I am also not certain if has suggestions too. I don’t think it does though, because I remember going through people’s friends list first if you want to find a certain someone that you might have a little crush on.
Who Viewed Me
Typically, if you are interested with someone, you’ll try to search his or her profile. It does not matter what kind of nature the search has but finding people via social media is really a thing. Back then, in Friendster, if someone views your profile you will be notified in their “who viewed me” section. You will see all the users that visited your profile, so it’s also another way that you will know if your crush has also been thinking about you lately. Lol. I do not believe Facebook has this feature. I don’t use it that much.
Testimonials
Leaving a testimonial on Friendster is the equivalent of writing on a friend’s timeline in Facebook today. You write a testimonial to express your thoughts toward that particular friend. It’s also like advertising him or her to the world. Just like how a normal testimonial works in products. Hmmm. So Friendster intended us users to be products back then? Hmm.. interesting, not so different from Facebook today I see.
Photo Albums
If I could remember correctly, Friendster also has upload functions and photo album features. They also have that settings that allow a user to create a “private” photo album that will not be shown to other users. Unlike Facebook today, “tagging” someone on the photos is not a thing back then.
Customized Home Page
I guess the biggest difference of Friendster to Facebook now is the customization. I am not talking about the customization of privacy settings and other configuration I am talking about a big customization. In Friendster, you can change the design of your profile’s page. From the background to the mouse pointer. Yes! To the mouse pointer on the screen. Everything is possible on Friendster back then, as long as you know how to do a little HTML and a little bit of CSS. But if you are not familiar with those, there are tons of “themes” that you can adapt by a simple copy and paste method.
You can have a video or a music playing in the background when a user visits your page. You can put glitters all around the home page, who does not like shining and shimmering things right? Just everything, you can go nuts in the design of your profile page and no one is there to stop you. I still remember that I was tasked to customize several profiles back then since I was studying IT and a have a bit of knowledge with web design. So meaning, I have several user’s login credentials. Talk about privacy right? LOL.
Anyway, I think that this freedom in design may have also contributed to its down fall. Since, viewing pages back then was such a hassle. With internet speeds slower than 512kbps, the pages we are trying to load are filled with all those unnecessary elements making the accessibility of the site a real nightmare.
We’ve also had a lot of fun on Friendster back in the days. I guess I kind of missed customizing pages for me and for others, having access to their photo albums and private albums. It was just crazy.
Hey there!
Can you relate to this article? If not, you are too young to marry so focus on your studies. Lol
Do you have any thoughts about this one or just about any thing? I'd love to hear from you. Drop by on the comment section below.
And as always, cheers!!!
Sources ::
Lead image : https://www.yugatech.com/feature/social-media-sites-of-the-past/
https://www.failory.com/cemetery/friendster
https://mashable.com/2014/02/03/jonathan-abrams-friendster-facebook/
https://www.wired.com/2013/02/friendster-autopsy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster
I have facebook account. But these days i have found that it has no use but killing our valuable time! I don't have idea about friendster. But after seeing your artical it seems, ghis is also a good social platform. I might try this