Jocie's friendster screengrab

Upon reading the August 2008 issue of Fudge Magazine, I was impressed by the the creative layout, the easy-to-read articles, and the excellent photos. Inspired by the article on online social networking websites written by Karl de Mesa, it got me thinking about the sites that I maintain.

I’ve had my Friendster account since October 2003 and I still consider it to be my favorite social networking site. However, I was shocked when they decided to move the blogs from a TypePad platform to Wordpress. In the process, all my customizations such as animated photo album from Slide, counter, and chatbox were all discarded. They say the photo albums will come back soon but I wonder what format will they appear in.

Like most Filipinos, most of my real friends are also my Friendster buddies. These days, if you don’t have a Friendster account, you already belong to the Ice Age. The mania has even extended to our offline existence since messages received online can be sent immediately to your cellphones, a ubiquitous gadget that is worth writing about in a separate entry.

Do you know when Friendster was created? It was in 2002 when some computer whiz in Mountain View, California came up with the first virtual slambook. Friendster is privately owned though the Google Corporation offered $30 million to buy out Friendster in 2003. The creators said no and continues to be privately owned today.

has been growing exponentially and I can consider myself to be convert, especially when it comes to disseminating information. I appreciate the fact that I can view exactly who has viewed my profile and individual pages in my site.

Jocie's multiply screengrab

Multiply

Travel Factor, a group composed of young professionals who often explore the outdoors, relies on Multiply to update people about its trips and activities. With over 2,000 members to its name, Travel Factor certainly uses the technology to its full potential.

Multiply was created in March 2004 and I joined the bandwagon in June 2005. It was originally envisioned to be a media sharing site that happened to have social networking tools.

Just like Friendster and Facebook, Multiply can also host your photos and videos but it can also host your reviews and chosen music videos. The inter-connectedness of Multiply allows friends of your friends to see your updates and calendar events so it reaches a lot of people who might not be too familiar to you.

Jocie's facebook screengrab

Facebook has a lot of out-of-the-box applications and I have yet to explore most of them. As of now, I have installed the Dive Buddy application so I can keep track of my dives and a 10-second interview that should be titled A Gimikera’s Journey.

You could receive a poke, a drink courtesy of a friend and be prepared to evade the occasional sheep thrown at you. Facebook  offers a lot of innovative widgets and as I understand it, users themselves can create their own applications.

I joined this site on February 6, 2008 at exactly 8:45 pm according to my Facebook archives. I thought I wouldn’t be able to maintain another social networking site but this turned out to be a rather low-maintenance.

The name Facebook alludes to paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American colleges give to incoming  students, faculty, and staff as a way to introduce other people on campus.

Apparently, the website was conceptualized in February 2004 by Harvard dormmates as a way to keep track of their buddies. Their brainchild is now conquering the virtual world by storm.

MySpace did not become that popular here in the Philippines since its launch in 2003 but it’s interesting to know that video-sharing site YouTube started out an added functionality of MySpace.

What’s you favorite online social networking site and why? Feel free to share your thoughts. =)