Corante

Authors

Clay Shirky
( Archive | Home )

Liz Lawley
( Archive | Home )

Ross Mayfield
( Archive | Home )

Sébastien Paquet
( Archive | Home )

David Weinberger
( Archive | Home )

danah boyd
( Archive | Home )

Guest Authors
Site Search
Monthly Archives
Syndication
RSS 1.0
RSS 2.0
Don't Miss The AppGap, a blog on the future of the office and small business. Sponsored by QuickBase.

Many-to-Many

« Paglia Pans Blogging | Main | Public and Secret codes of conduct »

October 29, 2003

Friendster: is the honeymoon over?

Email This Entry

Posted by danah boyd

Articles on Friendster have focused on the tool, the business, Fakesters and the less-than-kind portrayal of Jonathan Abrams. But today, the press took a new twist: they finally critiqued the underlying theoretical model on which Friendster depends. Oh, and they used the best bi-line yet: "Friendster's inspiration -- online matchmaking via friends of friends -- has been a runaway success. Human nature may be the only bug." The critique is dead-on. 1) Are friends of friends better partners? 2) Can your friends really do you justice in connecting you to their friends? 3) What happens when that relationship fails? [Oh, and since i didn't post it before, click here to read a workshop paper i wrote: "Reflections on Friendster, Trust and Intimacy"]

Comments (9) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: guests


COMMENTS

1. Boris on October 30, 2003 1:17 AM writes...

Matchmaking? Partners? Yes, I see.. on that level I agree it is bung.

But as a "relationship" (as in "connections between people") aggregator, it is perfect.

I can hardly wait to see what happens next. :)

Permalink to Comment

2. Frank Ruscica on October 30, 2003 6:40 PM writes...

Danah,

Why not just go to the relevant sources (e.g. an electronic archive of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) and find out what relationship experts have learned from their extensive research efforts?

Then you will have at least a good feel for Friendster's prospects as a date filter...

Permalink to Comment

3. zephoria on November 1, 2003 10:04 PM writes...

Frank - i know some of the higher level dating theories, but i haven't gotten into the depth of dating psychology and i know of no research on potential dating partners from the social networks sociologists and only the kinship version from the anthropologists. You are right in that a deep reading of the psych literature would be necessary to fully discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Friendster, but considering that my focus is higher level (and not dating-centric), i just haven't jumped that far in (yet).

Translation: i know enough to get myself into trouble on this topic, but not enough to solve the problem.

Permalink to Comment

4. andrea on November 2, 2003 11:00 AM writes...

friendster is very hot in the philippines. it is a tool that helped connect people, it's core purpose. about serious realtionship, well, that may be possible but it' up to the people. as of now, more and more are having this addiction. ooh, i'm getting to be a friendster junkie.

Permalink to Comment

5. stephanie trillo (chikka id 00037900) on December 3, 2003 5:38 AM writes...

helo philippines mabuhay!!! i just wanna ask... whats in friendster? what is it all about? thanks in advance!!!Ü

Permalink to Comment

6. Matt on December 29, 2003 5:07 PM writes...

Hi Steph, it's just a service :) look at the url

Permalink to Comment

7. Princess of darkness on January 15, 2004 10:28 PM writes...

hey yar... frendster is sooo far great except for the part of slow connection... i am a frendster user and made alot of frendz frends... they sooo far seem to be greatr ppl... and really expanded my circle of frends.... noeing ppl from oversea has also made it easier except for the sloe conntection part frendster... is a success in tangling ppl in realationship....
relationship cld be any type.. frends not only steady kind of... get wat i mean...
so its a success

Permalink to Comment

8. James on February 25, 2004 9:53 AM writes...

There seems to be a steady stream of these companies online now - i've found one which claims to be the British network and around since the beginning of last year.

Permalink to Comment

9. jupiter mars gregorio on June 2, 2004 9:42 AM writes...

frendster are really nice but I have no frends!!If you want to be my frend please see my email add.. thanx.. jmars_greg@yahoo.com

Permalink to Comment

TRACKBACKS

TrackBack URL:
http://www.corante.com/cgi-bin/mt/teriore.fcgi/1214.

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Friendster: is the honeymoon over?:


EMAIL THIS ENTRY TO A FRIEND

Email this entry to:

Your email address:

Message (optional):




RELATED ENTRIES
Spolsky on Blog Comments: Scale matters
"The internet's output is data, but its product is freedom"
Andrew Keen: Rescuing 'Luddite' from the Luddites
knowledge access as a public good
viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
Gorman, redux: The Siren Song of the Internet
Mis-understanding Fred Wilson's 'Age and Entrepreneurship' argument
The Future Belongs to Those Who Take The Present For Granted: A return to Fred Wilson's "age question"