honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, August 5, 2003

Web site lets friends of friends get acquainted

By Janet Pak
Associated Press

Christian Lesstrang didn't know a soul in Chicago after moving from San Francisco.

So he turned to Friendster.com, a Web site that owes its rapidly growing popularity to a simple but effective formula. Unlike dating sites that disseminate profiles of people looking to meet others, Friendster lets people network only with their friends' other friends — and those people's friends as well.

Browsing through his Friendster network, Lesstrang, 32, came across a few in Chicago. He e-mailed them, told them how they were connected and asked if they'd be interested in meeting up. Within a week, Lesstrang had some get-togethers, and now he has met about 10 people he regularly sees.

"It's just going through life, except through a referral network," Lesstrang said.

One year after being launched by software engineer Jonathan Abrams, Friendster has attracted 1.3 million users — despite no advertising and being in test mode.

Users join Friendster by invitation from a friend or associate. Becoming a member requires filling out a profile that lists users' first names, gender, status, date of birth, country, postal code and what they seek from Friendster.

Users can add more information and a picture of themselves if they want, and can expand the network by inviting other friends to join. Then users can flip through the profiles of people up to four degrees of separation away.

That establishes a pool of people with a desire to meet other people, for dating, friendships or business networking. About 53 percent of the users are male, 47 percent female. The average age is 27.

"In real life, people meet each other through their friends," Abrams said. "I felt a demand for these type of services and wanted to help people meet new people ... "

The rise of Friendster and other social networking sites stems from the Internet's power as a grassroots, peer-to-peer medium.

Friendster is free for now, but within a few months, it will take on a subscription model similar to online dating sites. It will remain free to post a profile and view others, but members will have to pay $8 a month to contact new people, about one-third the price of some dating sites.

On the Web: