Ringo, their first social site, was an unabashed copy of Friendster. The husband-and-wife team sold that off to Monster, the job-listings site, for a pittance — but a pittance that provided the seed funding for Bebo, which Xochi openly says was inspired by MySpace. Copy early, copy often, sell out. (Photo by Auren Hoffman)

“The economy is tanking and people are arguing about whether they should go to Demo or TechCrunch,” Abrams told the Times. “Few companies sound like they are breaking new ground. It’s like, ‘Here is Twitter for dogs.’ And people still think they are going to get rich by being a blogger.” Hm. Twitter for dogs does sound pretty lame. But then, so did "Friendster for college students."

Facebook has been notoriously stuck up about making sure users are identified strictly by their government names. Now both heavy users generating an excess of pageviews and an application developer that depends on the company's "platform" are feeling the wrath from above for sinning against the terms of service. Certainly the "tyrannical, omnipotent" style of divine rule didn't end up working so well for Friendster — Facebook is popular and growing, but punishing its most devoted acolytes like Job can't work in the long run.

As a side note, a little known fact is that when I was at Friendster, I found a small company out of Harvard that we came very close to acquiring, a startup no one had heard of that time, a company named Thefacebook. I've been an admirer of Zuck and the facebook team for a long time now.

So here's a new chart from Hitwise. It compares the aggregate U.S. market share of OpenSocial partners Orkut, Hi5, Friendster, Plaxo, Linkedin and Ning versus Facebook. Like what you see?

Some will object to this graph because it only covers U.S. market share. Fine, but remember that Facebook isn't an international slouch either, with 60 percent of its users based outside the U.S. and 11 million members in Canada and the U.K. alone.

And the other problem? As far as I can tell, OpenSocial does not yet interconnect social networks. So widget makers seeking a U.S. audience — the one advertisers today are most willing to pay for — won't get the kind of viral growth they can on Facebook. Their apps will be stranded on small islands, without the critical mass that causes the rapid spread some Facebook apps have seen.

Apologists will continue to hype OpenSocial, arguing that Google Gang users, in aggregrate, will lure developers away from the Facebook platform or at least weaken Facebook's hold on them. But the looks of these charts, do you see that happening?

• The New York Times: Google's Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning
  
• O'Reilly's Radar: Hi5, iLike, Slide, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and Six Apart
  
• TechCrunch: Orkut, Salesforce.com, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle
  
• Valleywag: Hi5, Orkut, LinkedIn, Friendster, Ning, Salesforce.com, and Oracle

Guess the only way to find out for sure who's involved is to attend CampFire Thursday night on the Google campus. We would, but we have a thing against CamelCase. But bring us back a s'more, wouldja?

(Photo by russelljsmith)

The New York Times covered a lot of ground in writing about the net this weekend, but I noticed a weird trend:

• "Joining the party, eager to make friends" — Times headline for a story on marketing in social networks. Later, writer Saul Hansell says, "Companies from Procter & Gamble to J. P. Morgan Chase, like so many lonely teenagers, are tricking out their online profiles and trying to make friends on the Web." [NY Times]
• "Wallflower at the Web party" — Headline for Gary Rivlin's article on the fall of Friendster and its CEO, Jonathan Abrams, who turned down a $30 million Google buyout that would have made him a billionaire today. [NY Times]
• "Google is very leading edge, very young and very appealing to 20- and 30-year-olds. If you walked around with a Google T-shirt, people would think that's a hip thing to wear." — a professor quoted in a Times piece on how Google fills young people's lives. [NY Times]

Looks like the Times just wants in on the party.

Below is the condensed version; for more, read the full version. — Nick

By Trent Lapinski

About four months ago I was hired by an online publisher as a freelance journalist to write an article detailing the history and business model of MySpace.com (the project has previously been mentioned on this blog). After months of journalistic research and interviews I finally sought comment from News Corp. Instead of getting comments or an interview from News Corp., they began harassing my employer. Due to groundless legal implications, the article I had written was no longer to be published. However, I now own the rights to my work and after weeks of looking for support and contemplating the situation I have decided to publish the article in its entirety on Valleywag.

It is possible that News Corp. may attempt to pursue legal action against me for publishing this work, but this article has been professionally fact checked and is the truth.

The reader's digest version below breaks things down very simply and quotes sections of the upcoming article, as well as provides links to documentation proving said information.

What News Corp. doesn't want you to know about MySpace

1. MySpace is NOT a viral success. MySpace was advertised on mass levels to reach the public. MySpace was created by a company named eUniverse (who later changed their name to Intermix Media). eUniverse was a marketing and entertainment company who had over 50 million e-mail addresses in their databases, as well as over 18 million monthly web users. eUniverse leveraged their resources to proliferate and advertise MySpace.com. eUniverse went as far as telling 3 million users of their paid dating website, CupidJunction.com, to sign up for free MySpace accounts. (CupidJunction message screenshot)

2. MySpace.com is Spam 2.0. MySpace has spawned an incredibly successful twist on the age-old art of self-promotion, allowing—even encouraging—the marketing of everything from bands to businesses on their site. Essentially, they've opened up a channel through which to solicit and promote everyone and everything, most importantly the individual. The whole site is, in essence, a marketing tool that everyone who registers has access to. Users constantly receive spam-like messages from said bands, business, and individuals looking to add more "friends" (and therefore more potential fans, consumers, or witnesses) to their online identity. A testament to this strange new social paradigm is the phrase "Thanks for the Add," a nicety offered when one MySpace user adds another as a friend. Best yet, to use the site, members must log in, causing them to inadvertently view advertisements, and then read their messages on a page with even more advertisements. In the world of MySpace, Spam is earth, air, fire, and water.

3. Tom Anderson did NOT create MySpace. Most users don't know that Tom Anderson (pictured) is more of a PR scheme than anything else—the mascot designed to give a friendlier feel to a site created by a marketing company known for viral entertainment websites, pop-up advertising, spam, spyware, and adware. As MySpace's popularity grew, the MySpace team moved to create a false PR story that would best reflect the ideals and tastes of its growing demographic. They wanted to prevent the revelation that a Spam 1.0 company had launched the site, and created the impression that Tom Anderson created the site, and the lie worked. According to Anderson, the bulk of his initial contribution is as follows: "I am as anti-social as they come, and I've already got 20 people to sign up."

4. MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe is connected to a past of spam and shady business associates and brought those connections to eUniverse/MySpace (see full edition for details).

5. MySpace was a direct assault on Friendster.com. The major key players in the ultimate development of MySpace have Friendster accounts, and name Friendster and its founder in their original business proposal. The current CEO of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe has been a member of Friendster since June of 2003 (MySpace was not conceived until August of 2003).

Board the windows! Get out your bat! Don't say the "zed" word! Friendster is back from the dead!

The crusty old social network is bouncing back this year, according to Alexa stats, and it's bringing fresh money with it — a whopping $10 million investment from three top venture capital firms. Is this newfound hope for Friendster because of the new traffic (which shows up on Alexa but not on another ratings system)? Or is it the recently awarded patent for something Friendster didn't invent?

Either way, if there's one thing all those B-movies taught us, it's that there are still ways to kill a zombie.

Friendster Gets $10 Million Infusion For Revival Bid [WSJ]
Photo by Scott Beale [Flickr]

That's how it looked a few weeks ago. Facebook was climbing, MySpace had outstripped even Yahoo for raw pageviews, and even Tribe could claim victory if it sold to NBC. But Friendster, with under a million visitors a month, was dead. It had shuffled off this mortal coil, it was an ex-company.

Until it won a long-sought patent on online social networking.

Frankly, said people within, they hadn't seen that coming. And everyone knows that a few small companies launched social networks before Friendster, and those companies could claim prior art and negate the patent.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, Friendster might make a go at using this patent. It could go the sweet way, licensing "its" technology to social networks like MySpace. Or it could go the bitter way by filing lawsuits.

Either way, Friendster should strike before everyone else figures out that it doesn't deserve this patent.

Friendster Patent on Linking Web Friends Could Hurt Rivals [WSJ]

• Bill Gates says Vista will be ready in January. Unless it won't. [MSNBC]
• Boston thinks it has a hard time with wifi bedouins — cafe moochers who suck up table space and bandwidth without buying a thing. Child's play. In Boston, at least the cafes charge. San Franciscans demand free wifi — and then we figure one cup of coffee earns us a full day's rent. Hell, I'm writing this from Coffee to the People, where I've sat for the last five hours. Try that on for size, Boston. [Boston Globe]
• Old-school Netscape fans are calling the new version "New Coke." That's what AOL gets for saddling progressive exec Jason Calacanis with such a fuddy-duddy user base. [Read/WriteWeb]
• Friendster's patent looks familiar, says the entrepreneur who filed a similar social networking patent five years before Friendster launched. [Boing Boing]
• Can Google do anything without pretending it just saved the world? Business 2.0's bloggers note that Google's new HQ in Michigan isn't a philanthropic effort. Google may spin it as "a shot in the arm" for Michigan's lackluster job market. But don't expect it to pay wages like it does in Silicon Valley — Michigan college grads cost just $47,000 a pop. [Business 2.0]

Back in May or June of 2002, I was at a party in Adrian Scott's loft (Adrian is the founder of www.ryze.com) and Jonathan Abrams (Friendster founder) mentioned, "Hey Sean, next week, I'm gonna do the same thing that Adrian is doing, except it'll be for dating. Check it out." Sure enough, Friendster was launched the following week.

Who knows what this will do to Friendster's recently awarded patent on social networking sites. But kudos to Sean — a real-world schmoozer whose Stirr mixers are the new place to network — for remembering this 2002 incident.

Friendster patents social networking [Boing Boing]

Was this trump card the reason Friendster's investors didn't already shut it down? Nope. "Frankly," says the president, "we'd almost forgotten about it."

Friendster Wins Patent [Red Herring]

Ms. Rose said a recruiter had told her he rejected an applicant after searching the name of the student, a chemical engineering major, on Google. Among the things the recruiter found, she said, was this remark: "I like to blow things up."

That's the smoking gun? A chem student who likes to mess with chemicals? At this rate, young phone hacker Steve Jobs would never get a job. Just as well — if all the interesting people get denied jobs at paranoid, stultifying companies, they'll be free to launch kick-ass startups.

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé [NYT]

Friendster isn't Siegelman's first hot product. At Microsoft in the 90s, he was employee #1 of the MSN division (which, granted, is already dying a decade later). Then he launched the snappy magazine Slate (which was hemorraging money until its sale to the Washington Post).

So if our source is right, the burnout master will be off Friendster's board and job-hunting soon. Watch for him moving into biotech, energy, or mobile apps.

Bio: Team: Russell Siegelman [Kleiner Perkins]

The original cause of this unexpected demographic is shrouded in mystery (or written somewhere that I didn't bother looking). In any case, it's just another example of the demographic splits we demand from our Net experience. So in the interest of keeping you from accidentally meeting new and different folks, here's where to find your demographic in the world of social networking.

Happy in-demographic socializing!

A Web Site Born in U.S. Finds Fans in Brazil [NYT]

What genius hast wrought this? Well, the same guy who showed it to me. So I pumped him for info. The IMterview's after the jump.

Video: Puppet Tom [MySpace profile]

Valleywag: Tell the studio audience your name or witty handle.
Puppet Tom: My real name? I guess we should really go with Puppet Tom for this.
PT is a project for my sketch comedy group Train of Thought.
Wag: Where can people find Train of Thought? Are there more videos?
P-Tom: Yeah there are. But not of PT yet. This is his first video blog.
They're all on YouTube. Train of Thought is on MySpace at myspace.com/sketchcomedy.
Wag: What else will Puppet Tom be doing on his vlog? Any other guests we can anticipate?
P-Tom: I think JA will definately be back once he heals from his beating. Puppet Tom's vlog will be about his different adventures in running MySpace and answering user questions.
Wag: Is Real Tom your friend?
P-Tom: No. We're having some fun with MySpace and the community in general. We're having a lot of fun putting these together. The goal is to be fun and stay positive.
Wag: And to get laid.
P-Tom: LOL
That wouldn't hurt.
but just in case we have a character for that too: http://myspace.com/drmarx
Wag: How much has News Corp. offered to buy you out?
P-Tom: LOL. We're going to wait and see what Facebook goes for.
Wag: So again, while we're not plugging you, that's http://myspace.com/puppet_tom and http://myspace.com/sketchcomedy.
P-Tom: Exactly.

Jokes that became businesses
¬ Dogster: On the Internet, no one knows you're a person.
¬ Consumating: Let's drop the games and get laid, k?
¬ Fucked Company: Undertaker of the business world.
¬ Hot or Not: Discount on dating profiles if you rate a 2.

Vice versa
¬ Friendster: Needs more "Tom."
¬ Netscape: It didn't need to outrun the bear, just outrun Internet Explorer.
¬ Facebook: What does it take to go from The New Black to a laughingstock? A $2 billion rumor.

Antisocial Networking Gets Hip [Wired News]
Snubster [Snubster.com]

Consumating's founding hottie Ben Brown found this sign across the street from his San Fran South-of-Market office. Socializr? Hadn't heard that one yet. And Socializr.com is just a cartoon:

Ben was told the Socializr gag is a coverup for Jon Abrams' "awesome Web 2.0 thing." Jon's last "awesome Web 2.0 thing" was Friendster, which turned out to be not so awesome after the MySpace and Facebook boys pulled everyone away. Will the new startup be a lame burnout project or new life for Abrams?

Socializr sign [Ben Brown on Flickr]

Ah, yes, you're here for the April Fool's gags.

¬ Gizmodo Gizombo shepherds you through the night of the living dead.
¬ MAKE rebrands as BUY.
¬ WEBringr is a joke, right? RIGHT?
¬ Google WTF search: It'd be funnier if Bruce Sterling didn't already believe in it. See, Bruce, this is why we can't have nice jokes.
¬ China buys Google; searches now done by hand in Beijing sweatshops.
¬ Google buys the French National Library. Confused Parisian Muslims revolt.
¬ Simply Hired has an opening for Guy Kawasaki.

And after the jump, Meetro buys Friendster. Ha! How impossible and humorous! Everyone knows Friendster's free to tow.

Press Release: Meetro Acquires Friendster

San Francisco, Calif. - April 1, 2006 - Meetro, the world leader in Instant Messaging software announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire Friendster, one of many social software sites for keeping in touch with friends and hooking up with new people.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We're excited to be acquiring Friendster because we can leverage their web 2.0 technology," said Paul Bragiel, CEO of Meetro. "This acquisition gives Meetro another brand name in its warchest, similar to Infogrames purchasing Atari a few years back."

Friendster will provide Meetro users the ability to see who's looked at their profile to encourage a greater number of 'random hookups' without the need for alcohol. Leveraging Meetro's location-based technology will allow users to see other members in 'real-life' and avoid a common photo profile pitfall known as "the angles."

Bragiel finally remarks, "If you're still reading this and believe this, then you aren't good at spotting April Fool's jokes."

For more information, please visit http://www.meetro.com

About Meetro
Meetro is a location-aware Instant Messenger turning traditional IM on it's side. It's photo and profile driven around your location, designed to facilitate real-time meetings with people locally. Meetro bridges the gap between traditional instant messengers and the next-generation local meeting place. Meetro works with AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ protocols.

About Friendster
Friendster is the leading social site for keeping in touch with friends, and meeting new people. Friendster is a privately-held company based in San Francisco, California, backed by the venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

openwag only gives dictation to doctors:

Just a BA/BS? No Ph.D required to schedule meetings and pick up dry cleaning? Shocking.

Adam Michela knows what Google will do with the new stock income:

Facebook.

Blackjack has voyeur pics of Paul Otellini:

I'm "imagining" it will be more likely the geeks in charge will embed tiny functional wireless cameras in the stars, make the footage available by subscription at SiliconValleyUpskirt.xxx, and send all the profits to their bank in Belize.

Now that'll be "embarrassing last-year technology" once it's discovered.

openwag is pre-ordering on Amazon right now:

It's what I've suspected all along — Larry and Sergey are getting a record deal. Soon we'll be rapping along with the Google Guys on such hits as "Flex My 'Plex" and "Sweet Marissa". Larry, of course, will bring oulandish Hawaiian-print shirts back into fashion, while Sergey will make it rufus to wear tight-ish black sweatpants, white socks, and dorky white sneakers. Sergey's hair will be out of control, as usual.

Yeah, this will be when they crash and burn.

Veronica prefers multiple-choice quizzes:

First of all, this is way too much math. We have computers to do math now.

Second, how many points do you get for joining Friendster, quitting Friendster in protest, and then re-joining to find estranged family members?

PARose calls out Larry Ellison the hipster:

Oh Gawd! His collar is actually up?

But the real problem: what does this quiz have to do with Newsweek's "Putting the 'We' in Web" cover story? If someone can honestly answer "What browser do you use?" with "What's a browser," they have no business taking a web quiz anyway. So here's the real quiz — user-generated, if you will — that Newsweek should have run.

1. How many times did you check in on Dodgeball last week? Take a half-point for each.

2. Take a point for each social-network site where you have a profile:
- MySpace
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Yahoo 360
- 43 People
- Consumating (two points, you damn hipster)
- Friendster (extra point if you deleted it in protest)
- Dogster or Catster
- Tribe
- Orkut (on second thought, subtract a point)

3. Take two points for each community site you're on:
- Upcoming
- Flickr
- YouTube
- Buzznet
- Last.fm
- Odeo
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Metafilter

After the jump, finish the quiz (or get offline and, I don't know, play baseball, or whatever you non-web people do).

How geeky are you? [Newsweek]

4. Who cares how many friends you think you have? Add a tenth-point for every Flickr user who counts you as a contact.

5. Take a point for each blog post you made today.

6. Open your feed reader; divide your unread items by 100 and round off. Add those points, dude.

7. Grab five points for every private beta you're in.

8. Do you have Flickr clusters? Take a point for each one. One bonus point if you have a preferred Flickr tag other than your full name.

9. Own your own dot-com? Five points. Dot-org? Six points.

10. And if you've registered a joke site (FancyTrousers.com, anyone?), grab five more points.

11. Four points for every place you own on Plazes.

12. Three points if you've been tagged on Riya.

13. One point for every thing you bought, sold, or fucked through Craigslist.

Now add those points up, divide by your Google employee number, and figure out where you fall:

0-9: Look, since you're not actually doing anything, Valleywag's looking for a writer...
10-19: So you have a few old Fakester accounts, and you lurk in Casual Encounters. Either get a life, or give up and dive in.
20-29: Well aren't you special, Ms. Didn't-drink-the-Kool-Aid.
30-39: Okay, count your dot-net and that'll put you over 40.
40-49: Good job. Now stop reading blogs and call that hottie from Consumating.
50-59: Can danah boyd please touch you?
60+: Mena Trott, get the hell out of my quiz.

Rumor: Google to buy Friendster [a doubting SiliconBeat]
Friendster recapitalized

Friendster Recapitalized [TechCrunch]