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Shopablogic

Sober IT truths from the island-state

by Suzanna Low, Singapore

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Facebook vs Friendster

Jul 12, 2007 17:39

"Suzanna is spending too much time on Facebook". Yes, it's the latest community site's craze that I am sucked into. Recently, I was invited by a friend (more likely as an auto inclusion evite through Facebook) to join the latest community site Facebook.

To me, what started as just submitting my particulars to be a member and in order for me just login and accept my friend's invite had me hooked. Yes. I am hooked on Facebook.

Online community sites are growing everyday. But only a handful survives the popularity contest. I remember the first online community site which I joined in 1998--AsianAvenue.com. Created to unite Asians from all over the world, especially those in the US, it also reached out to the other races. It was an eye-opening experience as it helped me make friends across the continents. Till now I still keep in contact with some pals from Asian Avenue.

Now the most popular online community sites battling it out are between Friendster, Facebook and Multiply. I have both Friendter and Facebook accounts. But right now, I am soooo in love with Facebook. As explained on its site, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you. In a short span of less than one month, I have accummulated over 40 friends, while after being in Friendster for the last seven years, I have only over 70 friends. I have been spending at least 5 hours a day on Facebook and once almost an entire day, while logging in occasionally to Friendster when I receive an email message or two.

So what's special about Facebook that is luring me away from being faithful to Friendster? For one thing, the age group of the Facebook members is a lot more mature than Friendster, ranging from mid 20s onward. More my age. *Grin*. You'll find a lot more professionals than student members, and it is also a whole lot more interactive than Friendster.

It has tons of applications and tools which enable you to play around the site, and if you are program-savvy, you can even write an application or two and share it with everyone on Facebook. My favorite application for the moment is the Graffitti Wall. You can write and draw on your friend's "Wall", which is a creative way of leaving a message on his/her site.

Another favorite is the Free Gifts application. While you will have to pay US$1 for each gift icon you send to your friends in Facebook, Free Gifts is a similar icon gift application which has no strings attached. Except that you'll have to register for the application. You can find many fun and cute icons to splurge on your friends and make their day.

But the one that tops the list for now must be Marketplace. For me, it acts as an additional platform for me to showcase my wares. But I don't just market my Suzz.com products at Facebook, I have also listed a few sevond-hand items and they have been gathering very good responses. Once you list an item on the site, it will feature this in your selected networks, making it visible to everyone. I should say it gathers better response than eBay and Yahoo! Auctions.

But if you don't mind spending a couple more dollars, Facebook also allows you to advertise your listings to other networks. It costs only US$1 for every 500 members per network to advertise your listing. I have yet to try this feature but I know I will also get hooked if I do, and then my credit card will suffer not only a US$1 charge but countless dollars.

With so many wonderful features (and growing each day), adding at least one friend a day and a chance to make a buck or two in Facebook, who needs Friendster now? Wellm I will still keep my Friendster account because there's a different network of friends there. I just need to discipline myself and spend less time on Facebook from now on. So if you are in Facebook, add me in. But only if you can find me.

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sprocket

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sprocket says...
You should mention that Facebook population doubled to 30 million in first half of 2007.

Jul 13, 2007 08:39

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suzzinc

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suzzinc says...
Wow! Thanks for the input. Amazing isn't it. I bet you are a member of Facebook too. ;-)

Jul 17, 2007 12:26

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About Suzanna Low

Suzanna Low has more than a decade of hands-on in interactive and graphics design, e-commerce and online marketing. In fact, true to the Singapore culture, she's a diehard shopaholic and fancies herself a pioneering e-retailer who learned the painful way how to set up store back when ecommerce emerged on the Internet landscape. Low also claims to speak feline language and sometimes seeks approval for her blog topics with her two house cats.