friendster

The world of social networking is changing, but don't worry, it's not permanent. It's more of a tide than anything that reaches and recedes from all things. MySpace is changing, Facebook is catching, and Friendster is resurrected.

Matt Marshall over at Venture Beat has a post up about Friendster with a “returning from the dead” kind of vibe: Matt points out that the site — which is kind of the poster boy for early social-networking success, followed by equally rapid failure — has had what he calls a “massive” 40-per-cent jump in page views in May, to 9 billion (Facebook gets about 11 billion a month).

It's a timeless story; a friendship that had all the makings of lasting a lifetime is torn to shreds when one of the parties drops the other in favor of a richer, cooler, and more popular pal. Playing the part of the jilted friend in today's dramatization is Yahoo, who appears to have once again been shafted by Google.

Google has been successful in many different, almost unrelated, endeavors, but one thing that it lacks is a popular social networking site. The search engine giant has, however, managed to establish an advertising deal with MySpace, and Friendster's CEO recently indicated that Google made a similar arrangement with his company.

The New York Times is running an article about Friendster's woes, and latest attempts to revive itself. Naturally, it begins with Google.

The game is over, and Friendster lost.

Do you sign into your MySpace account eight times a day? Perhaps Facebook has become your home away from home. Frankly, I hope not. But the latest news about Friendster's patent on social networks should relax that sort of dedicated soul, and more normal users.

Being a pioneer of social networking has its drawbacks and benefits. Though Friendster's thunder was stolen by the likes of MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo, a social networking patent may give the company a back door to lost revenue recovery.