When the Virus Takes Hold

So Friendster became this viral hit, growing exponentially as people signed up their friends and browsed all the hot boys and girls on the Internet that their friends (or friends of friends of friends) knew. They are credited with starting this explosion of "friends networks" like MySpace, MeetUp, Tribe Networks, etc. Some are more dating oriented, some work-related, some interest-related, but they're all based on the concept that people prefer to meet others through friends.

Google wanted a piece. In fact, they wanted the particular piece called Friendster and offered to buy them out. Friendster refused, so Google made their own. Enter orkut, named after the engineer who designed it. I signed up early, but it turns out that Orkut has a privacy policy that could be feeding into their search engine side and doesn't hold so well for me. I'm not telling you NOT to sign up, but be aware of what you're signing up to.