Friendster: Huge, Then Gone
In short: How Friendster, an early social network built on real names and friends of friends, grew fast, slowed under its own weight, found a second home in Southeast Asia and finally closed as its connections unravelled.
A 2:00 short film in the series “Being Social Online”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.
Sources used in this film: Stanford Graduate School of Business (Insights by Stanford Business), article by Nicole Ely, November 1, 2010, “Friendster’s Jonathan Abrams: Failure Is a Matter of Perspective”; Los Angeles Times, “The Personal Links of Three Social-Networking Sites - Los Angeles Times”; MIT OpenCourseWare (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), course 6.171 Software Engineering for Web Applications, Fall 2003, “Friendster Usability Analysis”; WIRED (article by Leander Kahney, published 17 July 2003), “Making Friendsters in High Places”; The New York Times (Bits blog, Quentin Hardy, May 15, 2012), “Engineering Tricks That Helped Facebook Win”; WIRED (Condé Nast), article by Brendan I. Koerner, 16 April 2013, “Friendster's Meteoric Rise and Fall as Both Tragedy and Farce”; University of California, Berkeley (danah boyd and Jeffrey Heer), published in the Proceedings of the Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39), IEEE Computer Society, 2006; host…, “Microsoft Word - HICSS2006Final.doc”; danah boyd (University of California, Berkeley), paper presented at ACM CHI 2004, hosted on danah.org, “CHI2004Friendster.pdf”; TIME (TIME USA, LLC), article by Ling Woo Liu, 29 January 2008, “Friendster Moves to Asia”; Los Angeles Times, “MySpace competition? The world is big enough - Los Angeles Times”; Institute of Computer Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños (paper hosted on arXiv / ar5iv), “Preferential Attachment inan Internet-mediated Human Network”; Friendster (archived About page, via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine), “About Friendster”; BBC News (BBC World Service), “Veteran social network Friendster hits comeback trail”; arXiv (Cornell University), paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, published in Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Online social networks (2013), “Social Resilience in Online Communities: The Autopsy of Friendster”; Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich (paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, hosted on arXiv), “1302.6109v1.pdf”.
Sources used in this film
- Stanford Graduate School of Business (Insights by Stanford Business), article by Nicole Ely, November 1, 2010 — Friendster’s Jonathan Abrams: Failure Is a Matter of Perspective · View →
- Los Angeles Times — The Personal Links of Three Social-Networking Sites - Los Angeles Times · View →
- MIT OpenCourseWare (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), course 6.171 Software Engineering for Web Applications, Fall 2003 — Friendster Usability Analysis · View →
- WIRED (article by Leander Kahney, published 17 July 2003) — Making Friendsters in High Places · View →
- The New York Times (Bits blog, Quentin Hardy, May 15, 2012) — Engineering Tricks That Helped Facebook Win · View →
- WIRED (Condé Nast), article by Brendan I. Koerner, 16 April 2013 — Friendster's Meteoric Rise and Fall as Both Tragedy and Farce · View →
- University of California, Berkeley (danah boyd and Jeffrey Heer), published in the Proceedings of the Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39), IEEE Computer Society, 2006; host… — Microsoft Word - HICSS2006Final.doc · View →
- danah boyd (University of California, Berkeley), paper presented at ACM CHI 2004, hosted on danah.org — CHI2004Friendster.pdf · View →
- TIME (TIME USA, LLC), article by Ling Woo Liu, 29 January 2008 — Friendster Moves to Asia · View →
- Los Angeles Times — MySpace competition? The world is big enough - Los Angeles Times · View →
- Institute of Computer Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños (paper hosted on arXiv / ar5iv) — Preferential Attachment inan Internet-mediated Human Network · View →
- Friendster (archived About page, via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine) — About Friendster · View →
- BBC News (BBC World Service) — Veteran social network Friendster hits comeback trail · View →
- arXiv (Cornell University), paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, published in Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Online social networks (2013) — Social Resilience in Online Communities: The Autopsy of Friendster · View →
- Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich (paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, hosted on arXiv) — 1302.6109v1.pdf · View →
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Stanford Graduate School of Business (Insights by Stanford Business), article by Nicole Ely, November 1, 2010: Friendster’s Jonathan Abrams: Failure Is a Matter of Perspective
- Also: Los Angeles Times: The Personal Links of Three Social-Networking Sites - Los Angeles Times
- Also: MIT OpenCourseWare (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), course 6.171 Software Engineering for Web Applications, Fall: Friendster Usability Analysis
- Also: WIRED (article by Leander Kahney, published 17 July 2003): Making Friendsters in High Places
- Also: The New York Times (Bits blog, Quentin Hardy, May 15, 2012): Engineering Tricks That Helped Facebook Win
- Also: WIRED (Condé Nast), article by Brendan I. Koerner, 16 April 2013: Friendster's Meteoric Rise and Fall as Both Tragedy and Farce
- Also: University of California, Berkeley (danah boyd and Jeffrey Heer), published in the Proceedings of the Hawai'i Internatio: Microsoft Word - HICSS2006Final.doc
- Also: danah boyd (University of California, Berkeley), paper presented at ACM CHI 2004, hosted on danah.org: CHI2004Friendster.pdf
- Also: TIME (TIME USA, LLC), article by Ling Woo Liu, 29 January 2008: Friendster Moves to Asia
- Also: Los Angeles Times: MySpace competition? The world is big enough - Los Angeles Times
- Also: Institute of Computer Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños (paper hosted on arXiv / ar5iv): Preferential Attachment inan Internet-mediated Human Network
- Also: Friendster (archived About page, via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine): About Friendster
- Also: BBC News (BBC World Service): Veteran social network Friendster hits comeback trail
- Also: arXiv (Cornell University), paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, published in Proceedings of th: Social Resilience in Online Communities: The Autopsy of Friendster
- Also: Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich (paper by David Garcia, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Frank Schweitzer, hosted on arXiv): 1302.6109v1.pdf
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