I have two problems with this article. 1) The VC thing happens all the time, and is not unique to Friendster. It's an old story. I think they're missing the point ...
2) ... Which is: social networking is a tool, not a product. Friendster, Myspace, Orkut, whatever -- they all fall down when another, hipper, newer social networking site emerges (and I believe that even Facebook with its applications will meet the same fate, eventually). After the novelty of adding friends has worn off, there's nothing to keep people wedded to a particular site, even if that site -doesn't- have server issues. These sites simply don't solve any problems, from a business perspective. They're toys, and toys fall out of favor. -Anne On 11/26/07, Weixi Yen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is an interesting story with an intricate analysis about the failure of > Friendster, but I think it's analyzing a bit too much. > > Frienster failed because they couldn't make a good business decision to cut > a feature - the one that shows the degree of separation between friends. > Anyone remember this? > > [ Me > Friend 1 > Friend 2 > Friend I'm currently viewing. ] > > I've personally worked on an algorithm for this feature as a prototype demo > for a client when Friendster was still in its first year and realized that > even on a small sample size (50 users), this algorithm would slow down the > servers considerably. > > Everyone I talked to quit specifically due to those load times as well. > It's not a problem that can be fixed with more servers. To say that this is > a structural failure of the VC system is a bit out of line. > > My guess is that Abrams is blaming the VC system when it was probably due to > his own inability to make a good business decision and cut a tumorous > feature that no one needed. This should have been done early on and it > shouldn't have even made it into public beta. > > > > On Nov 25, 2007 7:33 PM, Mike Scarpiello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This is a little long, but a really great analysis of the first social > > networking site - > > > > http://tinyurl.com/2k86l9 > > ________________________________________________________________ > > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Anne Hjortshoj | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.annehj.com ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
