Here in my coutry, Philippines, almost all teenagers have a Facebook and Friendster account. Facebook is now called as the "King of Social Networking". Why is that so? Facebook's rise to fame can be attributed to its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg's personality as a meek and yet intelligent geek fresh out of college has somehow been embedded in Facebook. And so, it quickly drew the young crowd. With its fun features, eventually Facebook became a force to contend with in the social networking arena. You've read about it's history. You've read how Zuckerberg has catapulted Facebook into fame. But what really is in Facebook that makes it click with social networking fans? Maybe their applications are much personalized and fun to use. Aside from its design, its the value-added, plain old fun features of Facebook may keep you glued to the site. Whether you are posting to a friend's fun wall or creating a photo album for all the rest of your contacts to view, Facebook is a robust, fast-loading website with powerful interactive features. Add in the ability to customize your pages with Facebook "apps," and the site becomes a even more powerful force to contend with.
Compared to the other site, Friendster is called as " Asia's Top Social Networking Site". If you go around and start asking people from Asia if they know what social networks are - they would probably say Friendster. That's because Friendster has become the icon of social networking in Asia. People just love the way Friendster has managed to bridge the digital divided among long-lost friends, classmates, and fellow alumni. I've even heard how many have met their true loved ones because of Friendster. What makes Friendster tick among Asian social networking users is the fact that it is so easy to use and yet packed with fun features. I remember days when Friedster gains it famous here in Philippines, teenagers says "drop me at least one testimonial / comment later!" or in filipino, "pahinge ng testi mamaya ah! :)"
Similarities:
• Friend Updates
• Upload Photos and Videos
• Comments (Friendster)/ the Wall (Facebook)
• Send a Smile (Friendster)/ Poke (Facebook)
• Connect with School/ College Friends
• Fans Profiles
• Shout Out (Friendster)/ What am I doing right now (Facebook) • Classifieds
• Bulletin Boards (Friendster)/ Events and Feed (Facebook)
• Send a Smile (Friendster)/ Poke (Facebook)
• Groups and Discussion Forums
Difference:
• The level of Privacy
- Both Friendster and Facebook have customizable privacy settings, and allow their users to choose what profile visitors can and cannot see. However, Facebook is stricter when it comes to privacy, as full viewing of profiles is restricted to 1st-degree friends only; whereas Friendster allows anyone, including non-registered Friendster browsers, to explore and view all “open” profiles.
•Blogs
-Friendster has its own blog-builder open to its users which works like and just as customizable as any other weblog publishing site. The Friendster blog is linked to the user profile page and opens up into a separate window when accessed. Facebook on the other hand, only allows users to post links to their external weblogs on their Facebook profiles.
•Application
-Facebook’s Applications is what sets it apart from Friendster. Due to its restricted layout and small fonts, adding applications to the Facebook profile is easy as a breeze. Due to Facebook Platform which allows developers to create applications to be shared and used within the Facebook community, Facebook has a well of fun applications that users can add to their own and their friends’ profiles ranging from games, quizzes, polls, virtual gestures, etc.
•Distinctly Friendster
-uses CSS customizable profiles.
•Distinctly Facebook:
-uses Gifts. This is a feature that allows users to send virtual gifts to their Facebook friends and networks.
•Badges
-This feature allows users to create their own Facebook profile widget that they can upload in other websites.
•Business Solution
-Facebook also has a dedicated page that encourages employers, business owners and organizations to create Facebook profiles and use it as a tool to promote their businesses or groups, and to connect with members/customers.