Friendster, a social networking site that I didn't really expect to become popular here in our country. Friendster, the father of social networking site in the Philippines. So how did you know about friendster? As for myself, here's my story.
Back in 2003 when our internet connection was new (dial-up days), I started to learn how to chat. And so every night
I spens in Yahoo Messenger joining different chatrooms. Then when I asked someone about her picture, she said, "Nasa friendster eh. Eto e-mail add ko..." When she gave me the site, I was totally clueless about it. A naive boy that I was, I signed up for it just to see her pictures. I thought I will just access the site once but every chatmate (girls) that I encountered, they have been giving me their friendster e-mail add! Little did I know, I started to get addicted to it! Back then there were no css and html codes that makes your profile page load for ages.You can only upload a maximum of 5 photos in your profile and the friend list was only limited to 300.
After a month or so, friendster became really really popular that friendster needed to upsize their photo storage and friend limit numbers. Along with myspace (yes I had one even before friendster), friendster started exploring the HTML world. And this is what made friendster really popular. This was also the time where I started to realize that friendster is COPYING myspace! And after that, the rest is history.
After a few years of reigning as the most popular social networking site in the Philippines, here comes another one which I also thought wouldn't be a hit. facebook. So how did I learn about facebook? Read along.
Back in 2008, I was still into chatting and there I talked to a girl who was living in the US of A. I asked about her picture and instead of giving me her friendster account, she gave me another site, facebook. And just like my story in how did I get in to friendster, I also signed up in facebook just to see her picture. However, after that, I didn't open my account because at that time, friendster was still the king. However, a year and a half later, I've been hearing something about a "cool" social networking site called facebook. Then I realized that I had an account there but since I didn't open it for about a year, I knew that my account was cancelled. So I created a new one.
Quite honestly, I didn't enjoy facebook for the first few months since I only have 2 friends there. But after a month or so, my friends in friendster were posting their e-mail adds and telling their friends to add them on facebook. I did add them however I was so in to multiply at that time that I didn't have the time to manage my facebook account. I didn't have a profile picture back then. But after a month or two, I started to get addicted to it. I suddenly realized that when I noticed I seldom open my multiply account. And again, the rest is history as they say.
Social networking sites had made me a lot of friends, online friends, that is. Aside from friendster and facebook
I am thrilled to tell you that there were many social networking sites available. If you are not aware, let me tell you.
1. Multiply - well I think most of you know this already. It is a social networking site wherein you can blog, post tons of
pictures, review a movie, post your schedule, etc. It is a very versatile website. It also has a chat feature just like facebook
and you can also customize your own page.
2. Myspace - A social networking site which was a hit in America B.F. (before facebook). This is what friendster copied
pertaining to their html edting feature. Myspace also has a chat feature.
3. Berkzter - I bet a very few of you knew this site. I don't know. I only had girls as my friends there. This site ran only
for a year or so (if I am correct). It was a social networking site developed by Filipinos (yes, there were many of them). It is much similar to friendster but the interface was different....bah! you get the idea!
4. Okcupid - I can't remeber how did I find about this website but I had an account in there. This is a website for those who are searching for bf/gf! Haha! Well, just visit it and you'll see.
5. Person.com - A social networking site shich is also same as the othes. However, this site is different in one aspect, the chat. Yes, facebook has chat but this is way better! This site has video chat! Amazing, huh? Been in this site for a year but then, I didn't open my account simply because I forgot my passoword. LOL!
6. hi-5 - Nope, it's not the kiddie show in Europe! It's another social networking site existed B.F. I had an account in there but I only opened it 5 times (I think). It's not really interesting that's why I left it.
See how anti-social I was back then?! LOL! I only had a lot of friends online! How pathetic. Haha! But not anymore. That's why I left those sites (except for multiply and facebook.)
Jhay / Valcrist / jhaymagician
June 25, 2011
Made out of frustration because of our lost internet connection. :)
