Friendster Reviewer's Comments

Networking Features: 

Friendster has an assortment of features to customize your profile page. Upload photos, graphics, music, videos and choose from over 40 skins to make your profile unique.

Privacy settings allow only your friends to view your full profile while a limited profile is still accessible to other Friendster members. You can see the last 100 people who have viewed your profile and if necessary, you can block individual members.

Ads appear around the periphery of profile pages, which some members may find annoying but they are not obtrusive.

Click on a member’s photo or name to view their profile page. View their photos and videos; read their personal blog, post comments and invite them into your network of friends. Narrow your member search to specific criteria like gender, age, relationship status and location.

Extra Features: 

From Friendster’s homepage, browse through the top ten network searches for links to websites of interest or search the web with keywords.

Browse through videos from YouTube, Grouper and Sharkle; watch the latest movie trailers from Video Detective and music videos from Singing Fool. Only ten videos at a time are available from each site.

Friendster’s Love section contains articles and advice about dating and relationships. In addition, a direct link to the dating site True.com allows you to search for and chat with people looking for romance.

Pandora and Friendster have teamed up to provide members with an online radio station. Enter your favorite artist or song and Pandora will customize your station with similar music. The music section doesn’t provide profile pages for artists and you can’t listen to specific songs or watch music videos.

Groups: 

Post comments and connect with like–minded people through Friendster’s Groups. Choose Groups by region or from over 30 categories like Sports & Recreation, Games, Entertainment & Arts, Hobbies & Crafts, Fashion & Style and Pets & Animals.

Anyone can browse and join public groups; however, access for private groups is restricted and to join you must ask permission from the group creator.

Monitored Content/Security: 

The minimum age to join Friendster is 16. Friendster’s Terms of Service states that they do not allow sexually offensive content on member’s profiles, messages boards and Groups.

Members are encouraged to report offensive content to Friendster customer service. There is a direct link at the bottom of profile pages and a “Report Abuse” button on Group pages.

We conducted a test search for offensive content and found a sexually explicit photo in an Entertainment group. We reported the photo to Friendster; however, at the writing of this review, the photograph still has not been removed.

Ease of Use: 

A permanent menu toolbar at the top of each page, extra links on individual pages and links on profile pages make it easy to navigate Friendster. You can search for other Friendster members by keyword or other criteria such as gender, age, and relationship status.

Help/Support: 

Friendster has 12 pages of FAQs and a search function to find answers for specific questions. We used several search terms but had a hard time finding a FAQ that would answer our question. If you can’t find an answers, you can contact them by email or try Friendster’s user forum.

Summary: 

Overall, Friendster is an excellent social networking site. They provide plenty of networking features. You can customize your profile page with skins, photos, music and videos. Extra features include groups, blogs, forums and the Love section specializing in romance and relationships. Friendster does a good job of providing links for members to report offensive content, but since the minimum age is 16, they should make a better effort to monitor their site instead of relying on Friendster members.
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Connect with friends, old and new; share your thoughts and ideas and express your creativity on the free social networking website, Friendster.

Friendster provides plenty of networking features to customize your personal profile and to get you on your way to establishing a large network of friends. Discover other avenues of expression by posting blogs and joining forums. Choose from a variety of extra features like Internet radio, videos and groups.

Friendster would have been awarded our #2 spot if they were more diligent about monitoring their content.