The World Wide Web finally caught the attention of hundreds of Filipinos. Like the phenomenon of cellphone, this sector is expanding exponentially in the country. Unlike in the past years, people are now spending more and more time online. Youtube, online games, and e-mail are now as common as text messaging. Even having a blog is common nowadays since we already have thousands of Pinoy and Pinay bloggers.
The growth of Pinoy netosphere resulted also in the growth of online social networking sites. We have Multiply, Plurk, Twitter, even Pinoyblogger (for all Pinoy and Pinay bloggers) and of course the two most famous social networking sites Friendster and Facebook.
Friendster
Friendster is the first online social networking website that caught the country, or more specifically the Metropolitan areas by storm. Its main feature is the creation of the Friendster member’s profile page wherein one can share everything about him/herself. You can place your picture; share your favorite band, food, books, and many more. You could even create a false person and trick other people online.
However, the true meat of Friendster is it allows you to connect with other Friendster members and add them up as your friend. You could search your elementary or high school buddies, long-lost friends, kamag-anaks here and abroad, acquaintances, and even artistas and add them in your list of “friendsters.”
During the hype of Friendster back in my first year in college, people are bragging about the number of their “friends” in Friendster. Some have more than 500 people in their “friends” list. Many of them even invited people who they didn’t know and just read their profile online. Eventually, this superficial friendship died out. The strength of Friendster is in connecting people who genuinely and personally knew one another. I for one, limit my friends’ list only to those I have met personally.
Friendster is still the largest online social site in the Philippines. Even though people in metropolitan areas were already satiated by Friendster, the site is still expanding in the provinces that are now beginning to enjoy the Internet.
Facebook
I am just few weeks old as a member of Facebook, but I must say that I am hooked. Aside from connecting with my friends (like in Friendster) I enjoy commenting on posts of my friends. I was also hooked because of the various activities like answering many quizzes and posting anything anytime. Some of my friends are enjoying playing games like Mafia Wars and Pet Society.
Facebook is composed mainly of Friendster retirees and other Pinoy and Pinay veteran netizens. It offers the same things in Friendster like connecting with friends, uploading of photos, shouting up your thoughts and creating your own profile page. Facebook’s main advantage is its interactivity and its page layout allows such thing. You could see your friends’ activities and posts in real time and immediately react on them. As I had said, there are so many online quizzes and games that will keep anyone from logging out.
Facebook is also the choice of celebrities and anyone could easily become their fan and get update directly from them. Even politicians use this site to interact with the people of the World Wide Web.
Friendster VS Facebook
The war between Friendster and Facebook is still the battle between connectivity and interactivity. Friendster is still the largest online networking site in the country. However, many of its old users are migrating to Facebook. I, for one, will not delete my Friendster account because I do not want to lose my connection with some of my friends and miss some updates from them.
On the other hand, I do not want to miss the activity in Facebook and I want to catch up with my friends retiring from Friendster. I also found out that Facebook is more blogger friendly since I could easily post a link of newest blog post and it will be broadcasted to all my Facebook friends. This makes Facebook a powerful tool for many bloggers aiming to reach out to as many readers as possible.
For me, Facebook is the emerging winner in this battle. It offers the connectivity as in Friendster plus the interactivity that makes my online stay worthwhile.
