Profiles:  

Like the number one service, MySpace, Friendster has an assortment of features to customize your profile page. The site provides more than 40 skins to help make your profile unique. You can also use HTML or CSS to farther personalize and customize your profile page. However, this it limited to the About Me and Who you Want to Meet sections.

Like all social networking sites, you can upload photos and photo albums to your profile. A fun photo feature Friendster includes is the ability to allow friends to upload their pictures to your albums and you can email non-Friendster users your pictures.

Friendster also has more than 250 different applications that you can add to your profile. Apps range from silly things like a chat room app to the useful ability to sync with your iTunes library.

Security:  

Friendster’s 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.

You can also limit the continents that can see your profile. For example, if you want your profile to remain public but don’t want unsolicited comments from people in other countries you can select that only people from North America can view your profile.

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 and profile pages.

Networking Features:  

To continue to build your network Friendster will send friend updates. When a person with similar school or interests signs up with Friendster you will receive an email message announcing their arrival.

You can post comments and connect with like–minded people through Friendster’s Groups. Choose Groups by region or from more than 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.

You can also browse through videos from YouTube, Metacafe and Break; watch the latest movie trailers from Video Detective and music videos from Singing Fool. You can also add these videos to your profile. However, only ten videos at a time are available from each site.

Photo are given their own webpage and each has its personalized code in case one of your friends wants to “grab” one of your photos and post it on their own website. Although you can leave comments on pictures and “grab” photos, we were a little surprised Friendster doesn’t include the ability to tag photos.

We also noticed that other than the Singing Fool video section there is not a dedicated music section of the site.

Search:  

It is easy  to find anyone you may be looking for on Friendster. Your search automatically defaults to people in your area but you can search for other Friendster members by keyword or other criteria such as gender, age, and relationship status.

Help/Support:  

Friendster has a FAQ 13 pages of FAQs and a search function to find answers for specific questions. Although the database isn’t entirely intuitive you should be able to find answers to most of your questions. If you can’t find an answer, you can contact them by email or try Friendster’s user forum.

We did contact Friendster with a question and received a response in less than 24 hours. However, we would like to see a little more emphasis and answers for safety and parents.

Legitimate Friend Focus:  

While we had our Friendster account we were not bothered with many unsolicited messages or random friend requests. We felt the site and its members were genuinely there for social networking, not just using the site as a free dating site or fancy chat room.

Overall, Friendster is an excellent social networking site. They provide plenty of networking features. You can customize your profile page with skins, photos and videos. Friendster does a good job of providing links for members to report offensive content, and you don’t leave the site feeling that creepy are just staring at your profile.