Make New Friends

Community Chest

Friendster may have been the first big social networking site, but it certainly won’t be the last. Then there are all those sites that are social in nature but not necessarily about networking. A quick survey of other Web sites where communities and creativity are coming together:

•Orkut.com. A Friendster-like social-networking site with the country-club approach: You can only join after a current member has invited you. This cuts down on the randomness and size of the site and gives an invitation far more cachet (unless you subscribe to the Groucho Marx philosophy on clubs). It’s supplanted Friendster as the networking site du jour.

•Facebook.com. Could be called Friendster U — a college-only social-networking site, so far only at places like UCLA, Cal Berkeley, UC Davis, Harvard, and NYU.

•Dodgeball.com. Combines the structure of a social network with the immediacy of text messaging. “Tell us where you are, and we’ll broadcast your location to all your friends and let you know if any friends-of-friends are within 10 blocks,” says the Web site. Started in New York but recently arrived in Los Angeles, it also lets you look up bars and clubs through your phone.

•TextAmerica.com. Allows people to create their own moblogs — weblogs comprised of photos or video taken from their mobile phones. The “Recently Shared Image” page is like peeking into the off moments of a bunch of strangers’ lives (see also Buzznet.com).

•Fotolog.net. Much like TextAmerica and Buzznet but not restricted to pictures taken with mobile phones. The site’s design is awkwardly plain, but the images are often first-rate (see Laura Holder’s portfolio at www.fotolog.net/lauratitian/).

•GroupHug.us. Debuted in October 2003 and has since taken Web anonymity to a new level: “The idea is for anyone to anonymously confess to anything.” Simple in design and concept, GroupHug merely lists unsigned confessions, either in the order posted or randomly. The confessions range from the mundane — “I won’t date anyone who does not have nice feet!” — to the disturbing — “Every time I shoot up, I catch myself thinking, ‘I hope this is the one that kills me.’”

—S.L.