Kinda makes you wonder...
Facebook's traffic never comes out right b/c its been mostly
inaccessable to anyone w/o a .edu address... but as for Hi5 and
Friendster, they certainly seem to be gaining in traffic.
So what are we supposed to make of these sites? How valuable is 3rd
place? You have to imagine someone like AOL or IAC making a run at one
of these. I think, more then anything else, they need an identity.
People are clear what MySpace is like and who Facebook is intended for
(well, they were until a few days ago anyway...) but everytime I
mention Hi5, Tagworld, or Friendster to someone, they immediately say,
"Who's on there??" Well, a lot of people, actually.
I do think there's an opportunity to create a "quieter" version of
MySpace. That was Friendster at one point, and perhaps they've solved
the performance issues that drove so many people away in the first
place.