Facebook: Popular and just about the best social networking site out there (facebook.com)

Member Name: CabbageBeans

Product:	facebook.com
Date:	02/07/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, more likely to find friends that are on there

Disadvantages: Profiles are relatively less modifiable compared to MySpace

Facebook has become something of a phenomenon, particularly in the UK where it has fast become the most subscribed to social networking site ahead of the likes of MySpace and Bebo. Personally I feel that part of this was the timing that it began to accrue members - some time after MySpace peaked - so although seemingly offering much less in the way of features, it was able to acquire both people who were new to the whole social networking scene, as well as those who were becoming bored with the other networking sites. When I first joined facebook, it was almost exclusively for university students such as myself, with few other friends having signed up - frankly, I thought it a bit pointless, and continued to use MySpace instead. Some time later, many of my friends, and even more ex-schoolfriends began to add me as friends, and so the natural progression from MySpace to Facebook began.

The sheer volume of users is its strength; after all, who wants to be on a social network site with no friends there to network with? That what was in effect the main reason I switched from MySpace, as many more people I know were on there than the few I knew who also used MySpace - these people generally all had facebook accounts as well.

Since it's earlier days, Facebook has undergone several revamps and changes - the most significant of which was perhaps the introduction of applications: a series of games, widgets and profile modifications that you can add to your profile for all to see and enjoy. Their introduction gave mixed reactions - some adding seemingly every new application imaginable and more to their page, enjoying the sense of individuality that was lacking beforehand, whilst others lamented the fact that it detracted from its intial means as a simple & straightforward way of keeping in touch with friends, having to wait for ages for some profiles to load and finding it impossible to find something on someone's page amongst boxes for 'What kind of pirate are you' and '601 random facts about me that you don't really care to know'.

The most recent Facebook transformation made quite major changes to how people's profiles and pages are displayed, as well as a radically different news feed on the home page (showing people's new comments/photos/statuses etc), and although a large proportion of users were angered at this change, I found it made the site much easier to use: you don't have to look through all people's applications if you don't want to, and you can hide certain things from your news list if you get a bit fed up of them.

Overall, I'm still not convinced Facebook is better than the old MySpace (though since Facebook MySpace have made some pretty drastic changes that I'm not all that sure I like either), but for keeping in touch with friends, colleagues, and other random people that you may know, there really is no better option.

Summary: Great way to keep in touch with people