I have to admit that i’m a sucker for ridiculous and quirky articles. Thus, it brought a complete smile to my face to wake up to a Salon article entitled Osama bin Laden: Caught by Friendster! Here’s a few quotes:
But Friendster, the popular online social networking tool, proves to be OBL’s undoing. Through a series of unlikely relationships — which folks like Michael Moore have long been whining about but which were not quite clear until Friendster graphically demonstrated them — George W. Bush turns out to be connected to bin Laden.
See, Bush knows this guy (an acquaintance, not a friend) from his DKE days, and this guy’s wife has a sister who knows this dude with great hair who once, when he was young and very drunk, spent the night with this woman who is a huge fan of the MTV show “Cribs.”
Small world! Bin Laden’s second wife also loves “Cribs”! FBI investigators, who now routinely use Friendster in their searches for terrorists, piece together these connections and hit the jackpot — Osama bin Laden’s profile complete with an e-mail address, OBLbKickin@aol.com. Investigators initiate a virtual romance with the terrorist leader, and he invites what he believes to be his virtual paramour up to the cave for drinks. Sadly, none of OBL’s 49 Friendster friends — although many give him glowing testimonials on the Internet — spring to his defense in the real world.
If Friendster’s network map wasn’t broken, i’d offer up links to Osama, Michael Moore, Bush, etc. But, not surprisingly, you can’t actually access their Profiles. Thus, if it’s working again, just do a user search for these characters – great Profiles!
This is a catchy idea you’ve dug up Danah. Social networks seem more likely to catch criminals (rather than biometric scanning at airports). That’s what got Saddam.
But I guess it’s all part of Total Information Awareness.
On another note, the real reason I’m writing here just now – I can’t believe Friendster. How is it so popular, and so slow? I click on Friendster links before I go take a shower. I come back and click on a profile and then I come back in the morning to see if it’s come up.
I understand that the servers are victim to the popularity of the venture. I just can’t understand why the site is so popular when it…..is……so…….slow. I mean to say – does everyone else on Friendster have more patience than me?
Tribe.net is so much faster, and more robust technically. So I’ve been curious enough that loading-speed is not enough of a draw. I keep using Tribe each time someone reminds me about Friendster, hoping it will catch on because it’s less patience-demanding. Sigh – but all my fervent Friendsters keep demanding my patience.
social networking roundup
I’m going in for another interview at Friendster today. Mostly coincidentally, I also ran across a whole slew of reading and commentary about social networking. Appropriately, all these people’s blogs interlink.