Put your face in… [thefacebook]

The Internet can be a scary place. In today’s modern world, sites are popping up everywhere to… The Internet can be a scary place. In today’s modern world, sites are popping up everywhere to help users find other people who are similar to them, either for dating purposes or forming new friendships and strengthening social networks. In the past year or two, we’ve seen sites like MySpace, Friendster and Grokster offer free ways of meeting other young, like-minded individuals.

The most recent manifestation of this online fad is thefacebook. Started by Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz at Harvard, thefacebook.com is growing and adding more and more universities to its list each week. Pitt was one of the most recent additions to the site.

Thefacebook tries to expand your social networks by school rather than just random finds, although you can friend people at other universities, too. You fill out as much or as little information as you’d like, such as: your major, residence, AOL Instant Messenger screen name, favorite movies or bands, current dating status, and a general “about me.”

“Unlike Friendster, thefacebook is grounded in specific, real college communities,” said Chris Hughes, the public relations manager for the site. “Thefacebook is not a place where a user meets a ‘random’ person, but instead where individuals foster acquaintance-ships or friendships that already exist. Thefacebook, unlike Friendster, serves as an online directory of college students’ information (for example, holding information like phone numbers, screen names, birthdays, summer plans, etc.), and also provides unique capabilities (such as text messaging from the site and group organization).”

Hughes said that thefacebook doesn’t plan on expanding anywhere besides colleges and universities, in keeping with its theme. “Well, we’re now at 171 schools with almost half a million users, so quite a bit more than we ever expected. Mark and the site’s general manager, Dustin Moskovitz, have taken the semester off from school to commit themselves to the project full-time,” he said.

The site began Feb. 4, and is an expansion of an old-school high school or college facebook, but with extra features. It offers users the ability to search for people to befriend, and even find new friends in their classes. There’s also the option of joining groups, many of which already include campus organizations like Rainbow Alliance, WPTS, and even our own The Pitt News. There are also fan groups for “Dance Dance Revolution” players, or those who like to talk about Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” or Nickelodeon’s “old school” programming.

Thefacebook has messaging capabilities, group message boards, and a “poke” function, which the creators have refused to reveal the meaning of. Each profile also has an optional “wall,” which lets friends of the users post comments about them or send messages. The only feature that seemed uninteresting so far was the away message. Why would a user need to put one up if others can see if they’re online or not via their profiles?

One might wonder how the site manages to stay afloat considering it began as only a side project for the guys. Hughes stated that they pay the costs for the site via advertising, but do not make a profit off of it. All of their advertising has strictly been word-of-mouth at this point, and obviously also through press from different schools.

Overall, thefacebook seems to have already made a lot of progress in its short life, and even more improvements are surely on the way. Students can join the site simply by directing their browsers to http://pitt.thefacebook.com or going to thefacebook.com and registering as a University of Pittsburgh student. Happy friend hunting!