NY TIMES — Jan 24 — Fifteen months ago, Friendster enjoyed the kind of enviable status that Silicon Valley start-ups dream of: A-list investors and millions of users. The company endured three chief execs during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks. A younger, flashier rival called MySpace has eclipsed Friendster and Friendster loyalists have groused that the company has done almost nothing to enliven its site. Reid Hoffman (of LinkedIn), another early Friendster investor, agreed that the company frittered away its sizable head start over the competition. Last summer, the company hired Mr. Sassa a former NBC executive taking over from Timothy Koogle, an early Friendster investor and former Yahoo chief exec, who ran the company after the board lost faith in Mr. Abrams. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Mark Brooks: Jonathan did a stellar job of observing the real world and emulating social group interaction online. I'd love to see Jonathan take the Product Development reigns. Seems MySpace has outfriendstered Friendster.