Finally, the new Friendster is here after for so many years and many users are happy with the big change while others are just scratching their heads and didn't know what's going on. I've logged in this morning to check it and saw my profile page and user interface just changed. The color green panel is already there and they really show a simple and fun navigation of the page.
I checked the new page and the whole set up is very user friendly, but it still lacks some appeal to other users, unless they are a Friendster user only. So below are some of my comments and review about the page revamp of Friendster. ( read more below)
here's my main profile page if you visit and click www.friendster.com/popazrael
the profile page just changed a little, they just added the UI and a new arrangement for the profile pic, contacts and your photo album. You can still add the apps below and testimonials from your friends are still viewable. The template didn't changed and it didn't encounter any problems with your template, I'm not sure if everyone experienced it.
you can change the color of your UI panel, just hover your mouse on top and you'll see a color box below your name, click it and you can choose 3 colors, blue, green or purple. The color change will apply only to the UI panel. This will work if you are color blind or maybe purple or blue is your favorite color. The green color makes it a little sweet, so I changed mine to purple and later on blue hahaha.
the virtual gifts is already online, you can apply and sign up there and automatically receive a 1,500 ecoins and kept under your Friendster e-wallet. I heard from the bloggers preview that this e-money will be used for virtual items that you can give to your friends or network and also you can buy items from the real world and exchange it with your e-money. Just like a regular paypal. I noticed that you can reload your e-wallet. I saw in the guidelines that you can buy some prepaid cards at 711 or other participating stores and load it via online to your e-wallet. No full details yet where and how to buy, but let's wait for that in the future. I haven't seen yet the details on how you can earn these e-money in using Friendster, but I know the details will come out in the coming weeks or months.
the shoutout box looks like a wall of Facebook or something like Twitter. Many people saw a teaser page of this from some bloggers and they say it is like Facebook. But for me, it look more like Twitter. But I realized that Friendster became first to have this shoutbox in their profile page,but the message back then appears as a word bubble in your photo, but now the new format follows just like other SNS.
I observed that the site loads so easy and with less apps and other mumbo jumbo, but because of that I can see a plain page in my UI page. I just hope that they can add more gimiks like expanding the bulletin board and add replies to the bulletin board just like a forum, or add reply button to the shoutoutbox. They can use the sidebar more and add some features.
and for the gaming page, it is a flash based app that it can embed automatically in your page, but as of now after their launch, the game is not loading properly. I understand that they are still under major renovations but let's give Friendster a time to revamp themselves for us to have an enjoyable social media life.
my wishlist for their next upgrade
1. video upload and streaming
2. chat
3. earn e-money
4. contest
5. events
6. update shoutbox via sms
7. and add more interactive stuff that can make people smile and stay in Friendster for a long time
that's my short review for a moment and congrats to Friendster for the big come back and vengeance. hehehehe
and to know more what's coming for Friendster, watch this video interview that we made with Ben Dunn of Friendster.com
interviewed by me, Jonel of letsgosago.net and Rowena of animetric.info for pinoypopcast.com
