• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 4, 2005

Social networking site Friendster yesterday announced the launch of Friendster Blogs, giving its 16 million members a platform to rant and ramble, buzz and bemoan, divulge, and divine to their hearts' content. Friendster is betting that the blend of two evolving Web trends--social networking and blogging--will placate the fickle tastes and expectations of consumers in an extremely competitive market.

The underlying technology--which allows users to post and archive their thoughts, pictures, and links as dated entries in chronological order--is provided by San Francisco-based Six Apart, a blogging software company, which offers a similar paid service by the name of TypePad.

Member blogs are only accessible to other members within Friendster's network, which is in line with the company's core philosophy, according to Michelle Wohl, director of marketing at Friendster. "This service improves on the previous ways friends could communicate--chat rooms, e-mailing--while maintaining the sanctity of our network and the trust of our members."

Wohl said ads will appear on the blog network just as they appear on Friendster's standard network.

While the basic service--which offers several blog templates and the ability to post a few photos--is free, members in search of a heightened blogging experience have several paid options: Friendster Blogs Basic, for $4.95 per month or $49.50 per year, offers extra storage and bandwidth; Friendster Blogs Plus, which costs $8.95 per month or $89.50 per year, allows users to create photo albums and up to three blogs; and Friendster Blogs Pro, for $14.95 per month or $149.50 per year, which offers "expert control over HTML, archive types and unlimited Web logs," according to Friendster's site.

This initiative marks the first time Friendster has offered a paid service--but, Wohl said, it doesn't represent a shift in the company's business model. "We have every intention of sticking with our ad-supported system, if only because it's what our trusted members have come to expect of us."

Currently, the service is only available to consumers in the United States and Canada, but a broader rollout is planned over the next year. Also, the service will support mobile blogs, which allow users to update their blogs with images and text from smart phones and other Internet-enabled portable devices.

Ironically, Friendster attracted the media's attention--and the blogosphere's ire--last summer, when it fired an employee for writing a blog that was critical of the company.

Rival site MySpace--which, according to Hitwise, now overshadows Friendster's membership by a 12 to 1 margin--has had a comparable, free blog feature for six months, said a company spokeswoman.