The comment box: the lowest level of non-committed connection

I recently updated my profile on Friendster. The last time I did that was easily 18 months ago. The reason for the update was simple: I have a a handful of good friends who are active on Friendster and who drew me back in.

Friendster has continually updated its feature set over the last few years (it's had to to stay alive) and now looks a bit more like MySpace. But a major weak spot is still its "Testimonials." MySpace nailed this feature when it called it "Comments," allowing friends to simply say "hi." But on Friendster, one must leave a testimonial, which feels a bit intimidating. (For that matter, Facebook's wall lacks the appeal of MySpace's comments area as well.)

If you take a look at testimonials on various pages of Friendster, there are major lapses in time between them. That may be in part because Friendster's traffic has fallen, however I;d also suggest it's because of the seriousness of the feature's label.

One of the strengths of MySpace is that it enables the lowest level of non-committed connection. A comment is not a phone call or an email or even a text message. It does not require a response. It's just the written expression of a fleeting though, which interestingly enough, creates a non-linear dialog.