Friendster (the name is a play on Napster) is a website which aims to set up an online community of friends. Every person who signs up defines his or her gallery of friends, which consists of your friends, your friend's friends, and so on. The premise is that in this way, you can interact with and meet people who are always a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, and not a random, unknown person (such as may be found on instant messaging or IRC).
Friendster is a stunning example of the Small world phenomenon and social networks.
The website is currently running as a beta test.
Thus far (November 2003), the site has been plagued with extremely slow response times.
The company is privately owned and subject to some speculation as to investors and its potential for acquisition.
