Networking Web site expands to IU

Taking the Web-savvy campus by storm, www.thefacebook.com, a social networking Web site created for college students, recently added IU to its list of participating schools.\nThe site, started by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg in February, began as a networking system for students at Harvard to meet friends, friends of friends, and so on. Progressively, more schools have been added to the database, including IU, which was added last week.\nHarvard student Chris Hughes was Zuckerbeg's roommate last year and thus became one of the original creators of the site. He now is the press contact for www.thefacebook.com.\n"(Zuckerberg) wanted to create an online database of information for Harvard students that would be fun to use," Hughes said. "Combining the idea of a directory with an interactive social networking interface, Mark began to program the site. After a few weeks of work and many late-night dorm room conversations with the rest of us, thefacebook was released at Harvard."\nAfter seven months of expansion, the site is available for students at 99 colleges.\nOn the site, registered college students and alumni can do things such as post a profile and photo of themselves, connect with friends, see a visualization of their network of friends, see people in their classes and send messages to friends.\nAfter less than one week of access to the site, more than 1,000 IU students have registered, and the numbers keep on growing.\nHughes said he attributes www.thefacebook.com's success to word-of-mouth promotion by the registered users.\nSophomore Kirk Nathanson registered at www.thefacebook.com on Wednesday after one of his friends from the University of Chicago told him that IU was added.\n"I'm not sure what I think about (the site), to be honest," Nathanson said. I think it's a lot of fun, but it can sort of be time-consuming. It's useful in certain respects, and then in other respects it can become an obsession of sorts."\nAlthough he said he thinks it is a nice feature, Nathanson said he doesn't think he'll look people up in his classes too often.\n"I'll use it for my own entertainment," he said. "If somebody asks me if I know a person, I can look them up right then and there."\nNathanson has already had an unknown IU student contact him through the site. One feature of the site is a "poke," an arbitrary way to get someone's attention. \n"I got poked by a Sarah something-or-other," Nathanson said. "I poked her back right away, but have not had any contact with her since and still have no idea who she is. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon, because you wouldn't tap someone's shoulder in real life just because you're a friend of a friend of a friend. But in thefacebook world, a quick message to a third-degree friend or a poke doesn't seem to be anything particularly out of the ordinary. Although, I find it a little creepy."\nSophomore Melissa Dress has heard about www.thefacebook.com but says she is hesitant to register.\n"I don't know that much about it, and until I do, I'm not going to register," Dress said. "People will look me up and want to converse with me, and the feeling won't be mutual, so this situation could turn into almost a stalker-ish experience."\nAfter learning a little more about the site, Dress said she lost some of her inhibitions. She likes the idea of the feature that enables users to change their privacy settings so only the people they want to be able to see their profiles can do so.\nThe future of www.thefacebook.com is not clear at the moment because www.ConnectU.com, another social networking site started by Harvard students, has sued www.thefacebook.com for stealing the original ideas of the founders of www.ConnectU.com. According to www.ConnectU.com, Zuckerberg allegedly stole the ideas for the social networking site as he volunteered his time to help start www.ConnectU.com.\nHughes said that www.ConnectU.com's claims are groundless and www.thefacebook.com has hired counsel in response to the suit.\nThefacebook.com still is gaining popularity with students around the nation and has plans to expand the site, Hughes said.\nHughes also said that www.thefacebook.com will soon begin a relationship with a soon-to-be-released file sharing site called www.wirehog.com, also a project by Zuckerberg and his crew. \n-- Contact staff writer Lori Snow at losnow@indiana.edu.