Facebook has, for the first time in its history, seen a decline in the number of people visiting the site. It's down 5% compared to the previous month, and it's being blamed on 'Facebook fatigue'. The news report its a combination of its coolness falling when Tory MPs join, and the fact that people are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with all their Zombie requests. Personally, I think it's neither - I've had less requests in the past couple of months, and I look at Facebook less than I did because people are updating less than they did. The novelty has well and truly worn off.
So, what are the alternatives? Badoo is one alternative, which offers a similar social network, and enables you to become 'fans' of other members. The design is clean and advertising free, and somehow feels more '2.0-like' than Facebook. It's very much about looks - it's possible to see what other people have rated the attractiveness of your photos, and there's lots of tricks on how to get your profile viewed by more people online. If you judge your popularity according to how many Facebook friends you have, this one is for you.
Based in London, it currently has about 12 million members worldwide. And it's growing fast. Last year, it was the second fastest rising global search term according to Google Zeitgeist, behind the iPhone.
Having joined 24 hours ago, I have noticed one surprising trend. Everyone on the site is a man. Seriously, 12 million members, and there are hardly any girls. It's possible to see who's viewed your profile (as far as I can tell it's open to anyone) and they're all men. I've randomly acquired six friends - all men. With the ability to IM chat any member, this is HotorNot mixed with MSN Messenger combined with a dash of Match.com.
Qype is another alternative, who believe that the future of social networking is about making these networks useful. Their network is based on geography, and allows people to share reviews and views on bars, restaurants and pubs. It's not a new idea, but it is proving popular, covering over 6,000 cities throughout Europe.
They've got some pretty impressive stats, with new user sign-up increasing five fold in January 08 compared to December 07. They're averaging about 200 new reviews a day, and there are now 200,000 new UK reviews after only 6 months of existance.
It seems that whilst Facebook may have had it's day, there's a number of options for the social networker obsessives.
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