The world of Facebook just opened up (for me)

Did you ever hear that expression “the times are a-changing”? It’s actually a Bob Dylan song, I think, but that’s besides the point. Because they are, a-changing, and fast too! I joined Facebook quite a while back, I think it’s almost been a year or so. Except for the fact that it looks pretty, it wasn’t of much value to me though, since hardly anyone in Norway used it, and I’m not too keen on using sites like these as a venue for getting to know new people, since I have much better ways of doing that online. As an example, I can mention that when I first signed up about 35 people of about 4000 or so from my University where signed up. When I logged in a few days back though, I had around 10 new friend requests, all from people I know!

Facebook is spreading like fire here in Norway, and I it seems that it might just take off for real. I couldn’t be happier about it! I used to participate in a similar Norwegian social network last year, but it became too much of a dating site for my taste, and in the end I just deleted my profile. But Facebook, I think it can be an extremely useful tool, especially for keeping in touch with old contacts, and that’s what I personally want from a site like this.

After using it a bit more extensively, I can say that I absolutely love Facebook. From a user perspective, it is one of the most amazing websites I have ever actively used. Everything is extremely intuitive, and the design is just amazing. I never thought that a design that at first glance appears to be a bit boring, can end up as one of my favourites of all time. The small AJAX/JavaScript tools are extremely handy, and working through the site is a dream compared to other, similar sites like MySpace, which I truly loathe for the same reasons why I love Facebook.

I’ll keep you all updated on my experiences with Facebook, but so far I have nothing negative to say about it. Oh and if you wish, feel free to check out my profile, and poke or send me a friend request