Wow, I can't believe I've found a social networking site I actually don't hate. I can't stand myspace -- most pages are garish and poorly presented. Orkut became meaningless when people lost interest with it in the first couple months. So I never really considered joining facebook since I assumed it would be another waste of time. Eventually though, I heard enough people talking about it that I decided I needed to give it a try. Boy was a surprised. The first thing that struck me is that the site is well-organized and easy to browse. It is very much a web2.0 style done right. Just enough AJAX (I'm assuming) to make the elements of the page interactive to the right degree. Everything feels very easy, but the lack of full customization means that viewing other people's profiles is actually pleasant (unlike myspace ... *shudder*). So all in all it is an impressive piece of software.
The other big thing that struck me right away is just how many of my former schoolmates were on facebook already. I suppose mileage might vary depending on whether facebook has hit critical mass for the people you know. Definitely, however, a large number of people I went to high school, junior high, and even elementary school with are already on facebook. What that meant was within a few days of creating a facebook account, I already had more than 50 people on my friends list. Insane.
The last thing that I think facebook does amazingly well, is it gives you a big reason to login on a regular basis. When you login, you get a list of 'news items' for the people on your friends list. This means that whenever you login you are notified whenever someone adds a new person to their friends list, or when they update their profile, or ... all kinds of stuff. This means you can see what's going on with other people's friends networks and update your own if you see someone you know get added to someone else's list.
So, I have now fallen to facebook and it appears to be another good time waster. Just what I needed.
Heraldk