Another "but how does Freindster make money?" story. Come on people, ever hear of the idea of reaching critical mass and then charging for something? It's not like these companies are buying Superbowl ads or blowing money on hiring 500 people. These are fast growth businesses in terms of members and traffic, but slow growth in terms of revenue—just like EBAY was at the start.

I'm willing to give them some room to grow. Here is the only interesting point to the story:

Co-founder Mark Pincus sees Tribe and its rivals as social versions of Napster, the music-swapping site, because they help people make electronic connections to exchange information. The goal of Tribe, he said, is to create communities of interest that will appeal to advertisers, particularly local merchants and folks with something to buy or sell.

Hilary Schneider, chief executive of Knight Ridder Digital, said her company is interested in social networking sites because they might reach many folks who don't read newspapers. "The whole idea that you can use your network in ways to make better decisions is kind of interesting to us," she said. "We think it has a lot of implications outside of dating."