Has Friendster become the hook-up social networking site?

Before Facebook, before MySpace, there was Friendster.

I joined Friendster years ago, before those other two sites were even a glimmer in their investors' eyes. I made a profile, connected with two or three friends, and more or less forgot about. MySpace quickly usurped Friendster's place as the Web's premier social networking hub, and then Facebook nudged MySpace aside.

Anyway, starting a couple of weeks ago I began getting barraged with friend requests on Friendster. I didn't even bother to log in to the site to reject them; I just deleted the e-mails informing me of the friend request.

But they kept coming. And I started to notice that these requests had something in common. They were all from young women, who declined to provide much information about themselves (for "home" they always listed "United States"), and were cute.

Hey, no biggie I thought, people use social networking to find dates, no problem with that. I met my wife through eHarmony, after all. But then the tenor of the requests began to change. The photographs grew more provocative. Finally, yesterday I got a request accompanied by the photo above.

Now, tell me, exactly what sort of friend do you think this woman is looking for?

I realize Friendster lost out in the crap shoot that is Internet supremacy. And it must sting to lose out the revenue to Johnny-come-latelys. (Although, as I like to point out to people, Facebook has yet to see its first dollar of profit.) But letting this sort of junk float around your site is evidence of either shocking indifference, or a desire to cash in on a piece of the sex trade. For shame, Friendster.

I finally logged on to take down my profile, but can't find any way to do so.