The idea of using friend as a verb reminds me of befriend (about 2 million hits in Google) befriending (1.59 million hits) and befriended (2.69 million hits). In other words, there is a well used traditional word that is already in place. In addition, I am not sure that "to friend" or "to befriend" really captures the essence of what is going on in these sites. Rich L. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Jimmy Wales Sent: 17. juni 2007 13:47 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites One part of what people do on social networking sites is friending people. Anyway, I was wondering what people are saying and so I did some unscientific online research. :) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facebooking http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=friending http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=myspacing "facebooking" has 26,400 google hits, "facebooked" 19,300 "friending" has 351,000 google hits, "friended" 331,000 "myspacing" has 121,000 google hits, "myspaced" 45,300 According to the Oxford American Dictionary, "friend" is an actual transitive verb, with this example sentence: "* add (someone) to a list of friends or contacts associated with a weblog or electronic list : I am friended by 29 people who I have not friended back." neither "facebook" nor "myspace" appear at all in the OAD. (The version on my mac, I mean.) --Jimbo _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/