Basically, MSFT in Redmond, Washington, selected German and Japanese amongst many languages for their very special common characteristic: both are very tough and hard to both read and write.

In other words, translating a software in German is a good way to test whether the HMI supports long words and explanations; whilst Japanese is Microsoft’s pick in an attempt to test whether Eastern (Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Hindi, etc.) languages were well taken into account during development.

Thanks to Jeremy (another one) by the way, for helping me realize why Germans and Japanese enjoy the privilege of getting to use Microsoft software in their own language first…

I remember signing on and using FriendSet in the Summer 2004, when I first experienced life far from my friends and family, working in Geneva.

Back then, Friendset was the first really popular social networking tool. You were planning a birthday party? Announcing you were available again after breaking up? Feeling like showing off with your 784 connections? Friendset was the place to be and to be seen.

For our American readers & friends, French Friendset was a sort of Friendster. Friendster? Remember, a once US Internet flagship, which still doesn’t do well in terms of both traffic and economics against, say, Facebook, despite having (again) raised 10 million USD in August 2006 (see this article on CNN Money).

Friendset was founded and part of Meetic, the major European online dating group. Meetic recently decided they would switch Friendset databases to Superlol, a new, very successful, non-dating service targeting teenagers, high school and young college students. For my own pleasure, I had tried Superlol and technology is superbly integrated (unlike Meetic) on the platform: mobile content and access, Flash chatrooms, etc. It’s all there!

So bye bye Friendset, you made me discover social networking. I won’t drop a tear since I guess I haven’t connected myself in at least 2 years – and I now use what I find being the ultimate professional networking platform: LinkedIn.

Do you think I’ll post a “Bye Bye LinkedIn” sort of post one day? I bet I won’t have to, never.