Popular Web site to venture into file sharing

Thefacebook.com has attracted a cult-like following of college students across the country who have joined countless interest groups, "poked" each other and racked up hundreds of digital friends along the way.

But with more than 1 million users across the country, thefacebook.com creator and Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg is now thinking even bigger.

Zuckerberg, along with several friends, has developed a new file-sharing program called Wirehog to be integrated into the popular site.

Wirehog allows "friends" to share files such as photos, videos and music online through thefacebook.com.

A preliminary version of the program was released recently at Harvard and Stanford universities, but Zuckerberg said the program may not reach other schools for a few days, or even possibly a few weeks.

Penn will be one of the next five universities to receive access to the service.

He was concerned about specifying a specific date, however, due to elements of the software that are still being perfected by his team.

Zuckerberg said his tentative agenda includes expanding the service to the rest of the site's long list of colleges as soon as possible.

Despite being first to have access to the program, many Harvard students are still unaware of the new file-sharing option, or have yet to use it.

Daniel Ketover, a Harvard sophomore, said although he uses thefacebook.com very frequently, he had never heard of Wirehog.

"I haven't heard of anyone using it," he said.

Wirehog has not yet been widely publicized, but some students felt the immense success of thefacebook.com would generate interest in the program.

"I think everyone is ... just curious to see what it is because of the success that [the Web site] has," Harvard sophomore Sarah Lieber said.

Wirehog may be generating student buzz, but it remains to be seen whether or not the program could provoke criticism from the music industry. The program could deal with the type of serious lawsuits that have brought down other file-sharing programs like Napster.

Wharton Marketing professor Peter Fader points to the power of thefacebook.com's built-in networking system, which allows friends to share files, as opposed to strangers.

Wirehog could be "going for a very interesting middle ground," Fader said, acknowledging that it is difficult to evaluate exactly what boundaries the program crosses from a legal standpoint.

"If they were smart they would play down the music part of it," Fader said, in light of the recent controversy and litigation surrounding music piracy.

However, "if they can get it right it would really take their already successful business model to a much higher level," Fader said.

But until the program is finalized and released across the nation, students can only anticipate the possibility of downloading movies and music while searching the site for friendships, relationships and "whatever [they] can get."

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