Happy man. It used to be said that if you need a friend then buy a dog. The equation has been tweaked for ICT.

An Australian online marketing company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users.

Advertising, marketing and promoting company uSocial said it was targeting social networking sites because of their huge advertising potential. “Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool,” Leon Hill, uSocial CEO, said in a statement.

“The simple fact is that with a large following on Facebook, you have an instant and targeted group of people you can contact and promote whatever it is you want to promote,” he added. “The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a following, which is where we come in.”

The company offers packages for Facebook, the world’s number one social networking site, that start at 1,000 friends up to 10,000 friends at costs ranging from $177 to $1,167.

Friend doesn't mean what it once meant, but then dogs are such a bother and human friends need so much maintenance. I guess it's like conceptual art or cyber sex, a redefinition that simplifies things.