Is Myspace a Prodigy?

    

Some of you kids may be old enough to remember Prodigy, which was one of the first break-out "interactive services" to attract the attention of mainstream America. Prodigy was ugly and dumbed down and annoying. Its environment was so closed and proprietary, it made AOL, briefly, look smart and open. Which is why, ultimately, it became AOL's lunch. Still, it's an important footnote to history: Prodigy introduced regular folks—over a million of them, which children, was a lot in those days— to the glories of the online world.

I wonder if Myspace isn't doing the same thing for social networks, and whether it's headed for a similar fate at the hands of Facebook.

OK, clearly, Facebook is having some kind of a moment. (See especially my wife's take in the paper today.) But beyond the 15 minutes of fame, we are witnessing the birth of the latest uber-network. Already, Facebook's population rivals that of Shanghai, and it feels like it's ready to grow even bigger.

I never saw the appeal of Myspace. (I understand why others do it, but it never hooked me.) Plus, it's ugly and chaotic, and closed. I find Facebook, by comparison, hugely amusing. Its white space and neat layout is positively Apple-like. It's interface simple but powerful. The way it handles privacy is smart. There's plenty do there—and with developers working to add new stuff, you can easily see how a network effect will create exponential growth. Where LinkedIn is an excellent tool for recruiting people, or finding a job or a contact within a company, there's no reason to hang out there. Facebook, though, is sticky.

The implications of all this are fairly fascinating. Prodigy declined when its users got pissed off over restrictive rules. Is Myspace hollowing out?  And if Facebook becomes the uber-social network, how long can it hold on?

(For an opposing opinion, see Owen's take.)

Comments

[Thomas Brooks]

Uhh... what? MySpace is dying? This article doesn't sound objective, nor does it offer evidence that MySpace is losing users. Its likely just downplaying MySpace for personal reasons.

[ronald davis]

myspace maybe the social site for today but I that will soon be short lived. there are new players coming to the game with a lot more tools that make since. For example, myconnec (which is in development ) will offer the next generation of social networking. With that said, myspace time is almost up. I don't understand why someone would spend an average of 1 hour a day just on myspace. www.myconnec.com coming soon

[sacha]

Holy smokes mate. I'm sure only we remember prodigy. That was what 20 years ago!?

Prodigy differs from facebook in many ways.
First it had a near monopoly for a brief time on internet communication. Second all its revenue came from subscriber and premium content fees.

Myspace & Facebook compete on internet communication level only of which a monopoly isn't possible. Already there are a dozen plus clones of each.

I doubt either are going to pull a prodigy or a visto or any number of synonyms any time soon.

I predict neither site will have any staying power. The next thing is easily around the corner. You notice the capability facebook has to connect to your email address to search for contacts? Image the next best thing connecting to your myspace account and importing your whole account in a second, plus facebook, plus youtube...

Hmm how much did they pay for myspace? oops.

[Aqua]

Clearly, this article misses the fairly easily navigable way to connect with a zillion people already on MySpace--with content as diverse and customized as you want within some confines. While not perfect the confines of the MySpace offerings make it as easy or as difficult as the user has experience to change that content or graphical "skin".

For bands, artists, musicians, and film people, MySpace is a fantastic way to spead the word about their offerings and connect with other entities that are helpful in respective fields of expertise.

And as others have pointed out, there is no evidence of MySpace dying or "being in trouble". To the contrary, MySpace is growing and even large companies are hooking up to the bandwagon.

[Blake]

Myspace is killing itself by having so many bots and annoying content, it becomes such an inconvenience that it makes it unusable in my book. That is what I fear will happen to facebook eventually.

[Tyrell]

Myspace Rules!!!

[David Mullings]

I was just saying the exact same thing to my team the other day. We have used both MySpace and Facebook to generate traffic for our music-based site and Facebook by far is better in terms of return on investment.

The very same reasons you listed were the ones I listed - clean, organized, uncluttered, and so forth.

I also love the "Groups" because it allows me to network quite effectively (already got two speaking engagements in only 4 weeks on Facebook). I have also met entrepeneurs from all over the World.

I agree that MySpace is great for movie companies and music artists, but it needs to be great for the consumer as well.

Harvard Business Review's Ideacast Podcast recently focused on "Customer Advantage" vs "Competitive Advantage" and I highly recommend it.

Facebook has a HUGE customer advantage over MySpace. Because Facebook was originally built from college users, it has a more highly educated population (many of which have since graduated and work now, which means disposable income).

Go to any public library however and take a look at who is on MySpace. My experience of sitting in libraries for hours to see what sites my target demographic (18-30) go on have proven that MySace's crowd isn't the cream of the crop. In fact, I have rarely seen people log onto Facebook at a library, which for me means that more Facebook people either have their own computer and internet (i.e. they can afford it) or they access it from school.

I want consumers that have money to spend on my products or my sponsor's products, not ones who want a cluttered and disorganized closet.

Can Facebook sustain it though? That is the real question.

[Brandi]

Yeah... I'm pretty sure the ability to customize MySpace layouts is one of it's big selling points. I know many people who can't stand the blandness of Facebook.

[Bob]

Ok. Honestly I think my generation is the authority on all these websites. I'm a 20 year old internet savy, university of california college student and I have NO idea what prodigy is however I get what this guy means.. kinda like Xanga. Myspace is falling apart and I agree will soon collapse. Myspace is unable to limit the number of people or the names people use (ie. " [Off to never never Katie xXx " or any other random string of nonsense people use to identify themselves on Myspace) non-sensical random lines for names as opposed to the more realistic ones like a person's actually name like on Facebook "Bob Dole". Facebook provides people searches that actually come up with THE person you are looking for. Weird huh? Also ages are monitored and kept on a tighter control instead of every girl between the age of 14-25 posting their age as 14 on myspace it says peoples ACTUAL age. Yet again, Weird. Personally I dont like the expansion to now allowing any bozo on facebook instead of just college students because now it is slowly becoming more chaotic everyday. (entropy at its best) However I see that they are a company in it to make money so more power to them. Just hopefully they can regulate the chaos better than Myspace is. With all the viruses, scambots, adbots and everyother virus infected programs plaguing Myspace... its basically doomed.

[diana]

remember buddy profile -- who uses that anymore?

it will eventually become a thing of the past because people will start to get bored of it.

[Daniel Kennedy-Smith]

Will everyone, including the writer of this article, please watch this presentation. It is in regards to Facebook's terms of service agreement and a little bit on its history.

Please just watch and make your conclusions after, it's no more than 10 minutes. I did not create this, I simply watched it and feel it is very worthwhile.

http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/

[Aloishus27]

I feel the author is spot on, I am a former MySpace addict that has jumped ship to facebook because I am tired of having countless people hack my account to send annoying messages to my "Friends" and also the countless bots wanting to be my "friend"

Facebook really does have a nice clean look to it and has a much better networking system. I like it. My MySpace page still exists and is checked once in a great while just to see if someone who hasn't switched sent me a message, but other than that Facebook is where I'm at.

[Jack]

Myspace is and has always been a train wreck, it's only a matter of time before Facebook assumes the #1 role.

[GPGuy]

I do remember Prodigy, and like everything else in this business, the model grows and adapts.
MySpace will wither because of 'the next best thing', in whatever shape that takes. Right now that would look to be 2nd Life, or some incarnation of it, as soon as they make it a little easier to use, and the last of the 486's are used for boat anchors.

[Tyler Durden]

Very interesting comparison...perhaps both are already extincting themselves. Have you seen secondlife.com?

[Harold Whaley]

Myspace and all of the other social communities serve a valid purpose. If you treat websites communities like clothes and change them every 5 mins you are not going to get the full purpose out of them anyway. If you are looking to network on Myspace it has proven itself to be a reliable source to do so, and you can holla at a couple of single people on the side.

I personally see sites that have technology like Second Life (http://secondlife.com) becoming the New Myspace on Steriods. No longer are your actions static, (meaning when you type a message you have to wait on the other person to log on to myspace to send you a message) when you are online browsing you can really be walking and talking and interacting with other people from all over the world doing similar things. You can actually go to a club and start dancing, for the adults online you can even find Strip Clubs. If you like shopping guess what, you can do that too. Clothes, Food, Cars, Jewlery, Shoes, Houses, Furniture, the list is endless. In Second Life they have their own special currency in called Linden Dollars. It works like real money and trades on the Linden Stock Market, similar to our Reall Life. This is the way that it works: An average of 265 Linden dollars equals 1 Us Dollar and there is exchanges for different currency like the pound or euro, and more. You can do things in Second Life to earn money or you can purchase money. But if you can think on your feet you can set up your own store to sell everything from flip-flops to Mansions.
You can build a recording studio or a Zoo with Animals, or a School that teaches the students that come inside anything you would like to instruct them. Their are people spending the same amount of time in the day that they would on Myspace and earning Thousands. Anything you can think of doing in your real life and couldn't afford to do it, you can now with a little imagination and time in Second Life.

I still do business on Myspace, but if you want to play in the real game, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Are going to be places to inform everyone about interacting sites like second life.

If you sign up for secondlife My name in Second life is

Hdub Shepherd

please say I refered you and I'll keep you up on the next big thing.

Harold Whaley
haroldwhaley.com
hwandassociates.com

hwhaley@gmail.com

[Josh]

Background:
I used myspace back in the day and now I have it locked down, my younger brother uses facebook, I think he still checks it occasionally. We are both college graduates.

Changing Myspace and Facebook:
I don't think either is changing all that much, its just you that is growing older, smarter, maturing with age faster than the website. I've owned stock in the company that owns myspace, and I don't think the management would let myspace die the way some of you describe it.

Outlook:
These two websites within the broader internet are comparable and have overlapping demographics. I think they will both sever each other well. While MySpace appears to serve a more leisurely and entertaining purpose, giving you the ability to insert whatever variable you like using HTML language; while the other serves a more serious/business tone with more focus on the people.

Conclusion:
I think MySpace is going to be what you want it to be. I know I am a member of stock investing groups and other such groups, if you go and look for junk you will find it, if you go and look for success you will find it...and finaly, MySpace is not dying because there is over 100 Million users in 10 first world countries as of about 3 quarters ago, lol.

The real question is what is the future of YouTube?

[john paul]

I agree. Sure, the writer doesn't offer any hard data, which would (if it exists) bolster the argument, but I feel the same way about MySpace.

It's poorly designed, a magnet for bad PR, and hasn't come out with any new, innovative functionality since 2005. It's a joke.

Meanwhile, Facebook has constantly rolled out new features and functionality, and dozens of similar social networking sites have popped up. One of these players is bound to take over as MySpace continues to blast gaudy ads, encourage child rape and wallow in a total lack of inspiration.

[nbmascot]

this is the dumbest article i've ever read, i'm sorry, but who REALLY cares?! there are many other things in the world to be concerned with and your ranting on "myspace" vs. "facebook" and God knows what else! ridiculous and immature.

[g]

the real question is weather people would be willing to give up their existing networks to start a new one, i know i've managed to connect with many old friends using myspace and to be honest i would not be willoing to start again unless its automatic, and i the people i know feel the same way, when ever i get an invite to join "the latest and greatest sonet site" i click delete, i don't like myspace but i would never start over unless it ONE CLICK

[michael r. brown]

what's screwing up myspace is, ironically, a specific lack of control: all the spammers beginning to infest it. and with the preponderance of porn spam, parents are going to be less and less happy.

by the way, how amusing seeing various shills come out of the woodwork to tote their services - be it myspace or myconnec ... get real, guys, everyone knows what's a real comment and what's advertising.

[Marsha Lambert]

Ok, spain to me Lucy? I don't understand why people feel the need to have these online profiles. For what? they say social networking......ok, so my new internet friend can be Goob in Bangladesh? Sad.
Info sharing in groups I can understand....

[Jeremy Thiessen]

I would not at all be disappointed or upset if MySpace died. Being in the music industry, I've had to deal with MySpace far too long already - it's not very user friendly, impossible to find an individual friend once you've added them, and there's FAR too much spam for my liking (I get more spam via MySpace than my own personal email!). Facebook appeals much more to what I want to do with it - and it seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. This will definitely be an interesting "competition" to watch - a battle to the death, I'm sure.

[John]

Facebook was cool until they started opening it up to everyone. Do you really want your parents looking at your facebook profile and finding out what you are doing in college? Facebooks is uncool.

[Harry J. Chong]

I agree with what you're saying, facebook.com has a lot more value. Zuckerberg knows what he's doing for sure.

[Danno]

I'm reminded of the song from some recent Gap commercials "Anything you can do, I can do better..."

This could be sung by Facebook to MySpace.

MySpace has been closing itself off to outside development. We've seen what this does to platforms before.

Facebook, on the other hand, has embraced developers and is promoting innovation from outside as well as within.

Besides, when people think "MySpace", they think of kids and sexual predators. When people think "Facebook" they think college students and young professionals.

When I hear someone talk about their MySpace page, I immediately think they're either just a kid, or a loser...

[Brenna]

I'm also a college student using facebook, but I also have a myspapce account. If it weren't for a select few of my friends who have yet to switch over (and I'm sure they will), I'd rid my life of myspace altogether. My anti-facebook roommates finally got their first facebook account within the past month and they now spend a couple of hours each day devoted to that site. Heck, my mom is even on facebook, and so was my previous boss. I think that the reason why it's so appealing to people (say 13-?) is because it's so much more well organized than anything else available. It's much cleaner in the ways that matter to the users (privacy, ease of use, and so on). This is probably because its creators were in the same situation as those 24 million of us who use it today and probably still are and seem to keep a keen eye on what matters to it's users rather than what matters for the money. And, as we see happening, it pays off in the end.
Personally, my favorite pros for facebook are:
Ease of use
Privacy Controls
Networking Capacity
Lack of excessive spam
Pages always load quickly and seamlessly
New Applications - allow more customization for individual users, more connections to people/events/etc, and fun
The Marketplace - more legit than craigslist

There's probably more, but basically if it keeps going the way it's been going, soon I won't need any other site than facebook and google. Those two should mate...

[Greg Miaskiewicz]

MySpace, from an aesthetic standpoint, is the ugliest, tackiest website to ever become this popular. As a designer, whenever I see a MySpace page, I get the urge to violently vomit all over the computer displaying said MySpace page.

[Phil]

Hello All,

MySpace, Facebook, Friendster...all the same, I believe they barely offer their users anything in return, and far tooo much spam, indeed.

Watch out for a new social networking site on the rise, coming in the next 6 months, it will take you all by surprise with it's technology, the niche it will create and what it will offer it's users in return.

Furthermore it will be in a real-time live environment, interacting between website and mobile device.