Allison Merlino asked:


MySpace leads Facebook in revenue earned form advertisements. But recently, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in unique visitors. This is an astounding accomplishment being that MySpace had a three year lead and enjoys immense popularity. Users are leaving MySpace for Facebook in droves and it is speculated that this transition may be a result of class rather than trend.

Following the creation of Friendstar, a number of eUniverse employees saw its potential and used its more popular features to create a social networking website with a wider base. MySpace was launched in August 2003 and with resources including technicians, bandwidth and server capacity already in place users increased at an astounding rate.

MySpace operates from advertising revenue alone. There is absolutely no cost to the end user. MySpace is capable of using behavioral targeting to customize the ads that each user sees. Only Yahoo! has been able to collect more data about it’s users in order to customize advertising. The success of MySpace has trickled down to many young entrepreneurs who provide widgets or accessories that add to the functionality of the networking powerhouse.

MySpace encourages users to customize their profile pages by entering HTML. In addition musicians are allowed to upload and share up to 6 MP3 songs provided it is their own work or they have permission to use the songs. Over eight million artists owe their discovery to MySpace so far! Political organizations and politicians themselves have created MySpace pages to expand their membership and to get more young viewers involved in campaigning. MySpace offers many engaging features including Bulletins, Groups, MySpace IM, MySpace TV, Applications, MySpace Mobile, MySpace News, MySpace Classifieds, MySpace Karaoke and MySpace polls.

MySpace networking has many positive aspects, unfortunately, they are matched in number by negative aspects. MySpace does not have a customer service number readily available. Most problems are solved via networking with other MySpace users. HTML code is rarely met because those using the code are not experienced. This can lead to accessibility problems and freeze up web browsers.

Security is another major problem. Advertisements are abundant and some provide links to fake login screens that trick a user into entering their MySpace user name and password. Spam bulletins and infections are prime examples of security breaches. Social issues arise such as teens inadvertently inviting a large number of people to parties. People are also more likely to present themselves in ways that they would not in person which undercuts the purposeful design of MySpace which is to bring people together. Stalkers also are able to gather a large amount of information about an individual via MySpace.

Facebook is also a social networking website. Unlike MySpace its origin is not corporate but academic! Membership was initially offered to only Harvard College students. Shortly after in March of 2004 membership was expanded to include Stanford, Columbia and Yale. In September of 2005 Facebook welcomed high school students by invitation only then employees of Apple Inc. and Microsoft. Finally, Facebook expanded its membership to include everyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address in September 2006. Facebook members join networks which are organized by city, school, workplace and region.

Facebook remains privately owned by Facebook Inc. but has investors who are major players including PayPal co-founder Peter Theil, Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Microsoft.

Facebook offers many of the same features as MySpace like banner ads, creating customized profiles, and the viewing of the profile data being restricted to users from the network or confirmed friends. Facebook’s features include the Wall, Pokes, Photos, News Feed, Facebook Notes, Chat and Gifts.

The most significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization. Facebook only allows plain text as opposed to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets. But despite its 3 year head start in the general public, MySpace fell behind Facebook in May of 2008 with a total of 123.9 million unique Facebook visitors. According to Alexa, Facebook’s ranking among all websites went from 60th to 7th from September 2006 to September 2007. It is currently 5th.

Currently young people are leaving MySpace in droves for Facebook. Some speculate that it is typical teens moving on from one trend to the next. Others speculate that Facebook attracts more affluent users. Facebook originated with Ivy League students who then attracted high school kids who were eager to become part of the culture in their upcoming college experience. Danah Boyd, a researcher for the University of California, Berkley, claims that the “goody-two-shoes, jocks, athletes, and other ‘good’ kids” are going to Facebook. These ‘good’ kids are attracted first to the Facebook’s origin and they are also eager to stay away from the controversy that surrounds MySpace. Therefore there is evidence of a class divide rather than a change in trend for all young users. It will be interesting to see if Facebook becomes similarly polluted.

MySpace leads Facebook in revenue earned form advertisements. But recently, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in unique visitors. This is an astounding accomplishment being that MySpace had a three year lead and enjoys immense popularity. Users are leaving MySpace for Facebook in droves and it is speculated that this transition may be a result of class rather than trend.

Shant asked:


Social networking sites have become one of the thriving internet networks almost covering half of the world population. Myspace alone has over 50 million users and other sites like hi5, orkut too have reasonable number of users in their part. These 50 million users on Myspace are almost ready to connect to everyone that comes in their way. Initially, Myspace was supposed to be a site focused to teenagers but now everyone can be found hanging out in Myspace. A person in Myspace is better known by his or her Myspace layout. The more different your Myspace layout is, the more it will make you stand out from the crowd. Myspace layout creates a brand for the user. When you open your account in Myspace you are opening up to those 50 million users who would probably want to connect with you. Myspace layout is your face on the Internet.

Myspace layout is easy to create and sets the mood for your profile. When you signup at Myspace you will be given all the tools and options to edit your profile. When you modify everything, a layout is created and it contains all the information provided by you. When you join up with other people they will first see your profile and your Myspace layout is shown every time anyone views your profile. Myspace layout is typically made to show your information. You can edit your layout to suit your mood or attitude. Each Myspace layout is different from one another, since every individual wants a different design for his Myspace layout.

A Myspace layout will always have a header where you can add all those titles or headings about yourself. You can put a simple slogan in these places or add any quotes. You also get a place to add your information and give your contact info. There are many Myspace resource sites where you can obtain a free Myspace layout to pimp out your profile. You can add a whole plethora of options and add-on to make your Myspace layout look flashy and alot more active. You get more friends and have more success in Myspace only when you have a good Myspace layout. It is the main key to your success in Myspace. The type of design, color, images, tools, etc. you use in your Myspace layout shows your personality and there are lots of places where you can find images and designs that suit your attitude and personality and almost all of them are free. There are tons of websites and forums where you can find free graphics and design codes which you can use in your Myspace layout. You can use different combinations of images and designs to make your Myspace layout look different from others.

There are tons of cool Myspace layouts but you cannot use just any one of them. Get a Myspace layout and customize it according to your choice. If you don’t customize, your blog won’t look unique and will look just like everyone else’s. You don’t have to be a HTML guru to learn the tricks of customizing Myspace layouts. The sites where you get Myspace layouts will most probably offer you tips and tricks to add those Myspace layout codes into your profile. You can find step by step tutorials on customizing your Myspace layout and all of these things are available for free.

Myspace can be a very beneficial place for people who can use it to its full power. You can make your own brand and get self recognition. It can also help you in getting business proposals and you can also get huge traffic for your website from Myspace. Just leave your website URL in your profile and add lots of users into your network. To achieve all this you need a solid Myspace layout that is different and helps in building a brand for you.