So, why is MySpace losing out? Has anyone been on any MySpace sites lately? The inconsistent user interface, with the photo albums looking totally different from the profiles, the backgrounds people are able to use, which make the text difficult to read; the music, which starts playing every time you load someone’s profile and you have to stop it, five seconds after loading it …
Facebook has its problems and annoyances, admittedly — the contents changing about a second after you go back a page, for example — but at least the look and feel is consistent from page to page. It does its job as a social networking site. MySpace is a musicians’ homepage service, which allows music to be shared easily and event notices to be put out. Facebook doesn’t offer much of that, but its facilities for users other than musicians are vastly superior. There is also the “snowball effect” of people joining as their friends join.
However, another important reason is that advertising revenues are declining, and I’ve seen this myself on my Google AdSense revenues which haven’t reached $16 any month this year. A lot of these free blogging and networking services depend on advertising, which makes them vulnerable in times of recession. I have long held the suspicion that a “blog crunch” is likely, in which free services made possible by advertising, corporate off-cuts and companies based on long-shot business models which have never made money become unviable and disappear. How long this takes is difficult to predict, but there is a distinct chance of some of us one day finding that our blogs are simply no longer there.
More: Web Worker Daily (HT: Faraz).
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“How long this takes is difficult to predict, but there is a distinct chance of some of us one day finding that our blogs are simply no longer there.”
I hope you have your blog backed-up somewhere!
Abdullah: My blog is on a paid hosting site (although it’s good to keep these backed up as things can go wrong with their servers, even if they don’t go bust). I was talking about free blog hosting services like wordpress.com and Blogger.
I once tried to develop an application for myspace and knew these guys had no future at all. They just made things too complicated, just as the pages of their users are full of cr*p.
facebook is heading that way, if they do not kickout promotion seeking lot such as movie companies. Just go to the bruno page or even try and become a fan and you will see the endless junk your page will be left with.
The really smart people set up their own websites. It takes more time, money, and effort than the few mouse clicks required for social networking sites but the results are usually better. Facebook is for people who either do not know what the alternative is or lack the ability to create a website for themselves. One day it will wither away just like that hideous Friends Reunited. It was all the rage a few years ago but who uses it nowadays?
MR: FR was an early attempt at a social networking site, and it waned because other SN sites offered the same, or better, for free (FR wasn’t free when it was popular). It’s also poorly programmed, particularly in the forums.
Then again, perhaps using the same site, and the same account, for all your SN needs isn’t such a good idea. I could speak more freely in the Kesgrave forum, for example, if I didn’t think my Muslim friends would read it.
Also, some of us have our own websites and use SN sites.
“I could speak more freely in the Kesgrave forum, for example, if I didn’t think my Muslim friends would read it.”
What secrets have you got to hide? Your Muslim friends have probably gathered that you were swigging alcohol behind the back of the staff and stuffing your face with pork at dinner time.
Out of interest, were there any Muslims at that school?