MySpace and YouTube: Web 2.0 for Ordinary People

Cem [30 April 2006 10:37 AM]

Quod erat demonstrandum (which was to be demonstrated): YouTube is now bigger than Flickr.

Kevin Farnham [ 1 May 2006 09:01 PM]

MySpace certainly benefitted from its uninformed audience. One of the first things I noticed when I began my investigation in February was that the site was full of bugs, response was terrible, some functions didn't do what the screens implied they would do, instructions were nowhere to be found, etc.

But do such things matter to excited teens? Not at all. They just want to be in on the latest thing all their friends are doing. No documention on how it works? Not a problem, just IM your friend and get the required key sequence.

The user base just wanted to use it, and didn't care about "quality" because all that really mattered was to be on the same network with their friends. Perhaps Xanga is a better piece of software, I don't know. But MySpace's success was largely a matter of momentum that built upon itself.

I get the feeling that the MySpace inventors really had no clue about what would happen. They threw together a lot of clunky software, not knowing which idea would work. Would it be MySpace the musician's networking site? MySpace the career networking site, fully equipped with a half-constructed address book application? MySpace the dating site, the site for people looking for a "serious relationship"? MySpace the place for friends?

Of course it was the last idea that took off, when teens decided MySpace was the place to be. And once it took off, the original developers had their hands full just trying to keep the site operational amid escalating bandwidth demands -- never mind worrying about bugs and safety issues, or things like customer service...

Hence MySpace in the news as an unsafe place for teens...

A lot has changed in the past 3 months. Indeed, It's been difficult to write a book, because the target has suddenly started moving rather quickly. But now, MySpace is actually becoming a more mature entity. Bugs are being fixed, a few safety issues have been addressed.

MySpace was/is a phenomenon, indeed. But, looking at the software, it clearly was not born out of a single, far-seeing vision of the future. In my investigation, I basically reverse-engineered every feature and function on the site. In terms of software, MySpace started out as a conglomeration of code patched together in a manner that implies a marketing attitude of "Let's throw this, this, and that at them, and see if anything sticks."

Something did stick, indeed...

Paul Boutin [ 2 May 2006 10:32 AM]

Ahem -- the plots I linked to are linear, not logarithmic. Same difference either way, though.

Tim O'Reilly [ 2 May 2006 11:14 AM]

You're right, Paul. I was looking at the alexa rank plots, which are logarithmic (click on the rank tab if that doesn't come up first), while you were looking at the "reach" plots. But while there's no question that youtube and myspace have shot way past flickr, I was mainly your assertion that flickr peaked at a level not much higher than slate a little strong. Here's that plot: http://www.alexaholic.com/flickr.com+slate.com

korye brewster [13 June 2006 03:45 PM]

How do i get to myspace at school?

hilary [17 September 2006 04:38 PM]

my dad blocked myspace from my house so i cant get on it... its stupid.

jesse [19 October 2006 02:05 PM]

my space is blocked at school and i want to get on

Drama Queen [20 October 2006 09:59 AM]

Myspace never ceases to amaze me. The other day I found something really interesting on there. Have you ever heard of urban storytelling? There?s this group in NYC called the Moth, and they put on storytelling events there. Right now, they?ve teamed up with the TV network TNT (we know drama) for some reason, and are doing a contest on Myspace called ?What?s Your Story??. Basically, you submit a video of yourself telling the story of the most risky thing you?ve ever done, and you can win a trip to New York and other cool stuff. It?s actually really interesting and I strongly suggest everyone check it out: www.myspace.com/mothstories . They show a few videos on the myspace page that are worth watching if you?re confused by what they do? It will be interesting to see the different video submissions of people telling their risky stories. I think it?s really cool that myspace provides such a platform to be in the know about these types of things.

james [31 January 2007 09:43 AM]

how the hell can you get on myspace at school?????

sarah-gin [22 February 2007 09:21 AM]

it's effin stupid. myspace is good for teens. it's like the one place we can express ourselves.

mhmmmm.

peace.

chris lofton [10 April 2007 09:53 AM]

snoop