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The MySpace Ecosystem
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Jul 21, 2006 01:25 PM
from the wretched-hive-of-scum-and-villainy dept.
from the wretched-hive-of-scum-and-villainy dept.
conq writes "BusinessWeek has an article on how MySpace is developing its own ecosystem in the same way that Microsoft did it with Windows, and Apple with the iPod. From the article: 'Now, MySpace is beginning to create its own ecosystem of third-party companies that are developing features and applications for the giant digital community. The idea is to encourage other companies to use their creativity and expertise to come up with things for MySpace users that MySpace itself hasn't. That could be anything from letting people add to their MySpace home pages from a mobile phone or creating a slide show of their favorite MySpace photos."
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I must be the only one... (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.wikiafterdark.com/)
And now I'm able to myspace from anywhere and do all kinds of extra stuff with my myspace that I just don't give a rats ass about, so umm yeah... sign me up?
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday August 23 2005, @04:06PM)
You know, there are those people you had some classes with, saw at parties, ran in the same general crowd, but never became close friends. With MySpace, you can just search for school/graduating class/etc. come across these people you hadn't thought about in awhile, and make them your "friend".
No need to have lengthy conversations, you don't even have to talk to each other at all. But it never hurts to have those contacts in case you're really bored one weekend/job hunting/whatever. Then you just leave a comment or send an email saying, "Wanna head to the bar this weekend?" "Oh, I see you work at Initech, could I give you my resume?" or just "Hey, remember that time...?"
In short, it's a great link to people you know but don't have the need and/or desire to talk to all the time.
-
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.uio.no/~jaris)
Myspace isn't so bad... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.youtube.com/musecast5)
New features.. wooo (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.biernacki.ca/)
Age Verification (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Age Verification (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.shezphoto.com/)
Re:Age Verification (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.hansprestige.com/ | Last Journal: Friday September 14, @04:25PM)
Also, your scheme presumes Dad actually reads his itemized credit card bill and will become suspicious about a $1 charge.
The problem is... (Score:1)
I use a lot of the cut and paste stuff myself, but it definately helps when you know at least some basic HTML.
Not suprising.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Please stop this corruption of our language! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
MyAOLSpace (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://www.achacha.org/)
This is what happend to Genie, Compuserve, AOL, and now a possibility for MySpace. Remember how laughable AOL user was.
Is MySpace getting to be the AOL of 2000s?
A bunch of idiots. (Score:2, Funny)
What is the difference? (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a company for anything you might want... (Score:2)
If some one is building something for MySpace (Score:2, Funny)
screw that, how about load balancing first? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday October 02 2006, @05:55PM)
Right now, I was just waiting for my profile to load for about 2 minutes - and that's not even that bad. Some features just time out or load partially.
MySpace is simply collapsing under its own load.
It has become too popular for its own good.
First, get the site to stay up - then and only then can you add features.
this article needs an update (Score:4, Informative)
http://mashable.com/2006/07/21/myspace-update-thr
Seriously, there are a lot of things to try (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.monash.com/blogs.html)
2. Multiple approaches to network analysis, collaborative filtering, etc. (Obligatory shameless plug: The hot new company in network analysis is Cogito [dbms2.com].)
3. Various communications things.
4. Various real time monitoring things, both narrowly filtered and for overall trends.
I bet if I'd logged onto the site a single time in my whole life I might be able to come up with even more ideas.
I'd be happy with theses features... (Score:2, Interesting)
2. I don't know, how about not getting SERVER TOO BUSY half the time in the afternoon?
3. Less anoying profile ``themes'' Ok, I know this is the users fault....
MySpace e-mail backup (Score:2)
(http://www.jeremyborger.com/blog)
Apparently the MySpace Ecosystem... (Score:3, Funny)
If I wanted a community like that, I could have just thrown my PC to the bottom of the ocean.
I've been doing it! (Score:2)
(http://www.agileagenda.com/)
http://www.flashyourspace.com/ [flashyourspace.com]
I've been doing exactly this, playing around with myspace as a target platform while I teach myself flash.
The MySpace Axis of Evil (Score:2)
(http://www.animats.com)
Yes, Myspace has an ecosystem. They have adware. They have spyware. They have spam. [andrewphelps.com] They have Zango. [com.com] They have affiliates. It's like AOL gone bad.
Simpsons already did that! (Score:2)
(http://kim.biyn.com/)
Okay, it wasn't the simpsons. Seriously though, AOL has done exactly that, and it hasn't been working out too well for them lately. It worked well before the inception of the graphical web browser and ubiquitous internet access, but before that it was a surefire business model. Now, with so much "free" content on the web that does not even require registration, why would one want to become a MySpace member to access it?
Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.keiretsumusic.com/steve/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 17 2007, @05:51PM)
Every time myspace is mentioned on slashdot, we same exactly the same thing. 98% of comments are just "UGH MYSPACE SUCKS", leaving absolutely no space for the kind of intelligent debate in the comments which brought me to slashdot in the first place.
So I thought I would try and buck the trend.
Let's see what the common complaints are about myspace:
First, some technical/webdesigner type ones.
Second, some more social/content focused ones.
You know what? Pretty much all true. I can't argue with it. And for exactly these reasons, I used to preach anti-myspace rants in exactly the same vein as this [slashdot.org] comment. I might even have done so on slashdot itself -- I know for a fact I did on other forums, extensively.
But that's not quite the whole story.
Things are a bit different for music accounts.
Ya see, I'm in a band (unsigned/independent) and being a web developer for a day job, I'm left to look after that side of our operations. For the longest time I refused to get the band a myspace page for all the above reasons - but eventually the band forced me to drop my web designer snootiness about myspace and sort us out a page, and since then I've been forced to change my opinions a bit. For bands/musicians, it's genuinely quite useful.
When we started the page, I went on an adding spree, not adding strangers just to bump up our friend count, but just adding (1) people who are genuinely our friends (2) people who've previously bought our cds / come to our gigs / bigged us up, (3) a few famous bands/djs/people who are influences and inspirations to us. Aside from that I don't add request anyone -- I wait for them to add request us! And they do...! Usually something between 1 and half a dozen every day for the last month or so. Sometimes they're obviously people who have been to our gigs but sometimes they're obviously not (because they live in countries we've never played), they're just people who have been searching for music, come across us and liked the tunes...
And this is the crux of it. Sure, personally, as a "geeky" / "old school" web user, I'd much rather search google, find a website, and download an mp3 (or ogg, if you insist ;) ), than search myspace, find a profile, and listen with a flash player. Like most of you guys.
But I - and you guys - are not typical. Obviously most people find the convenience of myspace and its auto-playing songs more appealing. Do you know how many emails I get saying "I randomly found your website from google and listened to your mp3s" -- pretty much none. Ever. Do you know how many messages from complete randoms on myspace saying "nice tunes" I get -- one every few weeks or so. As a band member/promoter you just can't ignore that!
It genuinely works for getting new fans and networking. Example: A couple of weeks ago we played at a festival near Amsterdam (we're based in London). When I asked the promoter how he discovered us and decided we were worth paying to bring over from the UK (remember, we're completely unsigned, we have no label or financial backing, we book all our own gigs ourselves, we record, produce, finance, and distribute our albums ourself, we have next to no media coverage...) he said "myspace".
So, if you want to bash it for being ugly and full of annoying emo kids, stolen pictures and unreadable profiles I can't really argue. It is. On the other hand... getting paid to go to Amsterdam for a long weekend isn't
BusienssWeek (Score:1)
Ah yes, the Eidtors are hard at work...
Why all the hate? (Score:1)
A MySpace Slashdot catagory? (Score:1)
-Ponga
Bad News for Taxpayers (Score:1)
An ecosystem that feed you with nasty spywares (Score:1)
(http://www.fabriceroux.com/)
Nobodies ever replied to me about this.. (Score:1)
Or you could.. (Score:2)
(http://www.robertjohnkaper.com/)
But don't all be like me.
It's not going to work (Score:1)
Creating an eco-system in this context will not work, because even webservices have severe limitations in what you can do with them.
They are "read-only" or have very severe constraints for any "write".
Windows is an operating system as is Linux and many games. If you really hurt your own system, it stops there. If you hurt a server eco-system with an application it will hurt everyone, as they have clearly already shown.
This limits what they can offer people in the context of an eco-system to some very lame superficial stuff. So I don't feel it's going to work to any greater degree than what they've already done.
Social networking is on the decline, and their alexa.com curve is heading on the downslope, as the next school year rings in, a lot of people are going to find a new site to hang out at that is new and hip.
As for social networking creators making an eco-system, we decided on a real OS ecosystem and are developing a linux distro by the name of deity, with new widgets and other stuff.
Myspace is built on a deck of cards called hype, and trend, and when that deck blows out from underneath them, when kids no longer think social networking in that way is cool anymore, watch out, because they and the other social networks will fall. If you went into this as a trend that's one thing, going in as an all out investment where this type of software was the base was unwise.
Google is so successful because they are primarily a portal, you set google or start.com to your home page. You don't set myspace or bebo.
Social networking does not have the model to stay on top for any length of time, be it friendster, myspace, bebo or whatever. they are hype and trend driven marketing models, and that can never last. You can't "be cool" or "in" forever.
Interesting page (Score:1)
You really mean... (Score:1)
MySpace ftl (Score:1)
Yes. MySpace is most definitely a fad. It is embraced by teenagers, particularly my generation, in a way I find disgusting. The reason, I suppose, is because these people who post their MySpaces do not have their own website, do not have ever had anything on the vast internetz they could call their own. I can understand this. "You have a MySpace? I have a portfolio of database-driven internet applications, what's your point?"
But I digress. On my original topic, MySpace is, like Abercrombie, Holister, those stupid plastic bracelets, a fad. At some point, not in the distant future, it will simply 'go out of style' and the entire 'ecosystem' surrounding it will collapse. Anyone offering services for MySpace has to be in it for the short term, or they'll fail. Fads die out. MySpace will die out.
I actually enjoy MySpace... (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/)
MySpace is ruining search results! (Score:1)
The movie component of the ecosystem (Score:2)
(http://www.animats.com)
I just saw two movie trailers which gave the web site for the movie as "myspace.com/moviename". You used to see "AOL keyword: moviename", then "www.moviename.com". Now it's Myspace. Interesting trend.
linux friendly (Score:1)
the MySpace ecosystem consists of ... (Score:2)
Hating on MySpace (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hating on MySpace (Score:5, Funny)
Well said.
For my own part, I say anything that is equally despised by both politicians and web-design snobs can't be all bad.
Swerving back on topic, this is a non-story. There's no need to read Business Week to know this is going on. Just randomly pull up a few MySpace pages and it becomes immediately obvious, because these little third-party widgets for enhancing MySpace pages are extremely popular, and it would not take you long to stumble across a few of them.
I wouldn't call MySpace an "ecosystem", so much as I would call it a "framework." The fact that it's so crufty to begin with creates a rich environment for offering 3rd-party mods, because only a total masochist would attempt to alter a MySpace page with a text editor.
Re:They've always had an ecosystem... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.ducktapeandglue.com/)
Re:firstimus postimus by v0dka (Score:1, Offtopic)
(http://twoturtlelovers.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 25, @03:01PM)
Re:They've always had an ecosystem... (Score:3, Insightful)
Then pretty much every moron goes to pimp my myspace and creates a page so broken it takes 5 minutes to load. I sure do like hearing 5 music videos and Dane Cook all playing at the same time. Then they plaster the comments with "Hey gurlie. l00kin sex-c" (and that's the most legible of the comments!). Myspace pages are pretty much unusable. They are actually worse than the geocities pages of the late 90's.
I think it's hilarious when I see parents on the news talking about the "myspace generation". "Oh yeah, my son has music playing while watching tv and IMing his friends and updating his myspace all at the same time". It makes them completely unfocused and makes it possible for them to half-ass ten things at once. I think myspace and AIM are possibly the two most influencial things dumbing down children in america today. I actually think that without these two things children in Amercia would be smarter. Would you want to leave that legacy? Dumbing down an entire generation...
Re:They've always had an ecosystem... (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @10:09AM)
Hey it started way before MySpace. Every generation has had its dumbing down influence: Rock 'N Roll in the 50's, Drugs in 60's, Disco and more Drugs in the 70's, Video Games in the 80's... Sure, none of these things are harmful in and of themselves, but the issue has always been one of abuse. Kids who listened to the beginnings of rock in the 50's certainly didn't turn out too bad, or we wouldn't be here now. The fact is, something interesting and unique tends to make itself known every decade or so, and a cadre of devoted worshippers take this thing and run it into the ground. There's definitely a dumbing down, but I don't think it's so severe, owing to the fact that plenty of us are still here making productive lives.
Yes, MySpace sucks and is probably a big waste of a kid's time, but the fact is most of the kids who use it will not abuse it and turn out all right, while those who do abuse it will become more societal detritus that we're all going to have to pay for at some point. Nothing changes.