A Grand Unified Theory of YouTube and MySpace 166
Ant writes "Paul Boutin's Slate article explains the factors contributing to the success YouTube and MySpace: they are easy to use (usability), and they don't 'tell you what to do.'" From the article: "Both YouTube and MySpace fit the textbook definition of Web 2.0, that hypothetical next-generation Internet where people contribute as easily as they consume. Even self-described late adopters like New York editor Kurt Andersen recognize that that by letting everyone contribute, these sites have reached a critical mass where 'a real network effect has kicked in.'"
Maybe a little too much? (Score:2, Insightful)
Tell people how to do it right... (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is one of the main reasons I hate MySpace. Aside from it being slow, I loathe that it is so easy to customise. It means that every person can mess up the CSS and HTML and destroy the look and feel of the site. By not telling people what to do they all run off and do things I that damage the site.
Of course, they all think their own page with a flashing bright backgroud, three different audio tracks playing, and text that blends into the every other item to make it unreadable is just beautiful.
Web 3.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
Web 3.0: A website's value increases with the quality of the content being created
I like the whole concept of websites providing a framework where people create their own content and network, but the quality for most of these is terrible. I can only look at so many pictures of half naked drunk teenagers before I get sick of it. Hopefully the next iteration of the web will find some way to weed out the quality content (isn't that the reason we read Slashdot?) and provide more of that.
myspace websites? (Score:3, Insightful)
it is just the new geocities combined with one of those social network sites.
I am sure they make good money on ads..
if I see a company with a mission statement that talks about giving stuff away, lots of venture capital and no product then I will really belive that bubble2.0 has arrived..
It's Funny (Score:5, Insightful)
Was this the problem the whole time? We gave users the tools to create their own individual sites, when really they just all wanted to conform to the same one?
The grand unified theory of grand unified theories (Score:5, Insightful)
rant
Web 2.0 (noun, currently, wait until next week when marketing people start using it as a verb) - definition 1 - the underlying goal of the Internet as it is now finally understood by marketing majors (12 years after it first began getting popular) who never studied in college and now need a term to throw around. Thank you, masters of the obvious.
- definition 2 - Marketing term invented by group without any real technical knowledge (who did not study in school) to reflect the type of technology that frameworks such as AJAX are now offering. Note, there was never a "Web 1.5" when flash first came out because the marketing majors were still "playing catch up".
Re:Web 3.0 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tell people how to do it right... (Score:3, Insightful)
Myspace is no different.
The web should be hard!! When I was a kid, we hand-coded in vi, dammit!
Re:Tell people how to do it right... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's down to an uninformed user base (Score:5, Insightful)
More like, you p0st t0 t3h int3rw3b without being labled a noob.
Like all lowest common denominators, these mainstream websites require no real thought, effort, consideration or engagement. It's nothing to do with the internet, it's everything to do with people.
Re:Youtube (Score:4, Insightful)
i'm sorry, but you just can't say that (Score:4, Insightful)
You missed the point. (Score:3, Insightful)
Aesthetics aside, the point of MySpace isn't to have a site with millions of users, it's to have a millions of sites linked to each other by users and friends. Your criticism is analogous to criticizing the personal sites on university servers for not having a consistent look and feel.
Re:It's Funny (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not really that hard to understand. Say "you can publish whatever you want for the whole world to see", and they'll think "umm... like what?" and go blank. Say "put X, Y and Z particular things online so your friends can see them", and they've got a concrete example of what they can do, and probably quite a few examples of what their friends have already done.
As a general principle, people are more likely to go for small, tangible goals than open-ended endeavours, even if the requirements and initial results are very similar.
Re:Tell people how to do it right... (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree completely. That's why I never go to bars or clubs where they let the patrons dress themselves. Some people just end up wearing the ugliest shit, and it messes up the atmosphere when people have bad taste like that.
Seriously, one thing I like about myspace is that it's a way to meet people, and it allows people to express themselves through their page. Some pages I really like, and some I think are just dumb and completely gaudy. And you know what? That information helps me, to some extent, figure out whether I am going to click with that person. If their page is all embedded rap videos in every corner and bright yellow text against pink with a scrolling hearts as the background, I probably don't have much in common with them. Contrariwise, somebody out there probably sees that same page and goes, "wow, nice page! that looks really awesome!", and those two people will become friends or something.