The MySpace Ecosystem 185
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."
I must be the only one... (Score:2, Interesting)
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:3, Insightful)
In this world where one becomes a hero for dying incidentally in an explosion, is it any wonder that a public forum for ego masturbation is the fastest-growing site on the Internet?
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:1)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:1)
I just can't imagine thinking myspace is cool.
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:3, Funny)
Personally, I don't see the need in talking about not using MySpace. I'm always seeing all these people whinging about how they don't use MySpace and how stupid it is, and I'm like "What are you talking about? I don't understand!"
I just find it to be a complete and utter waste of my time, sitting on some website boasting about how little I like a website. But what I don't understand is how this can be, when so many of my friends are jumping right on the bandwagon and hating on MySpace 24/7. Anyone know wha
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:5, Informative)
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:1)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
I think that's always how it is. My elderly grandfather recently bought a computer. He had my sister type up his memoirs on it, then declared he had got his money's worth from the computer and was done with it. We set him up with Internet and showed him how to browse the web and send email. He said it was hard to use the mouse, so we set it up with big buttons and fonts, but no dice. Finally we just realized he just didn't want t
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Myspace doesn't bother me because I can simply ignore it, I don't know if it's usefull or not, I just don't care about it, I don't want to understand. I'm content to die without ever having experienced myspace, read all my junkmail or watched the Titanic remake all
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2, Insightful)
The appeal isn't for you, it's for the non-computer literate crowd. It provides them something to do with the internet. It the one place on the net where it's okay to admit you use a computer. Seriously. There are "hot chicks" and
Egads (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Egads (Score:1)
Re:Egads (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Re:I must be the only one... (Score:2)
Myspace isn't so bad... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Myspace isn't so bad... (Score:1)
Woohoo, Wisconsin FTW!
Anyhoo... I'm actually not sure if I've ever actually gone to MySpace before. I have no interest in the MySpace/FaceBook kind of sites. I don't know. I just don't want to use them. Heck, and I'm a website programmer as my profession. Though, I'm surprised they don't have some of these simple features.
New features.. wooo (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:New features.. wooo (Score:1)
Age Verification (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Age Verification (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Age Verification (Score:4, Informative)
Also, your scheme presumes Dad actually reads his itemized credit card bill and will become suspicious about a $1 charge.
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
People like me who don't carry cash.
Re:Age Verification (Score:1)
Are you kidding? You apparently have no many pre-teens do have secured credit cards that hold their allowance, and how little people look at low dollar purchases on their bills...
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
Re:Age Verification (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Age Verification (Score:1)
Re:Age Verification (Score:3, Insightful)
wouldn't work now (Score:1)
Plus those questions weren't all that hard or obscure, and you could try as many times as you needed to get them right without the game locking out on you.
Re:Age Verification (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
That and for some reason there are a LOT of whoreish users on myspace. What is the desire to show off your body in minimal clothing anyways?
Re:Age Verification (Score:2)
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)
Re:Please stop this corruption of our language! (Score:2)
Re:Please stop this corruption of our language! (Score:2)
MyAOLSpace (Score:2, Insightful)
This is what happend to Genie, Compuserve, AOL, and now a possibility for MySpace. Remember how laughable AOL user was.
Is MySp
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2)
Liar!!! You post on slashdot, no 15 year olds can possibly think you're hot!!! You are a computer nerd, admit it!! Bask in the glory of your monitor light!!!
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2)
1. Not to rain your parade, but those 15 year-olds are most likely FBI trolling for pedophiles.
And 2. Pink pony. That's hawt.
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2, Insightful)
Nothing makes me shiver more than a person who is different for the sake of being different. What a sad way to live.
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2)
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2)
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2, Informative)
MOD UP, learn to read (Score:2)
Re:MyAOLSpace (Score:2)
A bunch of idiots. (Score:2, Funny)
What is the difference? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What is the difference? (Score:1)
its friday (Score:2)
"And your uname is "Recovering Hater." How delightful."
So by your name i should judge you to be a crappy 70s car that carries pies?
"it has appeared that the computers just weren't offering the kinds of things that women were interested in having."
Whoa! when did computers start offering up babies?
"Don't you think that we're trying to tell you something when we call the folder "public_html?""
that your not terribly creative whe
There's a company for anything you might want... (Score:2)
If some one is building something for MySpace (Score:2, Funny)
Re:If some one is building something for MySpace (Score:1)
screw that, how about load balancing first? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:screw that, how about load balancing first? (Score:2)
Re:screw that, how about load balancing first? (Score:2, Interesting)
this article needs an update (Score:4, Informative)
http://mashable.com/2006/07/21/myspace-update-thr
Re:this article needs an update (Score:2)
Seriously, there are a lot of things to try (Score:3, Insightful)
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....
Re:I'd be happy with theses features... (Score:2)
MySpace e-mail backup (Score:2)
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.
Re:Apparently the MySpace Ecosystem... (Score:2)
I've been doing it! (Score:2)
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.
Re:I've been doing it! (Score:2)
Do something like I did, make a single post in a single forum letting people know about it. Don't charge for it. Don't have any advertising to generate income... and watch the dozens of "Don't SPAM" messages come accross, with far stronger language than your saturday cartoons.
The MySpace Axis of Evil (Score:2)
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.
Re:The MySpace Axis of Evil (Score:1)
But of course, you repeat yourself...
Simpsons already did that! (Score:2)
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 ubiqui
Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot... (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot (Score:2)
Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.
This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.
Re:Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot (Score:2)
Hehe. Well, I did admit it's a technological piece of shit ;)
But, I just hit refresh on our profile, and it works for me. Maybe if you try the verbose link [myspace.com] instead of the alias? *shrug*
Re:Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot (Score:2)
You're funny. I like you.
Re:Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot (Score:2)
So, er, forget about this MySpace bashing... but ya know what I really hate? M$, the NSA, gay penguins...
(/. without the bitching is like MySpace without black backgrounds and pink text...)
Re:Some thoughts about myspace bashing on slashdot (Score:2)
BusienssWeek (Score:1)
Ah yes, the Eidtors are hard at work...
Or you could.. (Score:2)
But don't all be like me.
The movie component of the ecosystem (Score:2)
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.
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:Hating on MySpace (Score:2, Funny)
I altered my MySpace page with a text editor, you insensitive clod!
Are you going to spank me now?
Re:firstimus postimus by v0dka (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:They've always had an ecosystem... (Score:4, Funny)
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 t
Re:They've always had an ecosystem... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Nobodies ever replied to me about this.. (Score:2)
http://visit.some.other.site.com/because/myspace/