I agree with you that they offered something different that no one was doing or was missing- greater interactivity along with self expression. They never grew beyond this, and after blowing a half a billion dollars on this folly, Newscorp never found a successful buisness model with it (they had hoped to get users to interact more with advertising- ha!). The sleazy ads didn’t help much with that either- everytime I logged into MySpace I felt like I was walking through the porn district. Now add the tacky and tasteless self expression of many of the users profiles to that; It just has the look and feel of a bad neighborhood.

It got worse too, MySpace’s attempt at allowing the tacky game apps and crap like “People as pets” further emphasize that MySpace isn’t a place for social networking, it’s a popularity contest that places quantity over quality, and hero worship and self importance over socializing. Despite that, in the five years I have been on MySpace, I do find the experience amusing- despite the fact that many say that they are concerned about their privacy and security, they freely give it away- never will you find a place where a complete stranger will self profess the most intimate of details without even as much as asking- things I bet their neighbors, close friends and family don’t even know.

As you mentioned, the Newscorp/MySpace rise and downfall mirrors the Yahoo/Geocities rise and downfall. Based on the Geocities model, that currently leaves them with a 7 year survival. I did notice that they finally changed that horrible 1990′s layout and now MySpace has open email, which gives them the ability to be the 4th largest email provider in the US. However do to the well know lack of security of the site (however I can’t entirely cite fault with them, as the users easily fall for the simplest of attempts by hackers to get passwords), and the reputation that MySpace has gained in the media, I doubt if MYSpace Mail, just like MySpace itself, will ever be looked at as a “serious” service. Google has nothing to worry about here.

Manish Pahuja

Just thought I would share the link.

More coffee, please.

Personally, I think that while gravity is pointing in the wrong direction for MySpace today, it’s hardly a case of the final chapter having been written.

A lot of this comes down to basics, like MySpace updating their segmentation thinking, and tilting the product accordingly.

For example, going forward is MySpace the portal where “anything” goes, or minimally the richer, more personalized version of Me? Are there any unfair advantages to the affiliation with News Corporation (e.g., deeper access to content, better integration of that content)? Are there sexier viral distribution tools that MySpace can bake into the platform? Mike Jones founded Userplane so he certainly understands the power of seeding/distributing functional widgets to create scale/reach. Finally, how do they secure developer mindshare so more apps are built on their platform (and success of same is better marketed).

As is so often the case with these things, MySpace is now being defined by what it’s NOT (read: Facebook or Twitter). Rather, than get FB-envy, they need to figure out their unique sandbox and iterate from there. Hopefully, they don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

Cheers,

Mark

facebook seems to give individuals the ability to connect without having to leave their own page. I.e. i can connect without having to look at your annoying profile page with all your ‘flare’, mafia war updates and quiz results.

Worth noting that there is a myspace deathwatch group on facebook… good times.

A mash-up between the flexibility of MySpace and the structure of Facebook would be nice.

http://pardonmyfrench.typepad.com/pardonmyfrench/2007/09/i-still-believe.html

This is a great point – and sums up the opportunity better than I did above. What you called self-identification (15 years ago that would have been a redundant term) has always been a driving principle of success for community sites. It may be Facebook or Twitter for the moment, but these moments tend to pass rather quickly.

That said, I’m not sure I agree we disagree so much. MySpace did help News Corp at first, but NWS is now struggling just as Yahoo struggled. Murdoch just had a steeper learning curve than Yahoo did with GeoCities. MySpace is most profitable right now, sure, but not only is that damning with faint praise, it overlooks Google’s role in the profits.