From the ease of use point of view facebook is light years ahead, they regularly add new features and seem to know what they are doing. It will be interesting to see how it fairs in the long run. Facebook really shines when you are at college/university seeing what friends are up to etc. I do worry sometimes just how easy it is for people who are my ‘freinds’ can see about what I am up to. I guess you just have to be careful who you accept. The picture tagging feature is great for finding out what happened after a messy night out!

Great article.

I agree with many but I think you’ve said it DBL.

I was sick of getting invites to all of these social sites – there seemed to be no end – until I just stopped joining.

Well finally after hearing about it so much, I had to check out Facebook, and found I was somewhat addicted for a week or so. Now after a few months I have it under control. I check it for a few minutes every couple days – and am excited to catch up with old friends and classmates. I’m in the 30-35 age range and I find it very easy and enjoyable to use.

I agree with DBL’s take on MySpace – I just never could get into it – it was just everyone’s ad page – hard to read, just plain ugly at times… and very SPAMMY!!

I think Facebook has a long way to go before it disappears but yeah, for now it’s the most popular and appealing of the two. Of course there will be more – the popular ones will find new ways to avoid spam, corporate ads and the like…

Come on, this is total nonsense. Yes, there is a technological divide of understanding between the newbies and the elites, but to claim that many of the newbies were somehow born directly into MySpace without learning *anything* about the surrounding web culture, is obviously an argument from somebody with an axe to grind.

Even the most computer-unsavvy people I know, who just do email and light surfing, know what ‘blog’ is. And these people are much less computer-savvy than your average MySpace user. They don’t do web comments — they barely even do email. But they aren’t idiots. They know what web comments and blogs are, even if they don’t know what RSS is.

So, sorry Kevin — but it just beggars belief that “a lot” of MySpace users are as stupid as you claim.

Anyway, more to the point of this I definitely prefer Facebook, but it has nothing to do with what I can or can’t put on my profile. It has to do with what other people can’t put on theirs. After all, a social networking site is useless if you don’t actually look at your friends’ pages and when they are all freeform ugly eyesores that look like somebody did with HTML what a 2-year-old does with crayons. (A two year old has only two rules: use everything offered. And draw it as big as your arm can make it.)

I *have* to look at my friend’s pages on a social site. This exercise is a much, MUCH more pleasant exercise on Facebook than on MySpace.

And it’s as simple as that. MySpace isn’t really social networking: it’s a place for people to advertise their personal styles. It’s a billboard. If you act like a MySpace page in the local pub they’ll treat you like a salesman. If you act like a Facebook profile in the local pub you would blend right in. Facebook has the power of simplicity: it’s just a place to interact with your friends — emphasis on ‘interaction’ — there is no design, there is no (well a lot less anyway) self-promotion — just show up, just like in real life. MySpace is overwrought and missed the mark. Facebook hit it dead centre.

But I don’t agree that Facebook Platform is necessarily such a great thing. A lot of the apps are quite good, but quite a few also seem to be angling to turn Facebook into MySpace. There are even a couple of developers now trying to make auto-play music work on Facebook profiles — I seriously hope they are blocked from doing this. The point is not that the people who want it, want it. The point is that then their friends have to listen to it again … and again … and again … Facebook should remember that the people with value invested in a profile are not just the creator but all of the visitors to that page. Therefore, when you say something like, ‘If that’s what they want on their profiles, they should have it’ — then you’ve just forgot to consult over 90% of the people with a stake in that decision. If I start to get autoplaying music on Facebook pages, in my view, it’s the beginning of the end, Facebook will follow MySpace into this theoretical death to be followed by another service that *really* gets it.

Kevin and other supporters of MySpace. I have to disagree with some of your comments. MySpace is dying fast. I work for a research company and we have an area of business strictly for youth research and youth marketing. Personally, I work with influencing youth (i.e. Cool Kids, well-networked, etc.) If you’re not on facebook then you likely aren’t on the internet much if at all. No one talks about MySpace in any of our surveys and focus groups. Hi5 still gets more talked about than MySpace but even that is dead. The most common comments I hear from youth and young adults not on facebook…”I keep getting weekly email requests from all friends to get on facebook.” “Some of my friends even send me personal emails encouraging me to join.”

All one has to do is observe youth & young adults in public internet settings such as high schools, universities, and internet cafe’s and you’ll see first hand how popular it is. And now facebook has capitalized on incorporating cell phone technology. You can observe youth and young adults constantly getting text message updates that someone sent them a facebook message or tagged someone in a photo.

I see people in their workplaces, highschools and universities all checking facebook, some even more religiously than their hotmail, gmail, or yahoo email accounts.

There is a new language/slang for facebook emphasising the strength of their brand:
“Don’t email me, facebook me.”
“I’ll send you a party invite on facebook.”

Now about the design of facebook for users. Most users prefer the design options of facebook over mypace. Yes myspace can do more but more is not better. People prefer simple over flashy. Look at the iPod. It’s very simple and easy to use with almost no flash. Facebook is more user friendly to the average user as it is simpler. This new F8 platform thing may change that (i.e. complicate things). We’ll just have to see.

The challenge facebook has is creating a sustainable revenue stream but I think facebook has a few things in mind including this new f8 platform. Not too sure how it’ll work out though because most people are not signing up for all of the applications. Some of the users who do sign up for the various new facebook applications simply do so because they are sick of getting requests for it.

The only thing I’m uneasy about at Facebook is the ‘random play’ option in the relationships section. What the hell is that all about?!

Until next time…

Keith Porterfield

a Student of Sales