Myspace

MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. MySpace also features an internal search engine and an internal e-mail system. It is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, USA, while its parent company is headquartered in New York City, and it also has a back up server there. According to Alexa Internet, it is currently the world's fourth most popular English-language website, the sixth most popular website in any language and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks (note it is possible that other websites have a greater number of unique visitors). The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80 percent of visits to online social networking websites. It has become an increasingly influential part of contemporary popular culture, especially in English speaking countries. The company employs 300 staff, is owned by News Corporation, and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006 and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.

MySpace is also home to various musicians, filmmakers, celebrities, and comedians who upload songs, short films, and other work directly onto their profile. These songs and films can also be embedded in other profiles, an interconnectedness which adds to MySpace's appeal.

Myspace History

Left,Myspace Original Logo.
Before the creation of the current social networking website, the myspace.com domain name was already registered in 1998 to a San Francisco-based online storage and file sharing firm. Registration was free and users were able to obtain a small disk quota which would gradually increase if they referred new members to the site. Due to slow service and a lack of revenue, the original website shut down and sold all of its users' information in 2001.

The current MySpace service was founded in July 2003 by Tom Anderson (an alumnus of both the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles), the current president and CEO, Chris DeWolfe (a graduate of University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business), and a small team of programmers. It was partially owned by Intermix Media, which was bought in July 2005 for US$580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other media enterprises).Of this amount, approx. US$327mm has been attributed to the value of MySpace according to the financial advisor fairness opinion.

The corporate history of MySpace as well as the status of Tom Anderson as a MySpace founder has been a matter of some public dispute.

In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of MySpace in a bid to "tap into the UK music scene" which they have since done (see MySpace International). They also plan to launch in China and possibly other countries.

Why is MySpace popular ?

A brief analysis of why MySpace is successful as a space for music (for which it was originally designed):

1.You can listen to full tracks by each band.
2.There's no need to find and navigate complex Flash-based artist websites.
3.There's a direct communication channel to and from the artist - via the blog outwards and via the comments inwards.
4.You can see the band's social network in context - their friends, people who like them.
5.There's a standard gig listing template (though this is the weakest point, it should really be location-aware and aggregatable to show you which of your favourite artists are playing nearby in the next few weeks

Why you choose myspace?

MySpace is great because of the huge amount of freedom you have to change your MySpace profile. Using the profile tools and methods below you can trick out your profile to make it interesting and keep people coming back. Some of the cool features you are able to put on your MySpace profile are games, cursors, layouts, clocks, surveys, and graphics.

It's easy to get carried away and really go wild. Here's a quick rundown of some of the different Myspace codes available and what they do: Games: You can easily brighten things up by adding games to your profile. Practically anything you can think of from Pacman, Golf, Simon Says, Mario Brothers, Asteroids, Frogger and many more can be easily pasted on to your MySpace profile.

These can be changed whenever you like and are a great way to keep people coming back to check you out. Cursors: I'm sure you've seen these around, they're everywhere. The sky's the limit when it comes to cursors Anything you can think of is available, from animal cursors, flashing words, mermaids and unicorns, you get the idea. This is probably one of the most popular MySpace tools and can start a whole collection and change them whenever you like to spice things up. Layouts: Also known as skins, layouts make up the basic theme of your profile.

There are a wide variety of themes available and it might take a bit of searching to find the one that is best for you. Just remember to select a layout that suits your uniqueness and is pleasing to look at. If your goal is to make peoples eyeballs bleed, there are themes that can do that too. Clocks: There are many different clock styles to choose from. You can pick from clocks that have a modern design, classic style, and roman numerals, digital and with or without the date. If you want you can even find layouts with matching themes. When installing a clock on your page be careful that your clock does not get in the way of your text. Surveys: Adding fun surveys and quizzes to your site can make your profile a little more interesting.