What happened to Myspace, and why did facebook become so popular instead?

Several years ago, I was talked into opening a Myspace account, by being told that "you have to have an account there! Its the future, and its the coolest, best social site"! So I open up a Myspace page and fill out the personal info, and pick up some friends(who I never even ended up meeting BTW), and it was boring, and I didnt really see the purpose in it, so I kinda drifted away from it(very quickly), then I closed my account.

So, like 6 months later, I no longer hear the name Myspace, and all I hear is "Facebook this, Facebook that"! Then I am linked to it through an online store's webpage, so I click onto the link, and instead of bringing me to that seller's page, they stop me from even entering, and say that I have to join and start my own Facebook page before I can even look at the seller's friggin advertisements! What!!!???

So over the next couple years I keep running into this, and you cant even go into facebook to see what its all about without opening an account! Thats like walking up to a store, and having a sales clerk stop you and tell you that you cant enter the store, and that you have to buy a product before you can even take a look at the product! Again, What???!!!

So I figure its the same kinda thing as Myspace was, but more of a PITA. I wont open an account there, for that reason and because of security issues.

So, what makes it better than Myspace, whats the difference, and why would it replace Myspace and become almost instantly more popular? Did they hand out $100 bills to everyone who joined at first? Also, whats up with Twitter, whats the purpose and why is it necessary if you can just post your activities and lifestyle on Facebook?:thinking:

Are you a hardcore Facebook user?

Welcome to the social networking world, which changes planets every couple years or so; first it was Friendster, then Myspace, then Facebook, now Facebook's stock sucks and nobody wants to pay for the games, so the next leap probably isn't so far away.

I got the whole computer-friends thing out of my system early, way back in the day when we did it with dial up modems and bulletin board systems. But I remember hearing Leo Laporte tell his listeners a few years ago in the midst of the Myspace craze that the next big thing would be something called "Facebook", and I was like "'face-book'? What kind of awful name for a site is that, who would want that.."

MySpace de-volved into the worst apsects of a 1980's Cyberpunk novel choked full of splashy and annoying advertising, cyber stalkers, and the nervous feeling that everytime you logged on some criminal from Hungary was hacking your computer. It wasn't helped by the fact that MySpace was initially popular my mostly teeny boppers, and we all know the attention span of that crowd.

I've found Facebook to be an incredibly valuable 'meeting space' for family members to stay in touch, friends, and casual interest groups with common interested. It's really just a graphical version of what we used to do in the late 80's and early 90's with well run community BBS's. That evolved into the infamous 'chat-room', but Facebook simply does a much better job with static content and not diluting the interface. Not sure how Facebook is going to milk more profit from their product given that even a minor increase in advertising or daring to charge a fee would kill it. Possible a premium account for celebs or businesses to integrate their web-site presence to a broader audience, but I don't know. What's interesting is that both Google and to a lesser extent Yahoo have failed trying their own Facebook models. Yahoo is desperate for this audience to stem the rushing sound of users bailing the portal while Google can't seem to make up it's mind preferring instead to battle Microsoft and Amazon for online app hosting. This leaves perhaps Apple to enter the mix and see what they do.

I've never understood Twitter and the need for it. I don't care what some Hollywood hasbeen or arrogant NFL player has to say in verbose snippets. Twitter seems more valuable for news programs to post what some famous A-lister said when they were drunk and not thinking.

blasterman said:

Not sure how Facebook is going to milk more profit from their product given that even a minor increase in advertising or daring to charge a fee would kill it.

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Well, the best way to make more advertising money is to be able to profile the user base in more detail for the prospective advertisers. This is one of the reasons there's been a history of privacy complaints. Here's the latest:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/facebook-reveals-its-evil-plans-203126

Well, it seems like everything Apple touches turns to gold these days, so I wouldnt be surprised if they dont come up with the next generation of Facebook. But I think all the domain names are pretty much used up now, and the only name that hasnt been taken at this point is Crumpet axle-shaft. I dont know if thats better or worse than "Facebook".

facebook is got lot to do with its name.. put a name for a face and name book is good to have of your friends. (my/yourfriend might be even better name for facebook. haha)

myspace was in my mind more aimed for those who wanted to be found.. i got a feeling it was for local music bands etc who wanted to have a place for their fans to interact.

facebook was to find old and now friends ..wasy non intrusive way to keep in touch or get in touch with people of the past or distance. not as personal as searching each persons email or blog or what ever net doohicky they were on.. it offered easy way to look for someone you know or think you know.. as long as you know the name you could search for it.. just like in old days when looking for telephone number in phonebook. familiar process to most people. and even if you didnt know the name you could search for a friend and then look their friends list to see if the person you are looking is there.. and confirm "yeah.. the picture looks familiar.. i know that face!" put a name to a face.

it is just simply easy to feel "beeing connected" and beeing in touch and in the loop, and letting everyone else know what you are up to or find out what they are up to.. by not needing any actual personal connection or correspondence. just browse and scroll down what each person has been doing. it has the spying and stalking aspect too. in more polite and "friendly" way. people just want to peek at others lives discreetly, so its an easy way to keep tabs of people one barely knows if they or you made the mistake of friending them..

..i remember how much i hated (and still do.) of the "read more in our website" notice one got under every product or ad. now it has been partly replaced or added "check our facebook page".. hate that. as it seems that several times if i go there they consider it as thumbs up for their product. (see if you came to our page we can use you and your name as semi-real "he liked us too" promotional tool. NO!) and i cant get all of the information of the thing without going to facebook or to their website.. they make a brochure or flyer promoting the tool and cant put all of the information on it..

or they offer a prize thru raffle.. but i need to log into my facebook account to join in. hell no. that is discriminating way. everyone should be able to participate into it without beeing your frigging facebook buddy.

and i hate the fact that if i go to some website (like music event promotion page last summer..) there is bunch of people in the "they liked this on facebook" several thousand.. and they pull out pictures of say 10 persons.. and somehow 3-5 of them are my facebook friends.. how the effCoK do they KNOW who my friends are if im not logged in facebook as i go to the website (made by the people promoting the event, nothing to do with fb).

i have only accepted about 50 people as my friends. and i know there are hundreds whom have liked the website in facebook in my region. so how do they still know to pick so many of my friends out of my friendslist if i have not gotten into that site thru facebook.. or am not even logged in to facebook at all. what kind of evil tracking worms they have as they know to pick a friend of mine on that showcase window who lives in different country as i do. or a friend that lives few hundred yards from me. if they liked it in their facebook page. fine. but how does a website such as that know to pick just them. (i could understand if there would be maybe one friendlyface on that short list.. that would only mean that they checked my ip adress and picked a name whose ip adress is close by.. but several people of my short friends list makes it all seem so devious)

i hate facebook for what it is and what it does. it has a sinister evil side that i dislike. i only joined because i wanted that easy non intrusive access to see what my friends and family is doing without actually needing to call them personally or go for visit. sadly it has also made me less personally interactive with my real friends. i dont have to call them as often to hear whats up. i can just spy the highlights of their facebook page. easy. but sad.

would do me good to quit my account.