Remember when Social Networking was About the People?
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Websites like MySpace and Facebook claim to be about the social networking. For years they have been avenues for friends across the country to keep in touch with one another. What happens when these social networking stop being about the people, and more about the money?
With an eye toward monetization, MySpace is being redesigned beginning Wednesday with a new home page, which will be less cluttered and more hospitable to advertising. (The home page will also feature a “splash page” for an ad about the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”) The redesign, to be done by early fall, will include a new navigation bar, search tool and video player.
It was only a matter of time before the companies decided to sacrifice user interests for money. That is one reason why I left MySpace years ago; it started becoming more about who could put the most stuff on their page and less about the people. Facebook is starting to go that way, however they do not let people redesign their entire page; which makes it more about staying in touch with friends than the looks.
Facebook has started to put in advertisements, however they are minimal and rarely noticeable.
When a company puts money before their customers, problems usually arise. Be very cautious MySpace, as you are treading on very thin ice - and you have been for some time.
As always, comments are welcome,
Justin Capasso
One Comment
xer
July 6th, 2008
at 2:13pm
Myspace has always been about money. I think it was 2003 when Rupert Murdock of FoxNews fame bought up the whole operations for billions. I was semi-recruited to work their new Beverley Hills operation.
Murdock claimed that the “user data” was more valuable then ad space. Rumor has it, friends were roped together into clusters to discern new trendy entertainment branches that started to grow… all the better for Murdock to pounce on them and reap a financial windfall.