I’ve been meaning to check out Myspace for myself for the last few months and this weekend I actually took the 10 minutes necessary to set myself up an account at www.myspace.com/darrenrowse.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from it but it all seems a little underwhelming so far.
I know I’m not the target audience really and haven’t given it a chance but coming at it after blogging for 3 years on other services leaves me feeling like it’s such a substandard service. I guess the key of it is the masses of people and the social interaction they are apparently having – but in terms of it’s features – I’m surprised how simple and featureless it is (unless there is some section I’m not seeing with all the cool stuff).
Anyway – I’ll play around with it over the next few days and see what I can see. I guess it’s just good to get a feel for what people are using.
I looked at it and found it clumsy, ugly and restrictive.
Even leaving a comment on someone else’s MySpace blog is more trouble than it’s worth.
Like you, I’m not the target audience, but I do wonder why a number of bloggers I know persevere with it.
I miss the point of My Space. Do people actually interact beyond thanking each other for adding each other to their ‘friends’ list?
as far as i can tell from personal experience, there are a small minority of users who do utilize the service for real networking. unfortunately, it’s often difficult to find said users as they are usually low key compared to the rest of the myspace users who run rampant adding users for no apparent reason… wait i take that back. add random users with the intent of adding an additional digit to their contact lists.
Yeah, if you’re a grownup who’s not in the music industry, there’s not much there except people watching. But I’ve discovered all sorts of music industry types on there aside from the musicians themselves.
It’s definitely a mingle lightly environment, for me.
http://www.myspace.com/hiphopbiz
I agree with what you said about myspace being a substandard service. However; because of it’s popularity it has attracted all sorts of people: from teenagers to industry professionals.
The music/movie industry is a great example of how you can benefit from such a service- a lot of the bands/musicians and movies have benefited from the exposure they have received through their myspace accounts.
Textile industry, artists, subcultures have a strong presence on myspace
too.
It’s not the best place for networking but it is a very effective way of making your presence known to a broad number of people, also it’s a decent alternative to newsletters (by utilizing bulletins etc)
They have a hidden feature: forms that don’t check for CSS injection. This feature allows people to make their mySpace appear different. This hidden “secret” generated a lot of buzz and is one of the reasons for the popularity of MySpace.
You can also google for MySpace and you’ll find people with high traffic sites that only have instructions on how to change the look of MySpace by “hacking” it.
These tiny little things along with the social interaction have made MySpace one of the highest traffic spots on the Internet.
Darren – Are you reading my mind! I have an article coming out on myspace marketing tomorrow and here you are signing up for an account…creepy.
Regarding myspace’s popularity I would put that down to the usual whoever gets the audience, keeps the audience and gets more audience rule when it comes to online many-to-many models (like eBay).
Its popularity outside the teen market stumped me too but now you mention music industry that explains why my brother uses it, I thought he was on there to chat up the ladees, heh
My girlfriend and I joined MySpace a few months ago because her children were all using the system and we were hoping to be able to communicate with them in their preferred medium.
They willingly added us to their friend-space and we share messages, bulletins, etc. sparingly enough so as not to appear intrusive (no nosy parent-types!) yet frequently enough to send a message that we care, and want to be a part of their lives on whatever level they’re comfortable with sharing.
So far, so good; that’s all that matters to us :-)
I think you should do a review of all the blogger services that are available out there.
Hi Darren,
I think your funny video link last week (forget when, this is part of the problem) and a few younger guys at work (aged 24-28) sum all this up; I (aged 38) belong to the older generation that do not understand!
This is hard to take on board as I think I am finally getting to grips with the internet as a whole, but it may seem to late… but wait its not!
You just have to think differently and not say this is not as good as what I am used too. Just because there is only a few stupid pictues or silly how are you?, thanks for adding me posts. These are not the skilled marketeers we are used to interacting with on the web but the NEW audience, and boy we better all take note.
Aj
Too young to die, too old to rock and roll (or is that post!!!)
I think the reason why myspace is so simplistic is because it appeals to primarily a teen audience. These days myspace and xanga are all the rage among teens and young adults in their early twenties.
I tried to convince my daughter to sign up with an e-Blogger Blogspot account because it was free and we’d be able to utilize my current adsense account keeping track of a channel just for her but she wasn’t too keen on it.
You know how some teens are… they don’t stop to consider the benefits of various projects and want to do what everybody else is doing. And everybody else is doing myspace and xanga.
Everybody but me! lol :)
I joined my space to network with other jewelry artists, and I have fun exchanging sites/tips with them. The issue of target market came up, and being 22 I imagine I qualify.
As for my space blogs; they are just to keep track of how people are doing and providing support. Teens need somewhere to vent, and online with other teens is the perfect solution. My “real” blog is somewhere else.
I get a lot of “adds” from music groups, but I never accept. Not all users join in the “popularity contest” that my space has become. I even met one of my best friends on my space. Anyways I hope I shed some light on the my space culture. = )
The great thing about MySpace is just how big it is. I don’t particularly like it, either, and refused to sign up for a long time. I finally did, though, and managed to track down old friends, even from elementary school. So just the massive size of it is interesting.
Hey Darren,
It’s not My Space, it’s Their Space… There are probably more cops there than actual users, trying to make a name for themselves with the big bust.
I’ll stay in the Grown-up Space, thank you very much.
Just my 2 cents,
Joe
MySpace isn’t meant to compete with blogging platforms. It’s meant to connect users with their friends and make new ones. I’ve been a member for a few years and have gotten a lot of use out of it. Almost all of my real life friends are registered, so it makes it very easy to plan weekends and what not (there’s a nifty event planning tool). I even met a girlfriend on there, we dated for a little more than a year.
MySpace was meant to compete with Friendster, not with Blogger. So just keep that in mind.
Yes, Myspace.com is popular among artists, and teenagers.
I m surprised that none of you mentioned some negative aspect of Myspace.com.
Many kids have been victims due to Myspace. I also wrote/mentioned in my blog Are you on Myspace.com? Think Twice…
I’d also like to mention the “dangers” of MySpace are waaay overblown. You know the media, once they latch onto something it’s a feeding frenzy. I watched one show that called the site, “Controversial teen website MySpace” every time–four or five times during the segment! Out of any group of 60 million people there are going to be some horrid things happen. MySpace is the easy spot to place blame, if something bad happens to someone that has a MySpace, that must have been why it happened. But the funny thing is bad stuff happened to people four years ago, before there was a MySpace.
In a world with MySpace or without, parents need to teach their kids how to be safe. The rules are a little different now than simply, “Don’t talk to strangers” but the same principles apply. Are there a few bad seeds on MySpace? Absolutely. But that’s the same anywhere, every year teachers get busted for inappropriate behavior with students, bosses with employees, priests with parishioners, etc etc.
A little background from where I am coming from–I’m 21 and for the most part grew up online (have had my AIM screen name for over 7 years, etc). I have online friends, offline friends and then some inbetween. The lines for my generation are somewhat blurred.
I think it has potential. The business forums seem very good. I would recommend them.
http://www.myspace.com/31764583 is my my space. I might use it for campaign, business and networking purposes.
This is really weird, last night I was going to leave a comment on this blog about the growing movement for many sites and blogs to also have a myspace page and if you had looked into it.
I like others don’t really “Get” myspace, but with nearly 60 million users and my niche being cult movies, I recently decided that I would have to bite the bullet and get a myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/ispitonyourmovie
Myspace is also a great service for web site promotion.
I have been considering setting up a myspace. They do have a huge user base.
I am not sure I want to get involved in something that is headed for trouble…Internet stalkers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Make money on-line
http://www.unofficialrichjerk.com
I am just over the whole thing.
I stll have my account open but I have set my age to 14 (which makes my profile invisible) because I am sick of getting friend requests from teeny boppers and My Space wh*res (a term to describe people who have no idea of what networking means and think it is a competition to see who can get the most amount of ‘friends’).
It is riddled with spyware / trojans and isn’t scalable with frequent email and bulletin crashes. My Space has become the equivalent of MTV’s ‘Real World’ devoid of any real substance with people desperately vying for attention.
I work in the public relations office of a library and one of our hardest groups to target is teens. Many libraries are creating myspace accounts to interact with their teen customers. Mine hasn’t yet.
I created a myspace account for myself earlier this year, after the local AMA chapter held a “marketing to the myspace generation” workshop. Personally, I don’t get the attraction. But it’s huge and very popular. So far, I haven’t found it to be fun.
However, I know a graphic designer who specializes in posters for musicians and music groups. He gets a lot of business through his myspace account. He makes necessary connections with customers and keeps up with what’s going on in the music scene. For him, myspace is a good business tool.
I am 23 and have been with Myspace since it’s early stages. I just love the site. It is just a simple networking site. I have been able to find many old friends I haven’t seen in years. It is also much easier to keep in contact with them through. Email is really played out. I haven’t email anyone in years.
There are dangers on Myspace but do parents expect Myspace to teach their kids on how to be safe? The whole danger with Myspace is so overplayed with the media. It’s like we should just shut the internet down all together.
The blog is only meant for users to post what they’re thinking. It can’t really be compared to a blog only site. There are also tons of other features such has music and video entertainment. For young college adults, you can find reviews on professors from your school. The game section is neat as well as the forums.
Granted, the site is poorly made and it seems to crashes every few weeks, but that doesn’t stop it from being a great site.
I’m on MySpace as an 18-year-old nympho named “Sandy” who – oddly enough – keeps encouraging all of her new friends to visit the site belonging to her “friend” “TLB”.
Yeah, it is/was the greatest thing for the music industry and especially lesser known bands. I too find it horribly ugly and the usability (or lack thereof) is appalling. But upon signing up, I realized that to many people, MySpace is its own little world on the internet (kinda like AOL/CompuServe was in the early days or is to many people still. People run music promotions companies, etc out of MySpace exclusively with no real-world contact info or website. Just contact through MySpace’s forms and messaging. It seems ludicrous to me, especiall given the poor usabibility of the site overall, and for reading messages, etc.
I was asked to set up a myspace account for someone – I found the whole experience clunky and confusing with possibly the worst UI I’ve ever come across. I’m sticking to typepad!
After reading this, I decided to have a look for myself.
HA:
“We�re sorry. Based on the information you have submitted to us, you are ineligible to register on MySpace.com.”
Well the info they requested told them that I’m a man in my thirties living in Massachusetts, USA, so obviously I can’t join, (???)
Charming how they can’t even render the apostrophe in the above message.
Then I checked the TOS to see why I might have been rejected.
“HTTP Error 404 – File or directory not found.”
Class act.
I tried it out after getting a bunch of traffic coming from mySpace to a dinosaur site my son and I created (linked under my name). I was very surprised by the traffic we were getting so I created a mySpace account and just like you I didn’t get it.
I also could not figure out how to find a link to our dinosaur site in mySpace. It would be great to know exactly where that traffic was coming from.
Anyway, it’s not my cup of tea, but then again I am not the target market either.
I played with it a bit myself and found out that it is not for me at all.
Myspace has been great in helping bands get a bit of attention and along with that where many people go to help promote something as simple as a website and it turns more into promoting Myspace. Currently the have 60 million plus users and many people have earned lots and lots of money from this site, but it can make one Myspace out. I have found tagworld.com more fresh and since there are less then 2 million users it has more dedicated people.
I, too, recently signed up for a Myspace account. Mostly, I did it out of curiosity. I found it confusing, poorly designed, and of questionable benefit. But I stuck with it, and quickly discovered it’s a valuable resource through which to connect with the target audience of my web site. For me, it’s not about raking in anonymous “friends.” It’s about communicating with people who are interested in the things I produce for a living. The more people who add me, the more people I reach, and the more people I might work with in the future. Like with any online experience, I focus on what I like and ignore the rest.
I use myspace all the time. Its one of the best places to find desperate girls who want to get laid. hmm… not sure if im allowed to write this but that has been my expireance.
MySpace made me feel old. I mean, I “get” it, but, I guess I’m just not the right age group. Geez – when did 28 going on 29 get old?
I’m going on 33 – I know what you mean, Rae!
I had never heard of MySpace, myself, until I was invited to join a networking group that one of my forum members started there. I signed up expecting it to be somewhat like Ryze. Boy was I ever wrong! LOL
The networking group hasnt done much, that I know of. Or at least I havent figured out how to find that out. BUT, after a little bit of time I did get some use out of my MySpace account.
I found a couple of my old friends there, which was fun. I was able to see all of their recent photos, read up on what’s going on with them now, and surf through their “connections”. After that, I added my high school & graduation date… and began finding old school friends!
I am getting a crazy mix of contacts, all of which are interesting. Some are business questions, or business discussions. Some are locals that just want to ‘connect’ – or invite me to local gigs, events, etc. Some are old friends. Some are new friends.
And on top of that, it’s a fun spot to keep up with the teens in the family. I have nieces and stepdaughters that are always posting hilarious pics (that they take with their camera phones – go figure) and new little sayings or whatever.
It’s not something I check out every day… but what little interaction I have there has been pretty neat. The only thing I hate is badly done custom profiles. They take forever to load, blare obnoxious music, and the sections and text are just floating all over the place. Other than that, it’s okay by me for what it is.
We started a MySpace site to promote our site about 10 days ago. It took a couple of days of hard work and frustration to figure it out, but we have seen a HUGE boost in traffic already and are going to boost our efforts on the site. I’m 33 and I figured it out, so it is more than possible with an open mind.
I use myspace for the forums and group features more than blogging or networking. It has will continue to have no substance of you don’t put any in the forums or groups.
I signed up for myspace a year ago, I didn’t start using the thing until recently. It is very boring, though part of the audience they want to draw, I find it to be a popularity contest. Everyone who is on there wants more friends then they can handle, and just comments to boost their ego. I don’t like the site, mostly keep it for the REAL friends I have, and not those robots. Myspace is all made up of robotic people.
Of all the things you encounter you find people who like leave tons of messages and ridiculous posts, and older people trying to hit on younger kids, which you mostly find with older guys and younger girls. There are so many pervs running around, I don’t think I’d use myspace for anything useful besides wasting time and energy. As you go on you find that nothing is really private about the site, so you have to imput ridiculous codes just to monitor your site from picture hackers, and comment stalkers.
>>29,
i was not able to sign up,but whan i use firefox,i can!!!
It says : We’re sorry. Based on the information you have submitted to us, you are ineligible to register on MySpace.com. why arent I eligible
it says im ineligible when everytime i sign in…i mean wat does it mean,and why cant i ever sign in.i put all my real information and fake for 2 yrs now and im still ineligible!i dont know what i do wrong either the information or the verification code,but plz some1 tell me how 2 not be ineligible.
Unfortunately I don’t have the answer… I have the same pblm: they say I’m not eligible, though I wrote all my true informationms… Weird, and frustrating…! Anyone has a clue how to do it?!
yeh ppls..myspace is lame and unfair..why the hell are we uneligible..all i have to say is sign up in bebo..its way better and its more modern..unlike myspace..its totally unfair and lame.
My Space is in top #10 of most searched queries in Google in 2007. Pretty impressive for a competing search engine isn’t it? :)
Unfortunately I don’t have the answer… I have the same pblm: they say I’m not eligible, though I wrote all my true informationms… Weird, and frustrating…! Anyone has a clue how to do it?!
Well, I spent last 30mins to figure it out… I used to try firefox and i succeeded with IE 6.
Maybe this helps…
ciao
i have tried using myspace 10 times and it said sorry you are ineligible to register on mspace