Did you lose touch with an old friend from High School or College? Do you want to catch up with friends or family members who live in another state who you haven’t spoken to in a while? The most convenient way to grant your wishes is to remain in contact with them through a social network. If you asked someone for advice on which social network to use, the answer you were given a few years ago was probably Myspace. Times have changed since Facebook has come into the picture. If you’re in any public area and happen to listen in on a group of teenagers you’re bound to hear the phrase “Facebook me” being exchanged. The phrase “Facebook me” has become the new way to ask a person to look them up online to keep in contact with them.
The social networking website Myspace was once a high ranked popular website, to the point where that’s all anyone talked about. Myspace was previously classified as the go to social networking website for people of all ages who were interested in checking out their friends pictures, and be able to leave them a comment among other things. If a person asked their friend or colleague for their information to look them up on Myspace and he or she replied with the answer “I don’t have a Myspace”, that person would be looked at with an awkward stare. People say that the next best thing will come out over time and will make consumers forget about the previous outdated product or in this case a website that may have been favorable in the past. The situation with social networks is that anyone can feed off of someone else’s ideas and make a better website that will attract fans and that’s what happened when the social networking site Facebook was launched.
I agree that Myspace can gain their popularity again by joining forces with their competitors like Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking websites. This collaboration will hopefully get the previous users who converted over to Facebook, back to visiting Myspace’s website. There’s a phrase that says “if you can’t beat them, join them” and I believe that is so true. Aren’t social networking websites about sharing and collaborating? It’s incredible how much could be conquered with the help of others. I believe one of the reasons why users have switched from Myspace to Facebook is the fact that Facebook has more of a professional layout to their page. It’s also a simple user friendly environment to work on, and that’s the reason why I switched to using Facebook. In reality, people don’t like things being complicated and with the changes that Myspace has made to their page, trying to access any part of their website is confusing and takes up most of a person’s time. The last time I logged on to my Myspace page I was lost, didn’t know where to go, and that’s why I stopped going on to their website. In order for Myspace to boost back their popularity, they should work on changing the layout of their page and make their website user friendly. There are a lot of factors that could disillusion a person from going back to Myspace, so their goal should be to examine what the people want and start from there.
Why did you choose Facebook over Myspace?
Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/678359/is_myspace_losing_popularity.html
http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2010/05/10/why-facebook-is-better-than-myspace/
http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/heated-rivalries/facebook-vs-myspace.html
HI Melissa, after reading your blog I became curious as to what changes MySpace has made to their website, so I decided to log on to my old account. First when I saw the home page I was a little confused as to what I was looking at and I thought I was at the wrong webpage for a second. After I realized I was at the correct page, I proceeded to the log in box but realized that I had completely forgotten my user name and password. After about 3 attempts of combining new and old e-mails with passwords, I was finally logged in to my account. My first thought was “what the heck am I looking at!” I wasn’t sure if I was looking at my home page or my profile. I also realized that the new layout looked oddly familiar to Facebook’s layout but in an unorganized manner. I personally prefer the way my homepage used to look because it was simple yet different from other sites. I don’t like the new changes that have been made to MySpace but I probably won’t be deleting my account any time soon.
ReplyDeleteI created my MySpace account when I was in high school and to some degree I would feel bad deleting it after so many years. Although I will not be using my account because I prefer the simplicity of Facebook, I would like to see MySpace make a comeback. I’m unsure as to what changes could possibly help MySpace become popular once again but I do know that copying another sites layout won’t help.
One thing they can do is to increase the privacy on their site. I know that was a major issue for them to lose a lot of users. Their recent layout is quite confusing because there's so much going on. If they made it a little simpler but let us still have our creativity with our page and create awareness about that, it can do no harm.
ReplyDeleteAll of this is very true. I chose Facebook over Myspace because, similar to what you mention above, Myspace is so very unfriendly to users. Facebook is straightforward and easy to navigate. Plus, Facebook just seems to be better in terms of keeping track of networks. Myspace felt like a giant mess. Sharing and collaborating is definitely the key - that is always at the core of "social" anything to begin with. Thus, "social" networks could not exist without it.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how MySpace evolved from being “the” social networking sight, to being unable to attract users. The reason why I chose Facebook is because it was the trend and all of my friends were making the switch. The reason I still have and use my Facebook page is because it is extremely user friendly and useful for networking. I feel as if MySpace has gotten so far behind in the race that they are now trying to play catch up and playing catch up is never productive because it is nearly impossible to beat your competitors once you have fallen so behind. Facebook is here to stay and MySpace needs to make their presence and staying power known.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that MySpace can gain popularity by joining forces with competitors like Facebook. If they join forces it is possible that everyone can benefit mutually. I don’t think that MySpace will benefit from copying their competitors layouts since Facebook and Twitter have proven that they can make certain features more user friendly. Facebook and MySpace recently announced that they would be joining forces. I guess we will soon find out how beneficial this partnership will be for both parties.
Myspace. You hear that now a days and people either give you the suprised stare like "oh my god I forgot about that website, or the you still use that website?". Anyways they should start doing something to get their users back if they really want to of course. The reason I started leaving was because it started getting too much spam, and everyone started getting facebook so I just got one although I didnt like it as much because it felt as I was invading everyones privacy in a sense that I would see on my news feed "amy and john are now in a relationship" I was a bit suprised although we are now more immune and used to it, back then it was not the case at least for me. But I have to admit I love facebook more than Myspace it saves time. You find out how all of your friends are doing just by logging on and it comes out on your news feed.
ReplyDelete