Nope just a little to the left. Bright rectangular button. Yup.
Congratulations. You are now viewing Myspace, the Ghost of Social Networking Sites past and one of the first to gain national recognition. Created in 2003 by former employees of Friendster and eUniverse, Myspace offered a way for users to not just communicate but design their own respective places on the web. In addition to typing, participants could express themselves using graphics, photos, and color. The HTML code responsible was both found via the site or external internet sources. Sounds great, right? Depends on whom you ask. The result sometimes looked a little...ambitious. Expressions of artistic freedom often resulted in excess of glowing unicorns, dancing leprechauns, and lovely wolves covered in glitter. Further, pages often borrowed from one another in appearance and tone and so every "unique" page began to appear alike. Still, users could share thoughts, devise playlists, and choose their mood with little or no programming knowledge. Quiet in here, isn't it? Myspace began it's eventual decline in 2006. Some might cite ease of phishing scams, spyware, or general hacking. Others would say that Myspace too heavily centered on music and entertainment. I recall the death knell - new legal regulations meant users could no longer engage in commerce using their Myspace pages and many small businesses closed or moved elsewhere. Alas, the damage was done, and many left for greener pastures.
Around 2008, the exodus began toward a more formal and restrained interface. A Compete.com study reveals that Facebook gained the most active users just as Myspace dropped rock bottom in popularity. Maybe the lack of choice was, in part, the attraction. The page was blue and white, and there wasn't anything you could do about it. Like users of Myspace, participants can type out their thoughts and respond to those of their friends. Privacy features and "friend request" options make for an open circuit. Avatars ore uniformly placed in the upper left hand corner above more options. There seems to be few freedoms however; buttons allow one to create a store (commerce), control playlists, and adapt news feeds. One of the most distinguishing features of Facebook is its exclusivity. Users can hide items, erase other's posts, and relegate friends to special lists (or block/unfriend them altogether). Business thrive on Facebook regardless of the existence of a brick and mortar store. Counting "likes" is now included in marketing plans of major corporations, many of whom use Facebook to advertise products and contests. All these leave Myspace looking like a bedazzled homage to the not too distant past.
This way now. More to see over here.
Welcome to Twitter, Facebook's simpler, more cozy sitting room. Here you can also (surprise) share your ideas, hopes, dreams, whatever. Twitter differs from other social networking sites in that entire communities can quickly build around a single subject. (Facebook can promote a "Lord of the Flies" atmosphere and Twitter seems more diplomatic). Grown from the need to send unbroken SMS messages (which allow for 160 characters at a time), a Twitter message is entirely 140 characters long. There is room on the page for a short bio, an avatar, and followers/followed Twitterers. Similar to a blog, you can type statements and reply to others with a simple RT. You can share links and photos with ease. The interface is easily digested in consecutive rectangles according to date and time. Business can easily use twitter to support their Facebook marketing efforts and Twitter itself, like Facebook, uses an ad based business model.
And so now we have my favorite, Ye Olde Mystery Network- Livejournal? This was a place of pure expression in paragraph glory. An online diary by every means, users could write to their heart's content. In play were preferences, letters, poems, stories, even musical compositions. Like a true blog, every entry had it's own page, complete with comments from friends, and each user had a front page listing recent entries and links to comment areas. Avatars, biographies, personal philosophies all found a clear place. There was the obligatory friend list and private/public sharing options. Unfortunately for Livejournal users, the free site eventually opted for a tired pricing plan instead of advertiser supported options. Recently the service closed operations locally and moved to Russia; RIP Livejournal 1999-2009. This concludes our tour; the balcony is now closed.
No comments:
Post a Comment