What is all this hubbub about "Social Networking" like its some new "Internet 2.0" concept of earthshaking proportions? Back in the "day", back even before the internet, Compuserve (remember them?) pioneered the concept of "social networking" online in their forums, albeit within their own closed systems, and other services like BBS's such as "the Well" built their own social networks based on some common user experience or interest . Once the public internet was born, social networking was one of the first things to appear through early tools and protocols such as USENET. With the introduction of the web as part of the internet, this allowed social networking to expand, grow, and implement new technologies. kingsnake.com was one of the early web sites(1997) based around these ideas of social networking although back then, and frankly now, we referred to it as "community".
Note the use of the phrase "common user experience or interest". This is important.
For a social networking web site to succeed and experience longevity in the marketplace it has to be based on some type of common interest among its members, and the interest in that subject has to be something that is long term. You can add features and technology but if your site does not have a strong focus on that common interest and can't continue to hold that focus then eventually it will lose it's audience. Our kingsnake.com site has that focus and has been successful in building and holding a substantial audience over it's 9+ years
MySpace, now considered to be the 800lb Gorilla in the social networking space has an interesting problem. Its original common interest or focus, music, while still playing an important role, has been subjugated by its users and has shifted. Whether this was MySpace's intention or not, that is what has happened and that is what has fueled its explosive growth. The problem is that the communities common interest has shifted from something that was a long term interest, music and bands, to an interest of limited longevity, the connections you make with your friends through the high school and college experiences. The problem MySpace faces is that eventually the school experience, and thus the common interest, end and of course eventually kids grow up.
Additionally MySpace is subject to the fickle finger of fate of having a large young audience of young adults that tends to chase the "next big thing" and could/would/will leave them when the next MySpace arrives on the scene (Before MySpace it was Freindster and Facebook). MySpace didn't even launch until 2003. Certainly MySpace's purchase by News Corp can provide them the resources it needs to continue to grow, but that can't put them on a positive revenue footing nor can it guarantee that it will hold it's audience.
For a web site to acheive a long life it has to do 2 things. First it needs to find a way to pay the bills. Second it needs to find a way to become an indispensible tool in a persons life. If you have a big backer like News Corp., paying the bills isn't such a big issue for a while, but finding a way to become indispensible, that is something that money really can't buy. Ebay and Paypal have both found it. So has Google, though they may be trying to go in too many directions at once now. Though none of those sites is what could be termed as a "social networking" site, our reptile web site has it, as well, and is.
MySpace has another problem as well. Their cavalier attitudes about what is and isn't acceptable behavior on their web site, combined with an outrageous growth curve, and a very young audience, has caused it no end of trouble. Every day there seems to be another article about a youngster being exploited in some way using their service, whether by a sexual predator, a teacher, or some other criminal activity.
Bad press of this nature is not good news, and despite their best efforts to "clean up" the site, their seems to be even more incidents and bad press. Part of this is MySpace's fault, part of it is not, but at this point it appears that the site itself has become sentient, with a life of it's own and has taken over and may now in fact be too big for MySpace to effectively reign in, at least not without alienating a good portion of their audience. MySpace is basically the wild west and to really crack down the way they need too they will end up driving a good portion of their audience on to that next "big thing". Without cracking down the incidents and bad press will continue and I can tell you from first hand experience you can't attract good advertisers with bad press. They have a tough conundrum to resolve.
Can MySpace continue to roll the snowball downhill? For a while longer yes, but if they don't address these issues they will find themselves at the bottom of the hill soon and momentum will only push the snowball so far up the next one before gravity takes over. At the very least it will be interesting to watch whether they can keep it going or will be crushed by their own snowball.
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