We could all learn something from MySpace
I think MySpace is ugly as hell. I think it’s full of crap that nobody really wants to look at. And yet…somehow, it gets a TON of traffic (more than Yahoo! Mail, allegedly). I just don’t get it. My company gets smacked around for having a couple of ads sprinkled about the page, yet every teenager in America can have a page with falling snowflakes, shitty background music, stupid banter and epilepsy inducing backgrounds and it gets a ton of traffic. Somebody call the coroner and tell him to bring a body bag for our good friend, Common Sense.
Tonight I was looking through my access logs and I noticed most of my referrals come from MySpace. Shocking, I simply couldn’t believe the amount of traffic that appears to be coming to me via MySpace. So I clicked on a few referrers to see what’s on those pages that could possibly be linking to me. I didn’t realize doing so automatically transfers one to the inner ring of the seventh circle of hell. I haven’t seen something this visually offensive since college (oh my god…my roommate washed his tighty-whities with a red shirt and he’s going to walk around the room in them). As if it’s not bad enough that I’m blind, I’m going deaf from the awful background music. To top it off, my browser has slowed to a crawl, the result of heart shaped raindrops falling down the page and dozens of YouTube videos loading simultaneously, preventing me from banishing the evil tab that spawned this foul demon. What on earth did I do to deserve this? Did I offend someone? Did I lose a bet with god?
Does anybody remember that website/book, Web Pages that Suck? It’s like MySpace looked at every example from that book and thought, “hmm…how can we make it easy for people who don’t know what a web page is to make a web page JUST LIKE THIS?” Then they made a business out of it! Somehow they even convinced someone to buy it for $580,000,000! I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
This does, however, give me an idea. A sure fire hit. I’m going to spend a little time doing some research on the road. I’m going to find all the worst drivers in the world and I’m going to learn what makes them tick. Then, I’m going to take that knowledge and (get this) OPEN MY OWN DRIVING SCHOOL! I’ll teach people how to piss off every driver on the road. How to drive 55 in the fast lane. How to change lanes without signaling. How to double park. How to apply makeup while they drive. It’ll be an instant hit. MySpace has proven the business model works. All you have to do is offer consumers the means to become incredibly annoying and they will literally beat a path to your door!
July 16th, 2006 at 1:11 am
I was thinking the same thing last night.. My Space was everywhere on the news, so i created an account to see how it looks like… I was like “wow! i’m not 15 anymore! WTF”
Actually i know a few people who created a page over there and have received several invites those past years. before I used to received stuff from LiveJournal; It looks much better but still i could not understand.
Maybe wordpress.com should boost up their promotional image to the young people…but then again it’s a matter of social networks… i remember the time i was fighting for people to switch to Yahoo! messenger when they were all at MSN … I was waiting for this interoperability. Maybe sth similar will draw the future of Social networks who knows?
July 16th, 2006 at 7:53 am
Ponder this thought…
MySpace == My Space == My Room
The average teenager’s room / trapper keeper / etc. looks like a myspace page. It’s a way to try and express your own identity on the web [primarily aimed at your friends].
You of course have left the age group of people who are trying to estabish an identity via Van Halen stickers and Duran Duran bandanas. Which of course means you’ve graduate to trying to express your “deep” thoughts (nee rants) about subject via wordpress style blogging (focus on the content, not the design).
July 16th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I totally understand the need for expression. I’m simply asking people who are bad at it to stop.
July 17th, 2006 at 8:07 am
ryan kennedy’s blog » We could all learn something from MySpace…
Ryan Kennedy (a random guy who writes about Yahoo Mail Beta) wrote a hilarious note about why MySpace sucks. I’ve never really been able to figure out why it is anything different than a blog except the vanity of trying to have the most “…
July 17th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Check out “I knows me some ugly myspace”. ZeFrank, a super funny guy issued challenge to build the ugliest myspace page.
Here’s the original challenge:
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/post_3.html
The vote for the 10 ugliest:
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/
Here’s the wiki for the entrants:
http://www.zefrank.com/thewiki/I_knows_me_some_ugly_myspace_showdown
July 17th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Pat, yeah…the original title of this post was “I knows me some ugly myspace”.
October 11th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
ya my name is ryan kennedy to i like myspace because its like a circle of my family and i dont have to pay to talk to but i no what your talking about ugly myspaces i would say about 75% are stupid. so there is really the good the bad and the ugly
ryan kennedy
December 1st, 2006 at 3:22 am
Anyone else having bother with myspace or is it just my pc?
Last couple of days it seems it wont let me download any song from anywhere.
Anyone having same bother - or anyone how to sort it?