Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?

This essay had so much good insight into the MySpace phenomenon, that I couldn't just paste any old thing. There are TONS of good things I could've pasted. So, I just grabbed the first paragraph or so. Go read it. The long shot is that MySpace is successful because it's hands-off, user-driven, and amiable. Good stuff. Go read.

Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?: "

Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?



danah boyd

March 21, 2006



[Note: this is an essay that would've been a blog post but it got too long.]


A lot of folks have asked me 'What went wrong with Friendster? Why is MySpace any different?' I guess i never directly answered that question, even though i've addressed the causes in other talks. Still, i guess it would be helpful to piece some of it together and directly attend to this question.

There is no single answer, but there are a lot of factors that must be considered. To an outsider, Friendster and MySpace seem identical. But they are far from that. They are rooted in different cultural practices and values. People use them differently and they relate to them differently. If you want to understand the differences, you need to understand the history, the decisions that were made, and how these decisions affected practice. Let me address some of the most critical components.
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(Via .)