Facebook vs MySpace

A few weeks ago I killed of my Friendster account because I was tired of the constant emails and other privacy issues. Nothing to due with the usability of Friendster, just that it kind of annoyed me and I was tired of checking multiple social networks. Basically now I'm only using 3 social networks: Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. LinkedIn for those who don't know is a Social Networking site for the business world. The kind of networking that people like Lauren and most MBA students do. An old mentor of mime tipped me off to LinkedIn around when it first came out and I love the simplicity of it. Anyways, I'm diverging from my topic. What I'd like to get at through this post is a simple comparison of MySpace vs Facebook and which suits me best. First off, I want to state that I don't think that one site is better than another, just that I prefer one over the other for my own reasons.






Facebook and MySpace (and Frientster): what they are:
They are all Social networks. They all let you keep in touch with friends who are on said network. And they allow you you in a mass communication way let all your friends know what you are up to and where you are at.

Features (basic ones):
Some common feature that basically all social network have now in days are:
1. Profiles: a simple list/description of you and what you like to do.
2. Status: what you are currently up to or a quick comment about how you are. MySpace also includes a simple 'mood' feature. With Facebook, if you are a Twitter user you can also link your Twitter posts to your Status.
3. Photos/Videos: the ability to store and share photos. A nice feature about Facebook, is that you can add application and sync with other online Photo tools. I personally like Flickr from Yahoo and I can share my photos straight into Facebook.
4. Mail/Messenger: the ability to send 'email' like messages to friends and contacts on your list. Most social networks also allow you to send mass broadcast messages to everybody in your network. MySpace calls these Bulletins, Facebook doesn't directly include this, but basically any time you add an application or an event, a bulletin like post is made to all your network and only to those who are listening.
5. Blogs: one the newer items added to most social networks is blogs. For those who don't know a blog (like the one you are currently reading) is a simple web enables log or weblog or blog for short. Both Facebook and MySpace include blogging tools, MySpace calls it simply a Blog, Facebook calls them Notes. The best part about Facebook is that you can import your 'external' Blog to your notes.
6. Themes: MySpace has them, Friendster kind of had them, Facebook does not.

My thoughts:
While what I've stated here is nothing new to most, let me tell you where I stand.... Basically I only use MySpace because some of my friends and family refuse to make the leap to Facebook, just like many originally did not want to make the leap for Friendster to MySpace (I was one of those). Overall I prefer the usability of Facebook over MySpace. One of my biggest complaints about MySpace is also one of the best things that MySpace offers, Themes. Themes are a great way for a person to share about themselves, but in the MySpace realm, the sky is the limit and that can cause problem and browser incompatibilities. The number of times I've tried to view friends MySpace pages and sat there and watched my browser spin till it crashed was ridiculous, to the point I even quit visiting some of my friends pages, including both of my brothers. I eventually found a way to suppress much of a profiles theme, but then what is the purpose of having one. That said, Facebook does not have themes per say. You have tons of flexibility in what you show on your profile and what you see of others. Facebook accomplishes this via its own and its 3rdparty applications. Recently Google and a number of other companies and groups announce 'OpenSocial' (also check here for more on that) which will eventually create a 'standard' format/platform for similar application. MySpace, Hi5, Plaxo and a number of other social and social like sites have signed on to use this new platform. Even though Facebook has not yet signed on with this new platform (and may never), they currently are probably the base line for competition. And again these applications are what make Facebook shine in my view for the best social network. I'm online a lot and am spread across a bit of the internet. This blog is hosted by Blogger, I use Del.icio.us to track my bookmarks and sites of interest, and Twitter keeps people informed of my status. I also use Flickr for my photo hosting, Gifthat for my web wide wish list, and recently I've slowly started using Digg to share new articles I read and want to share. And I like to track everything in one simple location for which I use Bloglines. So here is where it all comes down... Facebook... my status is updated via my Twittering, my Notes via my Blogger blog, at the same time my Digg posts are posted to my Blogger blog as are any Flickr postings. Plus all other photos I upload to Flickr are available via my Flickr application on my Profile page as are the music I'm listening to via Last.fm. Basically everything in my web world is viewable to the public via my Facebook profile. Maybe you can do this all on MySpace and Friendster, but I don't have the time to figure out how, and Facebook just makes it easy.

On a side note Plaxo who is part of the OpenSocial alliance created Pulse earlier this year. Pulse also allows me to sync my world together and share it, that said, I personally don't consider Plaxo a social network but more of a contact management tool, that said definitely check it out.

Well I think that is enough on this topic for now, but.... only time will tell.