08 Oct 06
Myspace Vs Facebook Internet and Soapbox
For those of you who have not seen my profile on MySpace, this is what it says:
MySpace is a nasty Murdoch owned social networking website, that in many ways the web standards equivalent of a slap in the face. However, I unfortunately have to have a presence here, to keep track of what my worrying friends are up to. Please, if you have any dignity, leave this place and do something meaningful with your lives. Visit a library, read a book, learn and evolve. I could write more here, or you could visit my website. The first requires effort on my part; go figure.
My friend Phillip replied saying; "Master wilcocks, what's up with the pants profile? :P".
As you can see I have... what could be construde as a rather ani-MySpace attitude. So why bother being on it at all? Well when Sarah lost her mobile at "the festival of reading" she posted her replacement number on MySpace. You miss out if you're not in the loop.
So why do I dislike MySpace? Well the horrible, horrible, abuse of CSS, automatically starting music, and the overuse of Flash which grounds my browser to a halt.
So now we move to an alternative, Facebook is based around "networks" of friends- say at one particular University, School or Workplace. Previously, (up till September this year), you had to be at a university to be able to register... so owing to the nature of my degree, and my Uni's opinion of new technology, I wasn't able to join and missed out. But now it is open to all.
Facebook bans you from using your own styles and colors on your profile, which keeps the site looking, clean and coherent. Currently I only know of Matt as someone on Facebook, so I am rather limited on what I can do with it, but its just so much better than the pants MySpace... Why? Because it is all about the people you know and want to keep track of- rather than a way of inflicting your lack of style and design on others.
So please, check out Facebook and see what you think.