Business Bytes
Curt Finch

Why I Don’t Use MySpace

 

MySpace has admitted to claims of selling their website. More specifically, MySpace is considering selling, merging, or a spinout.  This comes as no surprise since MySpace recently lost 47% of its workforce through lay-offs.  In the last quarter of 2010, MySpace lost $156 million. That's hard to believe considering it was the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006.

What is causing MySpace to fail?  The number one factor is that it's in direct competition with Facebook, which surpassed MySpace's number of users in 2009.  As of January 2011, Facebook has more than 600 million active users. The MySpace User Interface takes entirely too long to load:  it's too rich, which causes it to load slower.  Facebook's User Interface is lighter and able to load faster.  Additionally, MySpace has done a pretty poor job in integrating to smartphones.  The harder a website is to navigate on a smartphone, the more likely I am to desert it.  Integrating well with mobile devices has served other websites well, such as Twitter.  I believe Twitter took off because they were smartphone friendly early on.  Google Android is successfully connecting the internet with the smartphone, which is leading to big gains, such as surpassing Nokia's Symbian operating system in sales.

How many readers out there still use MySpace?  For me, I deserted my MySpace profile along with other websites that I wasn't using anymore.  I've also deserted many free emails accounts, such as Hotmail.  I've deserted Link Exchange, and I've especially deserted my Microsoft ID and anything associated with it.  If I signed up to a website with my Microsoft ID, I can't access it anymore.  Recently, there was a great blog I wanted to comment on, but in order to do so, I had to create a Microsoft ID.  It was such a complicated process that my interest in commenting dissolved.

What have you deserted on the internet?

Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx, who provides customers with powerful time-tracking and resource management solutions.

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon. @curtfinch