
The rise and fall of MySpace - mjfern
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fd9ffd9c-dee5-11de-adff-00144feab49a.html
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robin_reala
_Former MySpace executives say News Corp dragged its feet over implementing
Ajax, a program that allows users to send a message, an e-mail or to post a
comment on their friends’ pages without having to open a new browser window._

That’s one way of defining it I guess.

~~~
DougBTX
I'm a technical guy, that description is accurate. Minor terminology changes
to be spot on:

 _Former MySpace executives say News Corp dragged its feet over implementing
Ajax, a [set of libraries] which allow users to send a message, an e-mail or
to post a comment on their friends’ pages without having to open a new browser
[page]._

The real problem is the hard link between page views and ad revenue. That
leads to quotes like this: "We went to News Corp and said: ‘We want to change
this but in the short term our revenues will drop.’ It became a long back and
forth."

Bickering like that kills time and blinds you to other uses of Ajax, such as
how Facebook lets users rate ads, each click loading up a new ad without
another page view.

~~~
NathanKP
The way I look at it is that if you are already doing the work to implement
AJAX and remove the need for more page views to submit comment forms or do
other things, why not go a little farther and write code to load new ads at
the same time? There shouldn't be any reason why AJAX would reduce ad revenue
if you simply made each major AJAX call change the ads.

~~~
wgj
My guess is that their existing ad contracts would forbid that. The contracts
were probably worded to have an ad displayed for the entire duration the page
was open.

~~~
NathanKP
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

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dasil003
Somehow I find it hard to imagine that even if the new management and
technical team had gelled that they would have been able to keep up with
Facebook. Their codebase was a flaming hulk of crap to start with, and you can
just imagine how much improvement it would get from a biz guy "hiring a team
to clean it up". Compared to Facebook which is one of the most amazing
engineering organizations of all time.

The only opening would have been if MySpace was somehow smarter about what
users wanted, but outside of customizable profiles and music they didn't have
any new tricks.

~~~
ngsayjoe
I think Facebook architecture is bloated as well ... /home.php? come on ...

~~~
dasil003
Is the critique that they are using PHP or that they aren't using some kind of
extensionless routing?

Either way it's silly to use superficial factors like that to judge large
websites. Given the performance profile, data interconnectedness, complex
public API, and interface richness of Facebook, the rate at which they push
changes (small changes daily, weekly major pushes) and advance the product is
_astonishing_.

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troymc
At the end of the article, FT has the usual "share this" links, letting the
reader share the article via email, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Buzz,
Delicious, reddit, Mixx, Facebook, stumbleupon, or Viadeo.

Notably absent: MySpace

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bartl
MySpace may have become irrelevant as a social website for ordinary users, but
it is easiliy the most important site for web sites for musicians: _everybody_
who remotely means anything in modern music, has a (heavily personalized) page
up on MySpace, with a few mp3 files up for streaming; sometimes whole songs,
sometimes just 30 second samples.

~~~
davidmurphy
True for modern music as you say, but for people like me, who like classical
music, MySpace has little pull if it doesn't want to play the game of
competing with FB as a general-interest social networking site.

And, as the FT noted earlier, Myspace has given up competing with FB for #s.

~~~
warfangle
And most classical musicians don't need the pull of a social network to gain
traction - they have a track record in symphonies, typically a strong network
of other musicians from a strong music school, mentors and so on and so forth.
Meanwhile, someone trying to "break in" to any non-classical genre, be it pop,
rock, metal, synth-groove, indie-emo-core, anti-folk, shoegaze, etc, needs the
help of a social network to garner excitement about their particular brand.

You don't need a brand as a classical musician, as you're usually just playing
someone else's tune. (Unless, of course, you're both a musician and a
composer, and so on and so forth)

So, of course it's not going to be much of a use to you, as you completely
disregard most changes in musical style and composition (I personally love
classical music, but that doesn't preclude me from loving other "modern"
styles) over the past century or so. Your stubbornness in not exploring new
aural sensations eliminates you from their target niche, just as the
discouraged unemployed are eliminated from the unemployment statistics ;)

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davidmurphy
What got me was another FT article (linked to from this one) noting that
MySpace/News Corp is wasting $1-2mil per MONTH for unused office space:
<http://bit.ly/5wfL2V>

(They committed to the lease before deciding not to move there. Now they can't
sub-lease it because of the economy, but still have to pay.)

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zaphar
If any thing the myspace story demonstrates how important the technology
underlying your web prescence is. MySpace used to be held up as a poster child
for how little the Technology and presentation mattered. Now though it's
obvious how much it did.

The article doesn't come right out and say it but you could see hints that the
technology was a barrier tucked in here and there. I almost feel bad for the
News Corp execs cause it sounded like they inherited a crappy technology
platform and the myspace execs fought them tooth and nail when they tried to
fix it. That combined with a misunderstanding of how web advertising works
(Murdoch still doesn't get it even now) and Zero empowerment for the MySpace
engineers is what caused MySpaces fall.

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alecco

      “There was so much data about each MySpace user, which Rupert got immediately,”
      says Levinsohn. “What would you pay to get someone’s name, age, geography?
      With MySpace, you would also know what car they drive, what music they
      ­listened to, their favourite movie star.”
    

I know this but it still sends a chill down my spine. Even Rupert Murdoch got
it.

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j_baker
Honestly, the only thing that's stopped me from deleting my MySpace account is
the fact that I have to log on to MySpace to do it.

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JacobAldridge
It's almost a shame this degenerates into an overview of how management and
communication collapses in a corporation, but at the same time it's a positive
reminder that growing a 'Web 2.0' business doesn't automatically exclude the
risks of Business 1.0.

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allenbrunson
the message i'm taking away from this is: no matter how much your acquirer
assures you that they won't interfere with your business, eventually they
will.

