If you are an Internet denizen, you are probably familiar with both MySpace and Facebook, both popular social networking platforms on the web. MySpace, which skyrocketed to popularity about 4 years ago, has since waned significantly, dwarfed by the sleeper mammoth that is Facebook.

In April 2008, Facebook finally surpassed MySpace in popularity. As a Web Developer, long-time Internet user, I’ve got some opinions on why this happened. Both platforms are largely similar and serve to fit similar needs. They are, of course, not mutually exclusive (I happen to have an account on both, for example), but otherwise require independent investments of time, so there is an issue of time economy at play.

But the purpose of Social Networking websites is communication. If people are not able to easily communicate with one another, then the site is not doing its job.

The ironic thing is that most of the reasons I cite below as failures have generally been considered features of MySpace. But these features serve to inhibit communication rather than facilitiate it. In brief (will elaborate below):

1. It allows users to heavily customize their profiles, visually
2. Users are able to easily change their displayed name
3. Users can embed music onto their profiles so that it automatically plays when the profile is viewed
4. The primary focus of MySpace has always been self-centered (see what I’m doing) rather than community-centric (what are my friends doing)
5. Facebook does a much better job of connecting people, and provides better off-site integration.

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Tags: Facebook, MySpace, the intertubes