How MySpace Works

The idea isn't new: "Social networking" has been around forever. It's the simple act of expanding the number of people you know by meeting your friends' friends, their friends' friends and their friends' friends' friends. And MySpace isn't the first (or the last) Web site to take the concept online. So why does MySpace have more than twice the traffic of Google within four years of its 2003 launch?

Fifty-four million people have profiles on MySpace as of February 2006, and 180,000 more register to use the site every day. By all accounts, it's a phenomenon. Some people call it dumb luck, some call it brilliant and a few call it a sexual predator's dream come true. In this article, we'll find out what MySpace really is, what it can do for you, how it blew past the competition and why Rupert Murdoch thought it was worth $580 million.

Online Social Networking
On MySpace, your social network starts growing from day one without much effort on your part. That's part of the draw. Basic MySpace networking works something like this:

1. You join MySpace and create a profile.
2. You invite your friends to join MySpace and search MySpace for your friends who are already members. These people become part of your initial "Friend Space."
3. All of the people in your friends' Friend Space become part of your network. You now have connections to more people than you did 15 minutes ago.
   

From what the author can tell, there's no way to actually view your Extended Network in any collective way. But this is the idea:

Now, technically, everyone on MySpace is in your Extended Network, because when you create a profile, MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson is automatically added to your Friend Space. We're all connected through Tom. To explore your Extended Network, you can go to one of your friends' profiles, see who's in his Friend Space, click on a picture to visit one of those people's profiles, see who's in that person's Friend Space and work your way down the line. (It's definitely not the easiest way to play the Kevin Bacon game once you take Tom out of the equation.) You can request to add anyone to your Friend Space, and if your invitation is accepted, you can send that person e-mail, instant messages, links to a band you discovered in MySpace Music and anything else you might share with your friends.

There's a lot more to MySpace than networking, but that's the core concept. The big question is why MySpace has succeeded where so many others have failed. Lots of people expound on this mystery from a business or philosophical perspective, but there are at least a few obvious answers. First and possibly foremost, there's the music connection.

Some of the first people to utilize MySpace were musicians and bands, who may have heard about it in the first place from the Web site's founders, who were active in the L.A. music scene. Bands used it to establish a free online presence to post performance dates and communicate with their fans. In 2004, MySpace became a full-fledged Internet indie-music portal with the creation of MySpace Music, a subsection on MySpace. The new area let bands not only create an online presence, but also stream their music through their MySpace profiles and let people download MP3s of their songs, all for free. This attracted even more musicians, along with the demographic most known for consuming music: teenagers and 20-somethings.

And what do teenagers and 20-somethings desire most? Many would tell you it's freedom to express themselves without censorship, and MySpace got it right in this area. The only things MySpace censors is hate speech and extreme nudity (you'll find some bare breasts and buttocks, but that's about it). It's more accessible and more customizable than any networking site that came before it. Users can add music, video, graphics, new fonts and crazy layout schemes to their profiles. They can use graphics and video files that are hosted elsewhere. The "do what you want, we don't care" attitude is a big draw for 16- to 25-year-olds (and everybody else except their parents, probably). Everyone can access full profiles, even if they haven't registered, and they don't need to have any particular affiliation (with a school, business or interest) to use the site.

So, if MySpace is for everyone, who is actually using it? Sixteen- to 25-year-olds make up the majority of MySpace users, and 25 percent of users are registered as minors (aged 14 to 17 -- you need to be at least 14 to register). But you'll find people of all ages using the site for all reasons. There are kids who are clearly about 12 lying about their age because MySpace is the place to be. There are 30-somethings looking to meet people because it's hard to make friends once you're out of grad school, 50-somethings embracing the online networking trend to find new business associates, and 70-somethings looking for a date. You can switch up all of those ages and purposes. You'll find people looking to publish their poetry online or advertise and accept orders for their latest book through their profile page. Unsigned bands use the site to get their music out there and build a following. Established artists like Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, Audioslave and Billy Corgan use the site to communicate with fans and get feedback on tracks.

It's probably starting to become clear why Rupert Murdoch thinks MySpace is worth more than half a billion dollars. MySpace is a popular-culture magnet.

From : http://computer.howstuffworks.com/
By : Julia Layton and Patrick Brothers