Myspace.com is structured very similar to an earlier Networking service called Friendster, which is a kind of spin off for Online Dating sites. Users create their own "Profile," which acts as their own individual Web Page viewable from other members. Members can upload their photos, and write a description of who they are, what they are interested in, what kind of work they do, where they go to school etc.
The Networking aspect to sites like myspace.com and Friendster is what sets them aside from other Dating sites, such as match.com. After joining, you have the option of inviting other members to your own personal Network of friends. Many people invite friends, coworkers, and business associates to their Network. Once you've developed your own Network, you can then conduct searches of members within the Networks of your friends, or so called "extended Network."
Similar to the "six degrees of separation" concept, members rapidly become interconnected with each other. Even just adding a handful of friends to your Network dramatically opens up the number of people in your extended Network, allowing you to meet people you have some connection to but may have never met before. The idea being, on sites like myspace.com or Friendster you can be sure to be interacting with friends of friends as opposed to total strangers, a thought that scares many people away from meeting people online.
Friendster was started in 2002, and early on became very successful in drawing in members. However, it was initially plagued by slow loading times and various bugs that limited its success. Myspace.com launched in the summer of 2003, and within months had surpassed Friendster in numbers of users. Even though Friendster has corrected the majority of its bugs and has reduced its slow loading times, myspace.com continues to dominate the market currently.
Myspace.com is known for offering users more options in the customization of their profiles. Users can upload Music or Videos, Net Savvy can completely redesign the graphical interface of their myspace.com page with a little HTML knowledge. A host of "Myspace.com Editors" are now available as well, making customization a more usable friendly task accessible to people without advance programming knowledge.
Social Networking services like myspace.com continue to boom in popularity, bringing in new members every day, and it is clear that this is an online phenomenon that will continue into the future. Social Networking sites have become an extremely popular online phenomenon in recent years. Myspace.com, is estimated to have over 40 million registered members.
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