The War between MySpace and Facebook

By On December 19, 2007 · 22 Comments · In Everything Else

baconwar1.jpg

There seems to be this war between Facebook users and MySpace users. It’s not as violent as the Mac vs. PC war but people seem to get just as fired up about it. Here is a pro Facebook post from Tech Crunch that says the MySpace vs. Facebook decision is an IQ test. I tried to find a pro MySpace blog post but most of them were too poorly written to post. Most of them just said, “MySpace Rocks! Facebook is Lame”. I found this funny; maybe Tech Crunches post is true. Here is another MySpace rant called, I Hate MySpace.

I really wanted to pick a side in this war. But after reading an article about the comparison of the two, I figured out that the war just needs to end. There is a place for both MySpace and Facebook, you can figure it out by just thinking about what each one was created for. MySpace was originally created to promote bands. Facebook was originally created for a college directory. That means that you could use both in your life, Facebook for personal/directory stuff and MySpace for public/promoting stuff. So there is no need to hate one over the other, both have their strengths and weakness.

If you must know my opinion, I am not a fan of social networking, but I have a Facebook account. I thought it would be nice to keep track of friends. But after using it for a while, nothing useful has come from it. It’s time consuming and I personally don’t have a need for it. But this will soon change. Since I am trying to open an indie art store in February, I will need a MySpace to find and communicate with artists, since MySpace was made to promote. I am going to keep Facebook too, since I am hearing people are having some success promoting with its new pages system.

I feel this video from webware.com sums up this post nicely. [Play Video]

Feel free to leave a comment with your views on the MySpace vs. Facebook.

 
  • http://www.myhateblog.com Vince

    In reference to you posting my article on “I hate MySpace”, I’d just like to state now that my article is most definitely NOT pro-Facebook.
    I hate both Facebook and MySpace almost equally. In fact, I’m in the
    middle of doing a blog post on Facebook at the moment.

    Facebook is just as big a bag of crap as MySpace, and in a lot of cases it’s even worse.

    All shall be revealed.

  • http://www.mrbaconpants.com Mosley

    @Vince thanks for the correction I will fix that.
    Also since you like to hate I must ask, “Do you hate bacon”?

  • http://normanhuelsman.com Norman Huelsman

    I agree with Vince. Although I don’t spend much time in either site. The core of my myspace/facebook usage revolves around friends from way back or high school who find me.

    I tease my roommate because he refers to messages in myspace as actual email. He is someone who clearly doesn’t know how to use the internet. But I bring that up because I think most people don’t know how to use the internet. If you think about it most people started on AOL, which was a really safe walled garden that spoon fed everyone everything digital. I think that for a lot of poeple myspace and facebook provides that safe familiar environment and an easy way to communicate to people. Just like AOL.

    Each is a tool. I don’t use them that often so I don’t have much hate. But I don’t like either that much. To coin a phrase from Christopher Penn I prefer to, “Own my stuff.” My own blog and webspace that way I control everything about it.

  • http://www.myhateblog.com Vince

    In the words of John Travolta, Pulp Fiction:

    “Bacon tastes good. Porkchops taste good.”

    Travolta is a man who can be trusted.

  • http://www.mrbaconpants.com Mosley

    Nice! I was thinking of making a list of bacon quotes in movies this will have to make the list.

  • http://www.upsetwaitress.com upset waitress

    I made the mistake of visiting a myspace. site. Holy immature crap! My Mac still hasn’t forgiven me for exposing it to the litter box of the internet.

  • http://www.upsetwaitress.com upset waitress

    You are sooo getting your bacon story. I had to do a toilet post for a cool gal with multiple personalities first. You’re next :)

  • http://www.mrbaconpants.com Mosley

    @ upset waitress

    I will be checking your site for it. Can’t wait!

  • http://normanhuelsman.com Norman Huelsman

    Another reason why myspace and facebook both suck is that if you have a problem with the look of the site. There is nothing you can do short of starting a petition.

    Thanks MrBaconpants for fixing the font issue in safari. My grandmother could read this font size. :)

  • http://www.mrbaconpants.com Mosley

    Haha No Problem. I made it that big so I could tell if I was changing the right value in the CSS. But when I saw it I kept it that way.

    Old people need to comment too so I hope this helps them.

  • http://www.upsetwaitress.com upset waitress

    OK Mosley, come on over. Your wish has been granted :)

  • Capri

    I think both could be very useful and a lot more fun if people didn’t use bulletins or the walls to send chain letters. The Myspace walls are great for sending notes back and forth, but the Facebook super/fun wall is going the way of the Myspace bulletin, misused widely for chain letters, and that’s really a shame. But I found Facebook to be helpful when there was an accessibility issue, no such luck with Myspace. If you go to my Myspace page, you won’t find any trash there, unless it’s ads which I have no control over. I try to keep the clutter down on my Facebook page as well. It would be a neat feature if Myspace and Facebook had profiles not showing all the pics, boxes and other stuff that causes profiles and pages to take a century to load, but contained a link for any user to click on if they want to view all that stuff. Page loading time because of all the clutter is a problem on both sites.

    Upsides to both, fun and convenient way to stay in touch with friends and make new ones. Down sides, site misuse, some inaccessibility issues, Facebook requires you to use your real first and last name, which is right on your profile, which is why I don’t tell anyone I don’t know about my Facebook page. Myspace displays your age on your profile page, in the title, which is another reason I’m hesitant to give out my Myspace page. For someone like me, who doesn’t like any of their personal info on display, it doesn’t give much reason to want to tell others to check out a Myspace or Facebook profile. And – the war between the two networks, like all rivalries of this sort is really silly, and I’m being nice here.

  • Capri

    Woops – I meant “Facebook walls” not “Myspace walls”

  • http://so-marjienalized.blogspot.com marjie

    actually, i wouldn’t know who win this one for sure since I would be biased to say “myspace” because that’s the only one i use. facebook is sort of unfamiliar to me, so it’s not fair to cast a vote. but either way, both yeilds wide opportunities of networking, and that’s something that many people do enjoy.

    hmmmm….that’s a tough one…

  • http://echoflip.com gondek

    this sites updating intensity is for shit!

  • KP

    personally, i think facebook is alot easier to use then myspace… to find someone all you need to do is type their name in the search bar. The only thing I don’t like about facebook is that you can access info that is too private about people, like their school address, phone number..i dont want people i barely know having my address and showing up at my apartment. i guess u just gotta pick and choose what kinda info you wanna display on your page.

    The thing that bothers me about myspace is the large amount of spam, stalkers, and small bands that want you to be their friends. I use myspace to look at friend’s pictures and “myspace stalk” people i went to high school or college with. i could honostly care less about the bands on there…maybe i dont fully understand the goal of myspace? idk.

  • http://ur2rn.com John

    If you don’t like one or the other, why don’t you come to my site. I’ll keep things under control, no adverts, spam crap not allowed, more control. I really am trying to do a good service.

    Thanks,
    John

  • http://www.facebookforbands.com nj

    I honestly believe that Facebook will take over in time. It seems that way on Alexa.com too (even though it is biased towards the tech crowd since it gathers its data from techy toolbar users).

    On the contrary, MySpace is about to launch their new application service to compete with Facebook. That will be interesting! I think it’s the last leg for MySpace, and it will determine which company will ultimately prevail later down the future.

    Mark Zuckerberg makes a good point though, “Facebook is a utility”… what does that leave MySpace – just a network. Users come to Facebook for entertainment, yes, but more so because they can keep in touch with friends – like a directory. MySpace just doesn’t offer that kind of organized information.

    The future shall be interesting!

  • http://harian--metro.blogspot.com Harian Metro

    i love myspace more than facebook coz myspace is just more user friendly for me than FB …but yes everyone have their own opinion about it lol

  • http://belajar-main-gitar.blogspot.com gitar

    i love facebook more right now..myspace is full of spammers lately..hmm

  • http://www.profilewizard.net/ Layouts

    It think your right when you say “both myspace and facebook have their place”. Each has pros and cons and caters to a slightly different audience. Facebook is obviously oriented more toward college students as well as adults between the age of about 20 to 30. Whereas Myspace is more oriented to a younger crowd (mostly teenagers). The other big difference is that Facebook has a much cleaner design and is a lot easier to navigate. Myspace profiles, however, can be customized a lot and offer users much more flexibility to make visual changes to their profile. Overall, I don’t personally believe one is necessarily better than the other, but I do think Facebook must have something features that people like better. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have surpassed Myspace in traffic as of February of 2008 according to Alexa.com. Anywho, just my 2 cents ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aleksandar-Malečić/1480938746 Aleksandar Malečić

    “But after using it for a while, nothing useful has come from it. It’s time consuming and I personally don’t have a need for it.”

    Facebook works fine if you already know those people. You can’t find anyone interesting and send a message or get to known about something/someone interesting unless your friends already know that person/band/institution. Myspace has a better search engine. The way things work at the moment is that you can find interesting things on Myspace or Google and then follow them on Facebook.

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/222084301195017/