RE: MySpace, Second Life & Twitter are doomed.

So I got this message in an IM tonight:

“just skimmed the first page.. but so far seems to be a douche…

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2145408,00.asp”

Well, I have to agree. The premise of the article is basically:

Stop using MySpace and twitter because they are ugly, and that they are most likely going to fail anyways.

I would urge you to read the article and then come back and read the rest of the blog which is my reply

My Response:

You read distopian novels don’t you?
I looked at your other columns, they all seem to be FUD. (What gives?)
Why would we stop using any of these things? Nothing lasts forever why is that any kind of excuse to give up on what works now? You will probably buy 3 more laptops in a decade,, might as well throw the one you currently have out?

You go on to talk about the aesthetics of a given MySpace page, and cite aesthetics for the first sites going away, and the reason why MySpace will implode…

I submit to you that the first batch went away because easier ways came out that included the ability to socialize and reach out in ways people never could before.

People will always want to express themselves… the reason you cited as the downfall of myspace is the reason they beat Friendster and a host of others… They actually let the people make ugly sites to express themselves… (they are not all ugly btw, in fact some are quite nice) Its a conversation piece, its individuality.

People and technology do not go backwards for the most part… It will not be the removal of content that makes the internet better,, instead it will be new mediums to present information to end users more intuitively, it will be the refinement of existing search algorithms or the discovery of new ones. It will be finding better ways to organize what is out there. It will be things like XML, REST and the Semantic web making it easier for programs to parse, assimilate and present data. There are nothing but good things in store for the internet, And the credit will be due in no small part to the innovators behind things like myspace and twitter trying out ideas, seeing what works,, having their proverbial 15 minutes and then stepping aside to make way for new innovation. The free information age is here,, we have a new uprising of the proletariat overthrowing the current establishment with free social media. If you want to spread FUD at least do some thought and ask the right questions.

Where will the money come from?

The only problem I can see with twitter is: with a medium setup in such a way that you don’t have to view the page you cant really effectively advertise. In addition to that, if you go to twitters site, you will see there is no advertising? How are they monetizing the site?

With MySpace the questions are little different, there are banners and rotating banners everywhere. Will the people continue to use it? Are they monetizing too much? Should they be exploring other means of monetization than advertising?

Three things are for certain.

1. Nothing remains forever.

2. Using new things now, improve the things we have now, and the things to come by giving us a feel for things that work and things that do not work

3. Innovation and Ideas will live on and continue to feed new ideas and innovation far past their point of effective monetization.
Such is the system development life cycle, and most everything else in life for that matter.

The Future is bright where the web is concerned…

~ by digitalrealist on June 13, 2007.