What your favourite Web sites say about you
Tags: posted, adventures, toolbars, paypal
MYSPACE
What's the story?
Far from being an amateur effort developed in MySpace president Tom Anderson's garage, the site was a professional endeavour designed to overtake rival site Friendster. The initial project began in August 2003 and was overseen by Anderson, Brad Greenspan and Chris DeWolfe -- employees of eUniverse (later re-named Intermix Media).
According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the sixth most popular English-language Web site -- it has attracted well over 100 million users to date. When parent company Intermix was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for $580m (£290m) in July 2005, MySpace was valued at a handsome $327m (£160m), making the founders instant millionaires.
Did you know?
Intermix launched a huge marketing campaign and populated MySpace with a list of 20 million users and email subscribers it held separately. Alarm bells rang when the company was sued in 2005 by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer for allegedly distributing Web toolbars that contained spyware. Some believe the list of users that helped populate MySpace was acquired by hidden spyware inside Intermix's Web toolbars. The case was settled out of court for $7.7m (£3.9m).
What MySpace says about you
The MySpace demographic varies from 11-year-old school children to 35 year olds who have never quite grown up. Strongly influenced by alternative music, they're united in their homemade haircuts, abhorrence of popular fashion and fondness for obscure electropunk. Typical MySpace users treat their profiles like a sandbox: a place where they can escape the real world, find themselves and make friends.
The users find salvation in badly animated GIFs, music that auto-plays their voices and taking 'sexy' camera phone profile portraits in front of dirty mirrors -- all common modes of expression. The number of friends in a user's list is a self-esteem barometer. Anyone will do, but their top five friends usually consist of anyone who's shunned pop culture, is partial to facial piercings and is in a grunge rock band.
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Bob CobbMon 10 September, 2007 7:07pm
c|net users enjoy having to click through dozens of ad-riddled pages. Printer-friendly-version links should be difficult if not impossible to find. Electric prods and branding irons a plus.
alfarMon 10 September, 2007 7:24pm
Most of the pages have accurate-ish informatin. Certainly no worse than 1066 And All That (which not reading if you're a dork is a Bad Thing and may result in the Venomous Beade from dying of a surfeit of Latin) . Yes, I read Slashdot but I promise you that I try not to be vicious there. I'd also add that although there are a few hundred thousand regular members, I suspect that fewer than a couple dozen routinely provoke flamewars and believe Blackadder is a guide in social etiquette.
AnonymousMon 10 September, 2007 7:33pm
So do all women at CNet come to work in their PJ's? Or just a lucky coincident for the photo?
ZwackMon 10 September, 2007 7:35pm
GOOD GOD! What a terrible set of reviews...
The only thing that seems remotely correct about this is that the authors are the children of slashdot and You tube. They are vicious and enjoy it.
At least they didn't try and condemn most of the websites I visit so that makes me an also-ran in their minds.
No mention of Groklaw, Boing Boing or Think Progress?
I can understand VMF, ABI and TMW being missing,... but....
Z.
btw, if you want to take the content then you can but I'm not going to accept responsibility for it as well. You either take it all or none...
"Please note: All submitted content becomes the sole property of CNET Networks UK and may be used, edited or rejected at CNET Networks UK's sole discretion. You acknowledge that you, not CNET Networks UK, are responsible for the contents of your submission"
AshwinMon 10 September, 2007 7:51pm
What part of "this is a joke, have a laugh" don't the other commentators understand?
AnonymousMon 10 September, 2007 7:56pm
Worst article EVER! I don't resemble your stereotypical slashdot reader at all. Needless to say, I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust.
AnonymousMon 10 September, 2007 8:56pm
Being a 'regular' on /. and eBay I'm truly amazed about the tone of this 'attempt' [let's call it that, for lack of an appropriate AND printworthy term]. Apart from failing to put together a truly 'sarcastic' description of these site, you also fail on the most important point; 'humor'. Your envy speaks trough each and every page, and you may even have just given future 'investors' the best insight into your workings for NOT acquiring your dismal site. This piece sucked BigTime!
NielMon 10 September, 2007 9:18pm
This has to be the worst and most stereo-typical article I've seen in recent times from a major website.
It would be half okay if it was tongue in cheek.
I'm a slashdot reader, I don't wear glasses, I don't have bad skin, and I enjoy sport (I've evidently done more cycling races than you have written articles).
I feel like avoiding your website now.
AnonymousMon 10 September, 2007 9:21pm
I can tell you with reasonable confidence that crave.cnet.co.uk has roughly zero chance of becoming my favorite site.
TheGirlChrisMon 10 September, 2007 9:58pm
If this is "the worst and most stereotypical article" you've read on a website in a while, then I say wake up and take a look around the internet. The only reason people are so offended is not because this article is so ridiculous, but instead because it has some truth. Hell, I am a /. addict who wears glasses and is a proud nerd by day. Yet I am also a female(gasp!) who loves to hit the town by night. Are all the stereotypes true? No, probably not for most people, but there is some truth in there somewhere for everyone. I'm not saying this is a great article but come on, to say that this is the most stereotypical thing on the internet and be so offended? That right there plays into the /. stereotype of people who don't know any world other than their computer. Maybe some people need to get outside and see the sun, and other people, more often instead of freaking out over how other internet users perceive their use of the internet.
AnonymousMon 10 September, 2007 10:33pm
Although I like the article, but I think CNet is either fooling itself or in a state of denial, if it believes that hot asian girls sit on the floor and read cnet on their laptops!
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 12:36am
Spot On. Especially about the slashdotters. /.
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 1:10am
100% correct. Except the part about Windows being a "good" operating system.
boreDuoTue 11 September, 2007 1:12am
Ya gotta love CNET. If it weren't for them, all those people who never graduated from high school would be unemployed.
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 8:03am
You should have reviewed 4chan.
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 8:49am
Myspace is one hell of a marketing tool for events, especially music related ones.
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 12:02pm
I think it would be nice to read a story without it being split into 10 pages, each containing one paragraph.
AnonymousTue 11 September, 2007 9:08pm
even the slashdotters commenting on THIS story are pedantic and unable to see the blatantly tongue-in-cheek nature of the article.
It's a joke, people.
Taking oneself too seriously is also a very common trait of slashdotters.
I love to read the articles posted on Slashdot, but long ago abandoned the pendantic, self-important commentary usually posted in an effort to come across better, smarter, faster, more experienced than both the author and the other commentors. Oh so uninteresting.
AnonymousFri 14 September, 2007 6:03pm
Jesus... chill out guys. Blatantly a bit of a joke.
DavidRGilsonThu 31 January, 2008 9:20am
Well,
I never use Ebay or Flickr, I'm a /. reader but not a poster, and I don't really use Myspace, but I do have a very nicely formatted profile. I regularly use all of the other sites listed.
What does that say about me?
Ask questions, share opinions and find answers in the CNET.co.uk forums
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billyMon 10 September, 2007 6:59pm
This is the worst thing I have read this week and that includes the pink slip from work yesterday!