Myspace, a social networking website, helps people make and communicate with friends and share photos, music, and videos. Many musicians and music companies use the website to market their music and communicate with fans.
Use.
Myspace enables people to post information about their moods, their daily lives, and their favorite music and videos on a profile page. Users can also post pictures and links to other websites. As on other social networking sites, users connect with people by asking them to become friends. Friends can see each other’s profiles. Myspace differs from other networking sites in that it allows users to thoroughly change the design of their profile pages.
As with other networking sites, users run the risk of posting information that embarrasses them or enables unwanted people to find them. Myspace has privacy settings that enable users to control who can see information.
History.
MySpace was launched in 2003. Its design was heavily influenced by Friendster, an earlier social networking website. MySpace quickly grew in popularity. In 2005, News Corporation purchased MySpace. In 2006, MySpace became the world’s largest social network with millions of users. In 2007, however, the website Facebook passed MySpace to become the most popular social networking site.
In 2008, the company added MySpace Local. This service enabled users to find and rate local businesses. In some cases, such directories made advertising on Myspace more attractive to businesses. In 2010, the spelling of the site’s name changed to Myspace. News Corporation sold Myspace in 2011. Justin Timberlake, an American musician, gained an ownership stake in the company. In 2013, Myspace redesigned its website to focus even more on the sharing and discovering of music.
The Myspace company has developed powerful software that analyzes information in users’ profiles. The software then selects ads likely to appeal to those who visit the profile. Myspace makes money when a user clicks on an advertisement link on the company’s pages. The company also makes money when users buy music or videos featured on the site.
See also Social media.
