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A Grand Unified Theory of YouTube and MySpace

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the weighty-internet-concerns dept.

Ant writes "Paul Boutin's Slate article explains the factors contributing to the success YouTube and MySpace: they are easy to use (usability), and they don't 'tell you what to do.'" From the article: "Both YouTube and MySpace fit the textbook definition of Web 2.0, that hypothetical next-generation Internet where people contribute as easily as they consume. Even self-described late adopters like New York editor Kurt Andersen recognize that that by letting everyone contribute, these sites have reached a critical mass where 'a real network effect has kicked in.'"

12 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Myspace success by glassjaw+rocks · · Score: 3, Funny

    isn't described by what the interface looks like or how easy it is to use.



    Everybody knows myspace is just a place to get laid

    --
    -gjr
    1. Re:Myspace success by TenLow · · Score: 5, Funny

      Only if you're a 14 year old girl.

  2. the secret of MySpace is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...teenage girls

    OMG!!1! ponies!!!1!!

  3. It's a maaaaddhouse!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    If it please the court:

    Exhibit A

    Exhibit B

    The prosecution rests.

  4. Re:Tell people how to do it right... by Moqui · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least a side social benefit of MySpace is that people will be able to discover if they suffer from epilepsy earlier. Flashing text on a flashing background with scrolling neon menubars and CCR's "Fortunate Son" MIDI file playing on high = quality design.

  5. Re:Web 3.0 by Amonimous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Web 4.0: Background music on the page is automatically blocked

  6. Re:Tell people how to do it right... by AstrumPreliator · · Score: 5, Funny
    I completely agree with you. In fact if anyone were to create the next myspace it might be something like this (I wrote and sent this to a friend a while back to illustrate in a funny way why I hate myspace):

    I have co-designed a plan that will make us millions! We will create the next evolution of myspace. To pull this off our new social network needs to satisfy basic requirements to attract our key demographic - Emos, Hipsters, Fatties, and Douchebags. There requirements are...

    The site must lack any sensible form of navigation from within the site. All profiles should be as gaudy by default as possible. Even better they should be flash based rather than HTML and CSS based so a user who wishes to view the web page must download an inane amount of data to view a poorly designed and incredibly slow profile.
    Rather than only being able to play one song on a profile a user will be able to blaze multiple songs either concurrently or sequentially.
    Everything will have an opacity of 50% or less. Text should blend in with everything in the background making it difficult to read.
    Furthermore, all text shall be of size 9 and use the least legible font known to man - Comic Sans MS - and under no circumstance shall the text be white or black, to do so would defeat the purpose of making it unreadable.
    Several new feature shall also be introduced. One of which is dubbed "the knife" courtesy of RotoSequence. It is named as such to attract the Emo demographic in general. This feature will aid the non-navigability feature. There shall be no links to go to a paticular area of the website. All links shall bring you deeper and deeper into the bowels of the website forcing you to use the browser's "Back" button to navigate to a different part of the site.
    Another new feature fabricated by RotoSequence to attract the Emo demographic is the "Suicide Mood Selector". This will allow users to select their current suicidal mood, e.g. "You feel extreme angst, it's best to go the painless route and shoot yourself."

    If we follow these guidelines I'm sure we can create the next myspace and make millions. As always suggestions are welcome to help improve our vision of the future!


    Go ahead and mod me down if you think I'm a troll, but I had fun writing the above ;).
  7. Re:Youtube by vain+gloria · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can someone explain the YouTube business model? It neither directly charges its users nor sells ad space, and streaming video takes a ton of storage and bandwidth.

    I can't explain their business model, but thanks to leaked, highly-confidential YouTube documents, I can reveal it to you:

    "2. ???"

    Note to Moderators: I'm accepting both +1 Funny and +1 Insightful mods today!

  8. Re:Youtube by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Funny
    How are they keeping it up?

    Viagra?

    --
    That is all.
  9. Re:Tell people how to do it right... by MutantHamster · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's funny how a site dedicated to nerds is so biased against a site dedicated to having friends.

    --
    My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
  10. Re:Tell people how to do it right... by Jello+B. · · Score: 5, Funny

    Only when they make webpages that aren't Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

  11. Re:Tell people how to do it right... by Iron+Condor · · Score: 3, Funny
    The web should be hard!! When I was a kid, we hand-coded in vi, dammit!

    vi? You had vi? Hah. We had to toggle zeros and ones into the console with switches. And on bad days we didn't even had zeros. And we liked it! Uphill. Both ways. No, wait, wrong rant...

    --
    We're all born with nothing.
    If you die in debt, you're ahead.