Indeed, at the pace that Linux has advanced it is on-pace to pass up Windows in desktop usability. Some distros are a lot more easier to install and get all of your hardware running than Windows 98/Me were not too long ago!!!
"still in debt"? Are you kidding me? Check out AT&T's income statement from the last quarter ended June 30, 2006. They earned 1.808 Billion for that quater alone!
Much like adding a three-foot spoiler to your Honda gives you the feeling that you have more horsepower, even if you have done absolutely nothing to upgrade the engine.
Since spam has all-but ruined the usefulness of e-mail for non-techies, social-networking lets me communicate with my non-techie friends from work and college without being bothered with keeping track of their current e-mail, their IM usernames and-so on. This is important for matters which are somewhat important, but not urgent enough to bother someone by ringing their cell phone. Prior to MySpace - I've had a few occasions where my friends e-mailed me and I missed their messages among all the Spam B-S that often disguises itself as legitimate mail with innocuous subjects like "Hey". I've also had the same issue when e-mailing other people "I e-mailed you two days ago, you didn't get my message?". And no, I am not a teen. I am 26 years old, post-college, and MySpace has become a good replacement for e-mail in keeping-in-touch with my peer-group which is in their late 20's and early 30's. The whole thing about MySpace being primarily for the teen group is definitely overplayed and not really true anymore.
The value of marketing on MySpace is phenomenally huger and more measurable than a normal "website", just due to the fact that MySpace has the whole photo-oriented "friends" concept. Under this concept marketers get a MUCH better idea of who's interested in your movie or product or whatever due to the fact that the whole thing is "Opt-In". This is WAY different from just advertising a URL, putting banner-type-ads on other sites and/or doing e-mail/spam campaigns. These more traditional forms of Internet marketing run the risk of the fact that frequent Internet users quickly become desensitized. Not to mention the fact that "clicks" has always been a questionable meaure of success.
Another advantage of MySpace is the whole "envy" factor. Where you are essentially letting your target market do some marketing for you. The MySpace mentality is like, "Johnny has added 'Big Summer Movie' to his friend's list, they must be cool, so I will go ahead and add them to my own list". Also, this feels more innocuous and harmless to a company's target audience than annoying banner ads just placed on a related (or not) website.
And for those of you that believe this (old)media-hype about the MySpace-thing being just for "teeny-boppers" - think again.
I am over-25 and I have caught up with a TON of people on there from high school, university and work. The whole thing among older MySpace users is about getting-in-touch and keeping-in-touch with people in an environment that gives you a really good amount of freedom, and where the whole culture promotes the use of photos (photo-sharing is always a huge draw for females, and of course the guys go where the ladies are). There's this whole "reunion" type buzz among us "older" (read: non-teeny-bopper) users. Many 20-30-something people post their wedding/family photos & whatever on there.
***(Classmates.com was onto something years prior to the current social-networking trend, but unfortunately for them, they killed off their demand by deciding to charge).
Also, unlike e-mail, you are relatively well-protected from Spam on MySpace -- I believe this is A HUGE factor for all the post-college-age people who use MySpace. You don't have to deal with a lot of unwanted crap being obtrusively *pushed* at you. I know among my 20-30 something peer group MySpace has become a very practical way to get a hold of people, since it's a lot more convenient than keeping up with all kinds of e-mail addresses, varying cell phone numbers and varying IM contacts none of which promotes the usage of photos. MySpace also has features that let you know for sure if your personal message was actually read by someone who is on your friend's list - something that e-mail & cell/voicemail do not provide. Also, multi-media-text messaging is hugely popular overseas, but not in the U.S. because of the expense(read: greedy cell-phone carriers). Myspace helps fill that demand for multimedia messaging that exists. Also, the fact that computer hardware prices have plummeted recently, along with the fact that current technology has made the use of digital photography and computer/internet-use in general more idiot-proof has played a HUGE factor as well.
All of these features, factors and good timing all played a role in making MySpace hugely popular.
Slashdot Mirror
If-then-else loops in HTML code, no less!!! L33t!!!!
Indeed, at the pace that Linux has advanced it is on-pace to pass up Windows in desktop usability. Some distros are a lot more easier to install and get all of your hardware running than Windows 98/Me were not too long ago!!!
"still in debt"? Are you kidding me? Check out AT&T's income statement from the last quarter ended June 30, 2006. They earned 1.808 Billion for that quater alone!
hell, and all this time I thought that "Radeon" was a proprietary marketing name
Much like adding a three-foot spoiler to your Honda gives you the feeling that you have more horsepower, even if you have done absolutely nothing to upgrade the engine.
Since spam has all-but ruined the usefulness of e-mail for non-techies, social-networking lets me communicate with my non-techie friends from work and college without being bothered with keeping track of their current e-mail, their IM usernames and-so on. This is important for matters which are somewhat important, but not urgent enough to bother someone by ringing their cell phone. Prior to MySpace - I've had a few occasions where my friends e-mailed me and I missed their messages among all the Spam B-S that often disguises itself as legitimate mail with innocuous subjects like "Hey". I've also had the same issue when e-mailing other people "I e-mailed you two days ago, you didn't get my message?". And no, I am not a teen. I am 26 years old, post-college, and MySpace has become a good replacement for e-mail in keeping-in-touch with my peer-group which is in their late 20's and early 30's. The whole thing about MySpace being primarily for the teen group is definitely overplayed and not really true anymore.
...or does this particular SlashDot article seem a bit trollish in nature?
The value of marketing on MySpace is phenomenally huger and more measurable than a normal "website", just due to the fact that MySpace has the whole photo-oriented "friends" concept. Under this concept marketers get a MUCH better idea of who's interested in your movie or product or whatever due to the fact that the whole thing is "Opt-In". This is WAY different from just advertising a URL, putting banner-type-ads on other sites and/or doing e-mail/spam campaigns. These more traditional forms of Internet marketing run the risk of the fact that frequent Internet users quickly become desensitized. Not to mention the fact that "clicks" has always been a questionable meaure of success. Another advantage of MySpace is the whole "envy" factor. Where you are essentially letting your target market do some marketing for you. The MySpace mentality is like, "Johnny has added 'Big Summer Movie' to his friend's list, they must be cool, so I will go ahead and add them to my own list". Also, this feels more innocuous and harmless to a company's target audience than annoying banner ads just placed on a related (or not) website. And for those of you that believe this (old)media-hype about the MySpace-thing being just for "teeny-boppers" - think again. I am over-25 and I have caught up with a TON of people on there from high school, university and work. The whole thing among older MySpace users is about getting-in-touch and keeping-in-touch with people in an environment that gives you a really good amount of freedom, and where the whole culture promotes the use of photos (photo-sharing is always a huge draw for females, and of course the guys go where the ladies are). There's this whole "reunion" type buzz among us "older" (read: non-teeny-bopper) users. Many 20-30-something people post their wedding/family photos & whatever on there. ***(Classmates.com was onto something years prior to the current social-networking trend, but unfortunately for them, they killed off their demand by deciding to charge). Also, unlike e-mail, you are relatively well-protected from Spam on MySpace -- I believe this is A HUGE factor for all the post-college-age people who use MySpace. You don't have to deal with a lot of unwanted crap being obtrusively *pushed* at you. I know among my 20-30 something peer group MySpace has become a very practical way to get a hold of people, since it's a lot more convenient than keeping up with all kinds of e-mail addresses, varying cell phone numbers and varying IM contacts none of which promotes the usage of photos. MySpace also has features that let you know for sure if your personal message was actually read by someone who is on your friend's list - something that e-mail & cell/voicemail do not provide. Also, multi-media-text messaging is hugely popular overseas, but not in the U.S. because of the expense(read: greedy cell-phone carriers). Myspace helps fill that demand for multimedia messaging that exists. Also, the fact that computer hardware prices have plummeted recently, along with the fact that current technology has made the use of digital photography and computer/internet-use in general more idiot-proof has played a HUGE factor as well. All of these features, factors and good timing all played a role in making MySpace hugely popular.