MySpace vs Facebook – The “Duh” Difference

I just realized — I mean, I knew this — but I just realized, MySpace is super-open. You can surf most anyone’s profile and view it — I bet only 1 in 500 profiles are actually set to private ["only allow my friends to view my profile"]. Whereas in Facebook, I bet it’s more like 1 in 500 profiles are actually set to public ["allow anyone to view my profile"].

That creates a whole different dynamic of the sites — MySpace is a lot of “people watching” — viewing people’s profiles that you don’t know. Whereas Facebook is more focused on your network of friends (close and non-close ones that you added — like business contacts; one-offs that you met a conference or at a friend’s party).

It’s an interesting thing to think about when developing apps for the Facebook Platform — seems you should be more focused on apps that allow users to (learn) interact with their own friend network, as opposed to meeting new people.

Agree or disagree?

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  • http://kickstand.typepad.com Jordan Mitchell

    Agree

  • http://insanewayne.blogspot.com Wayne Mulligan

    Agree – that’s the primary value add facebook brings to the table. It’s not about forming new contact and connections online – it’s about enhancing the contacts and connections you already have offline. Adding value to these real world or “off line” relationships, in my opinion, is dramatically more valuable than building new virtual relationships.

  • http://www.fliva.com Michael St. Hilaire

    I agree with everything up to the last paragraph. :)

    I think both are about connecting with friends and meeting new people. I would say Facebook was ORIGINALLY about connecting with friends and maybe meeting people in a very controlled manner through your network of friends. However I think due to the new apps platform we are seeing a shift in this.

    One example is we are seeing movie sites pop up on facebook now:
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4341403637

    This used to be something you would only see on Myspace. Apparently thats not the case anymore.

    Also, I believe Facebook apps that allow people to meet new people will be wildly successful. Look at iminlikewithyou as one example of this (although they haven’t really opened up yet to get the masses of users)

    If I was making an app that allowed you to meet new people, I certainly wouldn’t steer clear of facebook by any means.

  • Matt

    Agreed – although comment #3 bring up some valid counter-points to the notion that facebook lacks focus on meeting new people.

    An interesting conversation none the less, steve. When the idea train slows down I like to read these little “consider this” posts you come up with… it’s never the same tired crap everyone else is blogging about on slow news days. ;)

  • http://planoa.wordpress.com Gian Carlo Martinelli

    You’re totally right.. Orkut (very used in Brazil) is also very open… one interesting consequence is the huge number of fake profiles created. People on Orkut try to show off, and the main passtime for it’s users is to check other peoples profiles and ‘scraps’ (like the Wall of Facebook).
    Many people, today, are concerned about the types of information they make available in Orkut since there have been some “rumors/urban legends” that tell stories about people being kidnapped because of personal info available in the social network (the school they go to, the car they own, etc).
    We’re seeing a lot of brazilians migrating to Facebook, and I believe ‘security’ and ‘privacy’ are main drivers.

  • http://thedeplorableword.net Tom

    Facebook is geared around real world networks, such as work or uni. Why would I care about a stranger using the same application as me, I only care about my friends?

  • Joe

    In related news, water is wet

  • http://alphafoobar.blogspot.com/ alpha

    The main reason you’d care about someone using the same app as you is that you are looking to waste some time and none of your contacts have added an application you want to play with… You don’t actually care who that person is… but you want them to challenge you.