Typical MySpace profile (MySpace founder Tom Anderson's profile shown here)
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|- class="hiddenStructure" style="vertical-align: top;"
! Commercial?
| Mixed
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! Ownership
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! Type of site
| Social network service
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! Registration
| Required
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! Owner
| News Corporation
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! Created by
| Tom Anderson
|- class="hiddenStructure" style="vertical-align: top;"
! Launched
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|- class="hiddenStructure" style="vertical-align: top;"
! Current status of site
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MySpace is a social networking website based in Beverly Hills, California offering an interactive network of blogs, user profiles, groups, photos, and an internal e-mail system. According to Alexa Internet, as of July 2006 it is the world's fourth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular in any languageAlexa Internet[Alexa Web Search - top 500 English-language websites] and [top 500 global websites]. Retrieved June 25, 2006.. It is the most popular site in the United States, accounting for 4.5% of all website visits[Reuters - MySpace gains top ranking of US Web sites]. Date 2006-07-11. Accessed 2006-07-11.. (Note that the site's traffic volume is based on unusually intense usage by a more limited number of visitors. Many more than five English language sites have a higher "reach" measurement; that is, they are visited by more unique people each day.) MySpace has gradually gained more popularity than similar sites such as Bebo, Friendster, MyYearbook, Classmates.com and LiveJournal to get the highest hit count of all English-language social networking websites. It has become an increasingly influential part of contemporary pop culture, especially in the Anglosphere. MySpace has 300 employees, is owned by Newscorp, and does not disclose revenues or profits.
Before the creation of the current social networking website, the MySpace.com domain name was registered in 1998 to an online storage and file sharing firm. Registration was free and users were able to obtain a small disk quota which would gradually increase if they referred new members to the site. Due to slow service and a lack of revenue, the original site shut down and sold all of its users' information in 2001 CNet, May 31, 2001. [Online storage firm shutters file depot]. Retrieved December 29, 2005..
MySpace is also home to various independent musicians and independent filmmakers who post songs and short films directly on their profile. These songs and films can also be embedded in other profiles. Because of the high popularity, mainstream musicians and filmmakers alike have entered this trend as well.
Contents of a MySpace profile
Each profile contains two standard "blurbs": "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" pages. Profiles also can contain sections about standard interests, such as music, television, books, and movies, as well as specific personal details, such as marital status, physical appearance, and income. Profiles also contain a blog. A part of customizing one's MySpace is uploading images onto their site. One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image," the image that will be seen on the profile's main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user's name on comments, messages, etc. MySpace has also recently added the option to upload videos.
There is also a count of the friends the user has, which is followed by a Top Friends area. Originally it allowed members of the website to select up to 8 (from within Change my "Top Friends") people from their list of friends to be displayed in a certain order as a default on their profile. The Top Friends list is displayed in two rows of four pictures. Although through a large amount of community feedback, the MySpace user may now change this to 4, 8, 12,16, 20 and even 24 Top Friends.
Below this is the "comments" section, wherein the user's friends may leave comments about the user for all viewers to read. Although comments are publicly accessible, many users leave personal comments anyway, allowing any reader to know their business. Many MySpace users will choose to moderate comments, meaning they must be approved in order to be viewed by the public. Comments, once posted, may then be deleted by the host of that MySpace profile or the person who posted the comment for further editing.
Myspace profile layouts can have the entire look changed with many different editors available from other websites. For example; one can change their "Top Friends" to show any number of friends, or hide the feature. Using HTML and CSS, the colors, background and foreground images, table style, scroll bar style and color, could be changed to suit their preference. One can also add music to their profile either by visiting an artist's page and choosing a song from MySpace's music player, or using a customized music player or embedded media file.
There are many people who are making careers out of promotion on MySpace. From bands, to celebrities, to exotic car dealers, many people have found MySpace to be an invaluable tool for advocating their goods and services.
Legal issues
A 14-year old girl sued MySpace, alleging that another user, Pete Solis, 19, lied to her about his true identity. This, according to the girl, resulted in her being sexually assaulted by Solis. The lawsuit has raised questions regarding the measures MySpace has taken to protect users, specifically those who are under the age of 18.
The lawsuit, which seeks $30 million US, states that MySpace has "absolutely no meaningful protections or security measures to protect underage users."
In a separate incident, two New York City teenagers were charged with computer hacking and attempted extortion of MySpace, after both had hacked into the user database and stole personal information, and threatened to share the process of breaking in, unless MySpace paid them $150,000 in US dollars. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles detectives, posing as MySpace employees.
MySpace celebrities
MySpace has led to the creation of MySpace celebrities, popular individuals who have attracted hundreds of thousands of "friends", which may lead to coverage in other media. The June 2006 issue of Playboy magazine, for example, featured a "Women of MySpace" nude pictorial (though ironically, an article somewhat critical of the website ran in the same issue). Among the women featured were members [Jessica DiFeo], [Carrie Vaughn], [Ana Georgean], [Jeska Vardinski], [Heather Lynn], [Chantal Alexandria], [Betty Lipstick], [Heather Lutz], and [Brittany Fuchs]. Through MySpace, such people are able to distribute information regarding their activities, events they are hosting, or projects they are working on (e.g. albums or clothing lines). Though some of these individuals have remained only Internet celebrities, others have been able to jump to television, magazines, and radio. Examples include Christine "ForBiddeN" Dolce's appearance on The Tyra Banks Show and Tila Tequila's cover for Stuff & Maxim magazine.
Furthermore, MySpace's music section has helped many amateur bands progress. This was shown by English band Arctic Monkeys, who owe some of their success to the publicity that MySpace generated for them. When asked about the popularity of the band's MySpace site in an interview with Prefix Magazine, the band pointed out that they did not even know what MySpace was, and that the site had originally been created by their fans.
Lily Allen's new fame is also due in part to her being promoted on MySpace. Also, G4's hit show "Attack of the Show!" has a 'hottest girl on MySpace' section.
Some widely known celebrities such as Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Laetitia Casta, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lulu, Brooke Burke, Michelle Branch, Peyton and Eli Manning, Bob Sturm, Avril Lavigne, and Nelly Furtado are members of MySpace.[Eli Manning's alleged MySpace profile][Avril Lavigne's alleged MySpace][Nelly Furtado's MySpace]
Uses by News Corporation
Since News Corporation owns MySpace, several of its newer projects carry the "My" name with them: as part of the Fox Television Stations Group revamp, its new websites are being branded "My Fox", then the region, point of interest, or call letters. Because of the UPN/WB merger into The CW, Fox is starting a new network called My Network TV to replace the block of programming on stations that are left out in the merger: its name could come from MySpace as well.
