Why Facebook is better than MySpace

Considering that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought MySpace for $580m (£315m) [1], he is probably not very happy with the opinions that I am about to convey. But in all honesty I doubt that I am alone on this topic.

The fact of the matter is that MySpace and Facebook are both social networking sites, although MySpace has a distinct edge over Facebook in that it has a bias towards the music industry. Various record labels and artists have their own profiles, using it to display their material and communicate with fans. In contrast, Facebook is entirely on a personal basis and leans towards photo-sharing.

I've got no problem with the MySpace focus on music: in fact, that's actually all I use it for and I think it is a fantastic idea. Now fans can stay much more up to date with their favourite artists and discover all sorts of new music all over the world incredibly easily. MySpace in that regard is quite possibly one of the best things since sliced bread.

My gripe with MySpace is that the actual website is absolute rubbish. It is slow, messy, poorly designed and the search function is terrible. As an example of poor design, when a song is running on the profile of an artist, in order to add the artist as a friend, or view their photos, the music stops. Now this is not a big deal when using it occasionally, but for people like myself who use the site to trawl through new bands to find new material, it really becomes a big deal pretty quickly.

The site is so visually noisy as well, in contrast to the clean lines of Facebook. This is, in all fairness, largely down due to the fact that the user can actually edit the code dictating the appearance of their profile using html code itself. Also the site is a lot more advertisement-intensive, no doubt due to the rule of the News Corp. For comparison, Facebook only contains at most two advertisements per page, a side banner and a discrete banner at the foot of the page.

Facebook is constantly being updated and developed by Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of his team, whereas the legendary "Tom" and co. of MySpace seem to change very little at all. In fact in the 10 months or so that I have been a member, the only significant change being a little button to flag up a friend request as spam; whereas during the same period Facebook has been through a major aesthetic revamp and more recently witnessed the addition of Facebook Applications. This allows users to add applications to their profile from independent sources in a way that it is "turning Facebook itself into a kind of operating system for internet users" [2].

Overall I am a fan of the service provided by MySpace, but I wish the developers would get their fingers out and make sure they do it in a better way! I think it's time for Murdoch to get the chequebook out and bring in the coding cavalry. Before they start losing even market share than they are now.

Sources:
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5101942.stm
[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6907895.stm

Hadouken! Mixtape

I can't believe that I didn't mention the awesome mixtape made by Hadouken that I found last month. It contains tune after tune after tune, and is definitely the sound of this summer. It is totally free and available legally for download by clicking on the link below:

Download free Hadouken! mixtape

Personally I think this band are so fresh and just going to explode into the charts with their debut album, which according to the band is going to be called Repetitive Strain Industry. I'm quite tempted to put a bet on it reaching Number 1; if you could get odds on it I think they would be quite favorable!

Alan Johnston Freed!

Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter kidnapped by Palestinian militants and held captive for more than 110 days, has finally been released. Let's hope he enjoys spending some quality time back in the UK with friends and family before rushing back to the Middle East!

End of Erasmus

So, it finally happened. On the Saturday 30th of June 2007, I caught a plane back to England, marking the end of my Erasmus placement at the University of Cantabria. A sad day that I really hoped would not come, but as they say: all good things come to an end.

My final exam was an oral presentation in Spanish explaining my thesis. After this finished, I wandered over to the International Relations Office to get my form signed confirming I had been a student there all year. After, I dumped my stuff at home and made straight for the Segunda Playa de Sardinero to enjoy the excellent 27 degrees and blazing sunshine. Nothing like a cheeky bit of after-exams sunny beach Pimm's! No wonder I'm such a happy chappy in the photo!

The my final night in Santander involved the classix rendez-vous in the main Plaza before heading out to BNS, a club literally on the beach front (Primera Playa de Sardinero). There we enjoyed the delights of both a beach party (complete with guitars in addition to multi-lingual crooning and multi-national banter) and the nightclub itself. It was a fantastic night and my flatmate, his brother and I stayed on the beach, singing and playing the guitar until sunrise, with the company of a random Spanish group who were a very appreciative audience!

So after (eventually) arriving back at the flat at 10am, we embarked on a marathon 4 hour cleaning session still devoid of any repose at all! When the landlady finally came to collect the keys, all three members of the flat (and the brother of one) said our final goodbyes and then I made my way to the airport. Here's a funny photo of us in our kitchen at about 10.30am during the clean and final goodbyes:


I am going to miss all the people I met there massively, especially my two flatmates, you boys are top dollar! All the best to all the people who were graced with the joy of my presence over the year and thanks for helping make it the best year of my life so far!