MySpace's Melting Makes Murdoch Mad

Barence writes "Facebook has overtaken rival social network MySpace for the first time — provoking an angry outburst from Rupert Murdoch, the man who paid $580m for MySpace only three years ago."

aargh

[MrDoh!]

No more pirate/vampire/werewolf invitations, please...

Facebook started off a great site, fast, clean design, it's now incredibly slow and hard todo anything, whereas myspace actually is improving.
Still waiting for a mybook, or facespace to integrate the messaging.

Re:Mad? Really?

[gnick]

I've read the linked article a few times and I'm not sure where there is anything to indicate he is mad.

Duh. The title: "Murdoch fumes as Facebook overtakes MySpace"

=)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:aargh

[urbanriot]

Why not just block the apps you don't like? Or block all third party apps altogether? I haven't seen a pirate/vampire/werewolf invitation since 2007. Come, join us in 2008, it's nice here.

Re:Facebook won't last

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook is on it's way out too. I stopped using it when the plethora of stupid dirty looking applications starting taking over everybody's pages making facebook look more like myspace.

Now facebook is even spammier than myspace, with hundreds of applications I can't stand, and all their invites. I have to "add" an application in order to view it. I don't want to view it. I don't want a "drink" invitation, or a "pirate" invitation. Leave me alone.

  This is why I quit Facebook [fredrickville.com]

Murdoch? Is that you?

Re:Duh

[oahazmatt]

How could a UI disaster that informs a user who has problems logging in that "you must be logged in to do that?" and that lacks any kind of official published API possibly win?

It relies on the "0MG P0ni3s!!!" principle. It's complicated, but it basically states: Provide one location with availability for publication of emo-centric blogging with equal possibility of generic, monosyllabic, glitter-font responses.

Re:Maybe it's because

[TheRaven64]

I have this line in my user CSS:

A[HREF*="myspace.com"]:after { content: " [BRAIN DAMAGE WARNING]"!important ; color: red }

It puts a nice read [BRAIN DAMAGE WARNING] after any link to MySpace. I stopped accidentally clicking on them after I added that.

Re:Mad? Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

We call it "Faux" news because it is. Learn this: Fox went to court and defended its right to knowingly broadcast untruth as news because the law does not specifically say they can't. Again, in case you still don't get it: Fox defended its right to broadcast lies that they knew were lies.

And that, among other reasons*, is why it is "faux".

http://www.2dca.org/opinion/February%2014,%202003/2D01-529.pdf [2dca.org]

http://www.foxbghsuit.com/ [foxbghsuit.com]

* blending opinion with news and calling it objective
    putting only one political view on the air and calling themselves "balanced"
    reporting as factual news (and almost verbatim) the "talking points" released by the GOP

Should have spent more money on tech?

[SanityInAnarchy]

I don't know how bad Facebook is, but think of every story, every complaint you've ever had about Myspace, technology-wise.

It's worse than that.

Simple example: Trying to pull tour dates from Myspace. Too much to expect that they'd have a working iCal feed, or that they'd put hCal on the page. Fine, we'll scrape the HTML, no problem...

No, the real WTF moment was the month (I think, might've been more) during which none of the calendars worked.

People joke about Twitter being unable to scale, but really, you'd think with the amount of money Myspace pulls in, they'd be able to hire one good tech person? I'm guessing that's a major reason people are going to Facebook.

Re:Mad? Really?

[operagost]

WTVT is a local Fox affiliate, not the Fox News cable channel. Claiming they are the same is like claiming everything on MSNBC must be biased in favor of Microsoft. FAIL.

Re:Facebook won't last

[deadmantyping]

Go to Privacy -> Applications -> Other Applications

Re:Facebook won't last

[Bieeanda]

There's also Greasemonkey and a lovely little script called 'unfuck facebook'. I haven't been bothered by vampires biting me, pirates grabbing my booty, or idiotic shit on my friends' superwalls since I installed it.

A feature, not a bug

[acb]

The lack of proper calendar formats on MySpace is a deliberate feature, much like the way that notification emails from MySpace omit the actual details (i.e., the message someone sent you, whose birthday you're being reminded of), to oblige you to log in, click through an interstitial ad and view some more ads.

If MySpace allowed you to see your data through any means other than their ugly ad-plastered web pages, they'd lose ad impressions.

Re:Mad? Really?

[raddan]

But wait-- you're only talking about the final appeal, which Fox New Corp won. What about the earlier trial, in which the jury found that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH" [wikipedia.org] and subsequently awarded the plaintiffs (the reporters in question) $425,000. The fact that the case was overturned on appeal, by a technicality, does not change the fact that Fox News Corp's actions were unbecoming (i.e., unethical) of a real journalistic organization. The facts you are looking for can be found in the court documents, which are public record.

Finally I found a use for...

[Derosian]

Google Trends. [google.com]

Dan Rather

[DesScorp]

"Just look at the Dan Rather incident, he wasn't even responsible for that content, and he got shit canned for it. Rather's job on the show was to read the news, whatever was given to him and do the show, shows like that never have the anchor do much beyond that and a few interviews."

That's a crock, sir. Dan Rather was not an innocent bystander in the reporting of that story. He wasn't a stiff mannequin that simply read what the teleprompter told him to say. He was deeply involved in the preparation of that story, and got fired because he refused to refute it, even when evidence proved the documents were faked with a word processor. And to this day, he still defends the writers and fact checkers of that story, all evidence that they screwed up to the contrary.

Re:Crazy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only on the east coast. Some of us live in central time.

Unique as in uid=905905

[paulthomas]

They likely mean "corresponding to a real person" by unique visitor, not being unique to the period. If we assume 200 million unique visitors in a year, 120 million of those people could be visiting every month, thus 120 million unique visitors a month. The other 80 million visitors from that year are the sensible ones.

Multiple browsers can skew the figure. If a myspace user has a work computer, a home computer, and an iPhone, he will appear as 3 unique visitors unless he is logged in.