Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Will Facebook Eclipse MySpace? (Part 2 of 2)

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on September 18, 2007

Summary: If you would like to learn why there is currently so much buzz about FaceBook, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 2).

Our guest today is Rodney Rumford who is the Founder of FaceReviews which is a website dedicated to the analysis of applications to be used on FaceBoook.
It is generally agreed that Microsoft became the dominant operating system for office personal computers because it “opened-up” the platform to independent developers. That meant that independent companies like Lotus 1-2-3 and Word Perfect could develop applications software for use on computers that employed the Microsoft operating system. For decades the strategy put Apple into competitive eclipse and only recently, after computers have become media-centric, is Apple making a comeback. But that’s another story, and a good one.

What is relevant to the matter at hand is that FaceBook may be in a position to eclipse MySpace for two reasons. First, identities are authentic on FaceBook whereas many on MySpace appear to be nothing more than sites set-up by software-bots used to spam everyone else. Second, FaceBook has devised a platform that enables independent software developers to produce software that will integrate into the FaceBook interface. This can vastly enrich the FaceBook experience.

The practice could be as profoundly significant to the social networking space as the earlier open-platform strategy at Microsoft was to the competitive marketplace for operating systems.

Length: This video interview is covered in about 15 minutes.