The Rise and Decline of MySpace and Google+ Review

Sentinel Online, now loading the Geekcast Radio

Network of podcasts. The Geekcast Radio Network

presents Social Networking With your hosts, Steve

Megatron Phillips, Mike TFG1 Blanchard, Kevin

Optimus Solo Thompson, and Mike the Birdman died.

Hello and welcome to GeekCaster Radio, episode

29. This will be a two -parter episode, part

one in the social networking series here. I am

one of your hosts, TFJoneMike, and joining me

is Steve Megatron. Hello. Good day, sir. And

our super special Saiyan guest, I guess, Mike

the Bitch -Man Dodd. Oh, I'm sorry, did I butcher

that name? Yes! You did! Hey, guys, what's up?

What's going on, dude? I'm awake. You're awake.

Yeah, you're alive. That's good. Today we're

going to be talking about the creation of MySpace

and the newest social networking platform, Google

+, and so much more. So, Mike, what the hell

have you been up to? Well, pretty much I've been

doing videos for Review A Day. I've recently

started doing those. I'm still doing Twig, as

always. It's looking like I'm going to be a new

contributor on a major news talk station in Toronto.

I've been on there a few times. And that's pretty

much all that's going on with me trying to keep...

the lights on so to speak with uh... all the

content that i put out and it's nice i'm actually

getting paid for some of it now so keeping busy

playing video games uh... living the life of

the married man yes and steve what have you been

up to uh... well as you know we've been doing

the uh... voice contest and behind the voice

actors dot com yes myself kevin and the owner

of the site are the uh... three judges and uh...

uh... we had seventy -eight auditions in the

initial run and then get there done to sixteen

people for the uh... uh... round one and now

they're in their uh... voting and of course we've

had to give feedback and everybody which is taken

a lot of time and some people have been drama

queens well you know you are doing an american

idol s contest so we have a really easy problem

It was quite entertaining to say the least. Plus,

we've been trying to get a special interview,

which I still have not been able to wrangle down

all the way. Yeah, we're still working on that.

We've got a ton of interviews coming up over

the next couple of months. None that we're going

to reveal here, but... I did two cold calls earlier

this afternoon before we recorded this. One was

very fruitful, one I'm waiting to hear back from,

and they will be just amazing. So let's go to

JT from Saskatoon for the Just the Facts on MySpace.

When you talk about social networking, it's hard

not to think of or mention MySpace. MySpace was

once the most dominant of all social networks,

ruling over Facebook and many others. But now,

only 50 million people still log on, despite

the site once boasting as many as twice that

number. What happened to the dominance of MySpace?

The origins of MySpace could be traced back to

2002 at the debut of Friendster, one of the original

social networks. Several members of internet

marketing firm eUniverse, including founder,

chairman and CEO Brad Greenspan, saw the huge

potential of social networking and set about

creating their own network. Using eUniverse resources

and programmers, the project came to life under

the guidance of Greenspan and the soon -to -be

MySpace CEO and MySpace presidents. Krista Wolf

and Tom Anderson. The name MySpace actually came

from Krista Wolf who had purchased the MySpace

.com domain name after the .com bust intending

to use it for a web hosting site and in January

of 2004 MySpace opens its servers to the public.

MySpace quickly became very popular amongst the

online community at the time, allowing the concept

of social networking to really take off. The

advent of MySpace's quickly published blogs,

the ability to reconnect with old friends, and

the built -in customization options became industry

standards, which other social network sites tried

to emulate. And as if a reflection of the online

gaming craze to come, Zynga, popular developer

of such Facebook games as Mafia Wars, originally

got its start on MySpace. However, the most significant

of MySpace's contributions to social networking

had to be the inclusion and popularization of

downloadable music. MySpace provided a different

setup for accounts belonging to musicians, which

allowed the posting and downloading of their

music. Many known and unknown musical acts flocked

to MySpace to take advantage of this new avenue

of digital distribution. MySpace even launched

their own record label, MySpace Records, in 2005

in order to capitalize on the untapped talent

of those posting music on their site. Popular

singers like Lily Allen and Shawn Kingston have

attributed some of their initial success to their

fans on MySpace. Eventually, the popularity and

marketability of MySpace caused it to be sold

to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005.

And what was the going price for the popular

social networking site and its parent development

company, eUniverse, at that time? Approximately

$580 million. Writing high over competitors like

Facebook and Hi5, MySpace held the title of most

popular social network from June 2006 to April

2008, when Facebook began to overtake in the

rankings of social media websites. Since that

time, MySpace has steadily declined in popularity

despite several redesigns of its function and

layout. Several reasons have been mentioned as

to why this has happened. One such theory suggests

that unlike Facebook, MySpace failed to innovate

and include more ways to improve the social networking

experience for its users. And a three -year advertising

deal with Google costing in excess of $900 million

also contributed to MySpace's problems. Other

reasons for the decline include MySpace's refusal

to create a robust development platform outside

of its core programmers and the many security

issues the site had in regards to vandalism and

phishing. Users have started to abandon MySpace

in vast numbers since 2009 and as of February

of this year MySpace only counts 37 million active

members. Attempts have been made to salvage the

company including redesigning MySpace yet again

into more of a social entertainment website and

aligning more closely with one -time competitor

Facebook. The company was also sold once again

this year to an investors group comprised of

interactive media company specific media and

pop star Justin Timberlake. MySpace was once

the biggest fish in the sea and now is struggling

desperately to stay afloat in this new age of

digital media. Can it, or more importantly should

it, be able to gain its former glory? Only time

will tell. Alright, why? So no one sees me log

on to MySpace. Oh god, no one cares, Craig. Craig,

what are you doing behind there? I'm, uh, masturbating.

Nice. Darn it. It's scary in here. I can't do

this alone. Craig, what is so scary about MySpace?

Wow. This place is scary. The distant corners

of one's past always are, Darren. This is a grainy

snapshot of my life from oh, oh so long ago.

Looking back on who I used to be, I barely recognize

myself. Who are you? Who are these strangers

that float ghost -like? Get it out of my web

browser history! Their comments are like cave

paintings. Historians may never be able to understand

their true meaning. Myspace pages are like the

Dead Sea Scrolls of the Internet. Jesus, Craig,

this is just ten months ago. So young? So impressionable

back then! Who's there? Who's there? What's going

on? Who is that? What's going on? It's me, Craig

Blatstein, remember? Oh, hey, Craig! Craig? Sup,

Craig? Where you been, man? Hey, hey, this guy?

He used to hang out with me all the time. Yeah,

yeah, I did. Oh, hey, Craig, check out this awesome

new feature. Now your friends can post messages

about what they're doing in real time. You mean

status updates, like on Facebook and Twitter?

No, it's different. It's not the same. It's MySpace.

Totally different. Tell them it's different,

Craig. It's different, Craig. Stop it, MySpace,

shut up. It's not different. It's never different.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Craig, what the hell are you

doing? I have to delete my account, Darren! No,

Craig, please! You're gonna kill MySpace? This

morning, when I was getting coffee, it was their

own! MySpace? That's so old. I deleted my account

like six months ago. Yeah, me too. Hey, hey,

Craig used to be the MySpace king. Hey, Craig,

you don't still use your MySpace account, do

you? What? MySpace? No, no, it's stupid. I deleted

my account like forever ago, right? My space.

But I didn't delete my account! Because I loved

you too much! Oh, God! You know, I used to be

the way of the future. I had my whole life ahead

of me. But then, Tom... sold me out to Rupert

Murdoch for 50 million dollars! Rupert did things

to me! I was never the same! Now my time has

come, and if I'm gonna be deleted, it's gotta

be by you. You signed up for me, you customized

me, you kill me. No, I can't. Do it! I can't,

please don't make me - DO IT! I can't, don't

make me - The way of the future. When I grow

up, I'm gonna be the biggest website in the world

Thank you for that rousing just the facts JT.

Yeah, my space was my first Experiences so actually

I originally signed up for it cuz I thought it

was one of those stupid dating sites at the time

Mike I just can't picture you using a dating

website. No, I'm not trolling you. Well when

I say that I just can't see it Just just an observational

thing. That's right. Yeah This part has been

edited. You'll never know what was here. I Thought

that was good anyway I think MySpace was actually

my second social network, or actually maybe even

my third. Actually, my first one was thespark

.com, which I used coming out of high school

back in 2000 -something. And it was a website

I used to use for a feature called Spark Notes.

If you needed to read a book and didn't fucking

feel like it, just go there. They tried to catch

me, but I am a master of bullshit. Well, they

did catch me. That's because you're a big purple

dinosaur, man. I didn't go there, Steve. That

wasn't me. I love you, man. But I used it for

the book Wuthering Heights. And there was this

huge community there of people that would just

start talking. I actually met several girlfriends

off that website, so that was pretty awesome.

And then I made the jump randomly to Hot or Not

for years. I don't even see that as a social

network. It was, in a sense. It's anywhere where

people really gather. It was just not the main

functionality of that website. And then I went

to Campus Kiss, and then I landed on MySpace.

My God, I guess I've been doing the social networking

thing for a really long -ass time. I mean, all

right, guys. Well, I guess because we see MySpace

as the prototypical, the progenitor of social

networking, do you guys consider newsgroups to

be a form of social networking too? I would say

yes to an extent because it did kind of spawn

forums for me. And then from there you get the,

you know, what we call social networking now.

And then you got things like WordPress, which

kind of integrate the social networking into

the website instead of kind of eliminating the

news groups and forums altogether. Now, did anybody

here actually hang out in news groups back in

the 1990s? No. I didn't. Myself, I didn't hang

out in news groups. I did hang out in a shit

ton of forums. Besides forums, I think, and I

think MySpace kind of, in a sense, gets the number

one spot as far as the typical... you know, modern

social networking site, even though like you

were saying, Dodd, that there's a bunch before

it that actually kind of set things in motion.

I think it's the one that set the bar in terms

of integrating usability and high -profile -ness,

because I remember when MySpace was absolutely

huge. When I was in college, first year back

in 2006, Everybody was talking about it and I

remember sitting in one of the Mac labs at Niagara

College with a girl I knew named Kayla and just

the amount of social networking. pizzazz she

brought to it. She had so many friends, so many

comments on her MySpace. I was utterly blown

away by it, and there were people I knew through

the college who were making money off of customizing

people's MySpace profiles. I mean, I was really

surprised just how big this thing was. I mean,

I had a MySpace profile for probably... a year

and a half but I only really used it for a year

because then I jumped on Facebook in 2007 I think

I was in I was still in first year but I was

in second semester at college and I think 2007

was I think at the height of the MySpace popularity

because it was integrated with like all the music

stuff actually that's how I found one of my favorite

bands was through MySpace I found What were they

called? Guys night who did the die -hard song

die -hard song And I think that's how they got

discovered by Fox was through my space or it

was through YouTube or something like that So

I've talked enough so you guys share share memories

a lot of people have gotten discovered Through

my space and and in an extension of that YouTube

as well, but this isn't about YouTube We've already

done an episode on YouTube You know when I first

joined up I was like, okay cool, you know, I'll

find these friends I'll find those friends and

then of course, you know in real life when I

actually had a real life back then You know people

that I knew in real life are saying oh I have

a myspace page, you know friend this friend that

and I Started you I tried to start using it to

promote my writing and promote at the time Mid

2007. I got my first book of poetry published

Um, so I just started using the blog feature

on my space and that was really it. And then

I think in, uh, um, after a while, it just kind

of got too bizarre for me and I just stopped

using it. I don't know. It was just too weird.

I mean, the growth spurt that it went through

between like late 2007, mid 2008, it was just.

It had changed so much, and it was just too weird

for me anymore. I don't even know why MySpace

had such a rapid decline. I mean, I have done

some of the reading on this, and they changed

a lot of things on their backend. And like I

was mentioning previously, people were customizing

their pages, et cetera, et cetera. But when people

started messing with the code of MySpace, it

started slowing things down. I remember MySpace

would load like on a crawl and I remember my

college's connection used to fly and MySpace

would just chug and chug and chug and I don't

know why they bothered to do all the back ends

I mean I'm glad that they did to give us profile

customization to do all the things that we wanted

to do but I think it was maybe too much at the

time, like it was just like opening the floodgates

of all these people that wanted to start customizing

things. But when you think about it, when MySpace

did that, that's sort of what led to all the

customization options you'd get in all the different

social networks now. I mean, to a lesser extent,

Facebook, but it opened up application programming.

It opened up so many possibilities to expand

the realm. of what social networking could be.

And that's what I always really found amazing

about it. But I think the problem is it grew

too rapidly. It grew unchecked, which is what

I think partially led to its decline. Yeah. Steve,

what are your experiences with with MySpace?

Well, to go back another step, I actually started

with besides like forums and all that, I actually

started with LiveJournal back when that was.

I remember that. I had one of those for five

years. I'm a loser. Sorry. It still exists. It

still exists because I can still get to my page.

As bad as that is. But I wanted it to be separate

from my MySpace, so I never imported it. My MySpace,

I kind of started on a whim. I didn't really

know what I was doing on it so much. And then

I had a bunch of random people I didn't know

contacting me and I'm I think it kind of weirded

me out to begin with so I kind of took a step

back to begin with and I eventually went back

to it and It just I didn't like how everything

was so custom and then you go to people's pages

and they'd be like 20 pages long if you were

to print it and It just it seemed like overly

cluttered It just seemed like a mess. And then

there was constantly issues with it loading.

And I just, I got sick of it. And so I eventually

moved on. Yeah, my one issue with MySpace is

customization, especially for the profile pages.

Oh my God, people need to pick a fucking color

scheme that you can actually read their fucking

pages. There are some chicks that I knew on MySpace

that... Almost every single one of them had a

pink white and red layout There was a pink background

white text and bright red text everywhere and

I couldn't read the shit for nothing My problem

is was was with all the custom flash animations

Oh god, so you'd have everything just flashing

and it was just so busy. It was It was distracting

to read anything, plus they'd have all these

things that would just automatically load, be

it music or slideshows or something. It just

became too much, and a lot of computers that

I was using at the time just couldn't process

it all, and more often than not, my computer

would lock up. By the time I stopped using, like

I know I was on, and we'll get to this in the

part two episode, but... I think I joined Twitter

before I joined Facebook, but by the time I was

just so fed up with MySpace before I even joined

either one of those networks, the only time I

would ever check it is to get Band updates I

would follow my favorite bands on there. I followed

Nickelback on there 12 stones Theory of a dead

man all of my favorite bands Hall and Oates,

you know stuff like that I would only check my

space to because that's where all the bands were

it turned into MySpace was for artists and bands.

That's really what it turned into and That's

the only reason why I would ever go back is because

at that time That was the only place that artists

and bands were getting their stuff out there

Like if I wanted to hear the new Nickelback track,

they would put it up on their player for fans

to hear it you know this that and the other thing

and everything else and Just after a while. I

just stopped caring. See that's something. I

think MySpace totally they totally had right

the first time is accessibility to bands out

one of uh... are people on twig pierce the punk

dirks has had a lot like because he is a musician

on the side and he has an independent group which

is as far as i would just himself called shoot

the head, and he used to put his singles up on

MySpace, and it's a wonderful platform for artists.

I mean, like you, Mike, I used to follow my favorite

bands. I'd follow CKY, I'd follow him, I'd follow

the Tragically Hip and bands like that on there,

which I thought it was just so cool, the fact

that you could interact with the band, you could

ask questions on there, plus they would... One

of the cool things MySpace did, and I think this

is something that only recently became a thing

on Facebook, And Twitter was playing secret shows.

And I just remember them saying, hey guys, come

here on this date, we're gonna play a show, 200

people, come out and check us out. Or movies

would have them check out, I know what you did

last summer slash MySpace or some shit like that.

And you could get exclusive deals. I remember

video games just have MySpace profiles where

you could get... custom things, I remember even

fictional characters, like you could visit the

Burger King's MySpace and get here, download

a coupon for a free Whopper, just give me your

MySpace URL. It was a wonderful marketing tool.

And it's amazing how much we owe MySpace to the

evolution of how social networking has now come

to now. I mean, looking at Twitter, I mean, it

was a big deal when MySpace integrated status

updates. Yeah, and updating your moods and everything.

Um, I don't know. It's just it's so Interesting

to look back. I mean like like we were talking

about how we've had older things like like news

groups we've had websites like campus kiss and

all that shit and you kind of look at My space

as it was kind of like the first jet plane of

the social networking thing, whereas I guess

the old BBSs and forum groups like that were

like the Wright brothers. Whereas MySpace, hey,

we got a fully functioning jet. And then they

started throwing the bling on it. Yep. Once they

started throwing the bling on it, it went from

a B -52 bomber to, you know, whatever like a

cargo plane is, like the slowest thing on earth.

And they tried to innovate, and I don't think

they had the right people in the right positions,

or maybe they just let it run unchecked, because

their success was so wild. I mean, you couldn't

go anywhere without hearing about MySpace. Think

about how many cartoons we watch. I mean, I know

The Simpsons are referencing. Referenced it rather

the family guy South Park, etc Like say hey check

out my myspace or think think back to the movie

super bad that came out in 2008 as far as I Remember

remember the one awkward guy saying hey guys,

let's be friends on myspace which means that

movie was filmed a year beforehand Yeah, so it

was part of the popular culture back then and

it's just like I said It's weird to see just

how quickly it just took a nosedive because this

thing I honestly believe in some ways it should

still be around, but the problem is they've tried

to copy Facebook so much, they're trying to integrate

Twitter, and they've even said we were no longer

competing. That's because you're not competing

at all. I mean, these guys had a workforce of

some almost 2 ,000 guys. Now they've got what?

Something like 200 maybe? Yeah. I hate to compare

it to this, but MySpace is almost what happened

with Sega making consoles. It just died. Sega's

great for third party games now and they still

produce games and stuff like that, but... After

Dreamcast because of all that stuff that happened

when Dreamcast Sega stopped making consoles.

That's the same thing with MySpace You know you

have Facebook and Twitter and everything else

going well Facebook finally went public You know

you have all that And such a much better layout

on those types of sites that MySpace just became

in a relevant joke at this point. Yeah, it became

obsolete so quickly, but so many people that

were working for MySpace have now moved on to

different companies like Facebook, like Zynga,

and they've led a lot of innovations in technology.

But there's one thing that MySpace, it has a

darker legacy than I think a lot of people realize.

One of the things that's entered the popular

culture and I guess our culture in general now

is MySpace made it really easy to cyber bully

people and one of the things I came across in

my research for this is people have died because

of MySpace Like there was a 13 year old girl

a couple years ago named Megan Meyer I think

I'm pronouncing her name right and she kept getting

all these trolling messages from this other woman

and her daughter pretending to be a boy that

liked her and because they thought she was spreading

bullshit about her and The last message that

was sent on myspace was you're the kind of boy

a girl could kill herself over 20 minutes later.

She was hanging by her neck in a closet and That's

something that myspace drew a lot of heat for

was the controversy over privacy and child pornography

because there was a lot of registered sex offenders

using this to troll for girls and some of them

unfortunately succeeded and that's something

that social networking has the very dark side

like anything that we can use to connect and

do for hacktivism or activism in general can

be turned into something just dark and fucked

up oh yeah like there's like Because of my space

now we have cyber stalking laws passed in several

states People are now more aware of cyber bullying

as a crime and I think there was something passed

in your US Congress Regarding internet bullying

and all that stuff. So it was well Yeah, like

so I'm really glad my space has led to changes

in law But at the same time that law had to be

paved with you know, a road of blood, so to speak,

which is really unfortunate. Now, did you guys

ever encounter any cyberbullying while using

MySpace? I got a few unusual messages here and

there. I never did, because at the time, I never,

like, I would check it maybe twice, two or three

times a day, but after that, like, after that

two or three times, I was done. I didn't care.

I used it early on in the twig days as a haven

to connect with fans, and I'd get the odd, really

threatening message. They're like, hey, you fat

fuck, and you're not allowed to do this, that,

and the other thing. But it never grew into anything

major, but I knew several girls where they'd

post pictures of themselves, and you know how

some girls are. Like, you know, they want to

look pretty, and that's fine, and that's their

right. but they'd get profile messages where

people basically trying to cyber them or whatever

but I guess that's the kind of threat or that's

the kind of risk you take putting yourself out

there and I know privacy was a big issue on myspace

where they had if you were on to sign up you

had to be 13 or 14 and your profile was marked

private until you reached 18 but there were ways

around that so to speak and I don't know I mean

like any thoughts on this guys? That's ridiculous.

That's that's just nuts You know It That's not

even good. I mean, you know if you're there for

you know to interact with people in a you know,

friendly calm way You shouldn't have it shouldn't

just be people on there looking for you know

shouldn't have people on their stocking other

people are sending people threatening messages

or the setting the one thing you mentioned about

the uh... about the dark side of my space the

one thing i will say on the light side of it

right i want to let a crime not really crime

dramas but like detective shows you know forensic

files crap like that uh... there was a story

on one of those shows uh... it's probably a rerun

at this point uh... but uh... of a murder happening,

that this woman committed murder and her boyfriend

at the time actually found out about it through,

like he had her MySpace login page, they were

boyfriend and girlfriend, I guess they share

that stuff, but he had her MySpace login and

he was reading all these messages. from these

other people about, hey, we haven't seen our

brother. Where is he? Something about her ex

-husband or something or else. And they actually

found out what happened through this guy reporting

her to the police. So I guess in one instance,

it was good. But yeah, it's like, wow. The internet

has just turned into a stalking tool nowadays.

Well, and it's super easy to do. Well, yeah,

because there's such transparency between us

and the internet now I I mean one of the things

we can talk about in our in our next episode

is Facebook now has the capability for you to

check in to Places just like Foursquare is the

application says hey, I'm the mayor of I know

7 -eleven at Maine and Broadway or something

and it's weird though just because there I remember

there was a thing a couple years ago where people

We're like, oh my God, it's going to lead to

people robbing your house. Hide your kids. And

I remember so I can't remember if I'm remembering

this correctly. So if I'm wrong, please forgive

me. I think people were using things like MySpace

to stalk Lindsay Lohan and they figured out when

she was gone and they robbed her house. They

figured it was like an inside job or something.

I vaguely remember this. Does anybody know what

the hell I'm talking about? I remember hearing

something about it, but I don't remember what

it was all about. Yeah, for some reason I thought

it was linked to MySpace and them posting so

much information out there. And like Steve said,

it's really easy to get stock these days. I mean,

I myself live a very transparent life online.

There are very few things I keep private. My

phone number usually being one of them after

this summer's incidents. But... It's weird just

how much we want to share on the internet. I

mean, we're a culture of narcissists. I mean,

I'm guilty of this. I mean, look at my Facebook

profile. I got something like 2 ,000 friends.

So I love the attention. And I think that's what

MySpace really tabbed into. Hey, are you vain?

Yeah. Are you hip? Yeah. Are you good looking?

You bet I am. People would just really... just

put it out there. Plus the fact that we could

interact with these celebrities who we thought

might be really checking their Facebook profile

or their MySpace profiles, you know, the odds

are it's just, you know, they're publicist. But

it's such a great it's it was a great tool to

allow those who are holier than thou to connect

with us, the we people. But it just never It's

something that I think Steve you really hit right

on the head how we've made ourselves more open

to it But I think we want the attention Now the

funniest thing about myspace and especially its

modern incarnation like the older one you had

a lot of like weird goofy ways that they set

things up this new version is so myspace or so

Facebook like It's almost sick. They had the

live comment type thing that's kind of on the

side the little ticker bar Except it's more like

a shout box Because I still had one for Predacon

Empire up until about three minutes ago Back

to like 2006 when I started it they have the

like button the comment button the follow. It's

a lot cleaner than It used to be although there's

still people with customized crap They also have

that you're gonna laugh at this one. They have

a Facebook like button at the top of Profiles

now So it's pretty sad that they're cross -linking

to their competition Well again, I mean, you

know, we'll get to this in the next episode what

competition I mean like I could create a MySpace

page right now and I would just see cobwebs and

tumbleweeds going by. I mean, Facebook has blown

them out of the water. But the thing is, some

of the MySpace apps are better than the Facebook

apps. I mean, you can put music on your profile.

You can't do that on Facebook. Now, there were

apps early on before they changed all the copyright.

information there. And I think according to the

Wikipedia article, so take this information with

a grain of salt, it says they want to work with

Facebook to integrate. They're no longer competing.

They want to add to the social networking space,

so to speak, to connect people. And what the

hell is with my wife? Sorry, she's just making

weird noises. Sorry. Wow. Anyway. Oh, it's our

cats. So it's OK. We're fine now. But. Looking

at the myspace profile right now. I'm just looking

at it They've definitely changed the focus towards

entertainment and music and mice and Facebook

does offer that if you're like a fan page or

something like that, but I feel that MySpace

has a better interactivity because you can get

so much interactive content. Whereas Facebook,

you're linking to external sources. Like, sure,

you can like a video and have music on Facebook,

but you have to go to an external site, with

the exception of YouTube, which plays the integrated

videos or stuff like that. Now they are adding

an integrated music ability to to Facebook. Oh,

that's cool. And they also have specifically

the only one that I know, the only one so far

that I've found that really takes advantage of

this is Stan Bush. But if you have a musician's

fan page, you can add a music thing that actually,

I'm actually on his page now. He's got stuff

where it's just like... It's just like the myspace

music stuff where you can hit play all or see

all and you can listen to Whatever songs he upload.

I mean, it's I swear to God. It's just like myspace

It's it's the same damn thing So Facebook does

have that for musicians And I think as Steve

said it's probably coming to to everyone else

as well But I don't know how well I don't know

how Facebook is gonna work that out because of

copyright issues. I mean you can't have You know

everyday Joe Schmo's like us uploading a Stan

Bush song to your I mean I don't know how they're

gonna work work around that my Imagining is there

probably some kind of a thing on the back end

which compares its digital signature now in radio

for example That's how we track airplays. There's

a little digital signal that you can't hear that's

embedded in the music, and that's how they track

it. So it's potential, I don't know. I mean,

you'd better ask my co -host, Steve Saylor, about

this. They could have something where if it matches

a certain digital signal or matches within a

certain degree thereof, they can say, no, you're

not uploading that. Yeah, exactly. So I know

I'm looking at the MySpace band page for the

band Pendulum Pendulum which did a song I really

like called propane nightmare a couple years

ago The MySpace page that I used to know it looks

completely different. This looks a lot like a

Facebook fan page actually almost Line for line.

It looks pretty much like that. I mean, maybe

a few more graphics here and there, but it looks

really well laid out now. Now, if MySpace had

taken this approach years ago, maybe they'd still

be around. They might have still been in competition.

Yeah. I mean, because this past summer, they

were sold to Justin Timberlake for $35 million.

That's a far cry. It's like News Corp paid something

like 500 and something million for them back

in 2000 something. Wow. That's no wonder it's

gone downhill that was sold to an N suck boy

lovely Hey, I gotta say I really like Justin

Timberlake manny. I anyway fantastic actor Steve

any other thoughts on myspace um, I pretty much

think that it other than for music and for What's

left of the people that are still there that

never migrated to my Facebook, which why the

hell didn't they but I think that that's pretty

much the only reason that it's still around other

than that I don't think it's very relevant anymore

because really there's nothing there Yeah, I

can't see it making a significant comeback. There's

just nothing there to draw people in There's

nothing there to draw people in because the model

of a social network at this point is the model

that Facebook uses and all is MySpace would be

doing if they tried to re -innovate themselves

is basically just copy Facebook's model. And

even now Facebook is seeing a decline in new

members. So even I wonder if the clock's starting

to tick for good old Facebook. Things may be

looking grim for them too but now we have a new

competitor. in the scene, which I've got a friend

of mine who's talked this thing, like it's the

second coming of Jesus, the Beatles. And we'll

get to that. We will get to that after JT does

just the facts for Google+. When it comes to

online products, user -friendly websites, and

other assorted gadgetry, one need look no further

than Google. Google has given us many online

applications such as Gmail, the Google search

bar, and the popular blogger website. But what

about social networking? Well, they have tried

before with Google Wave, but sadly that app never

really caught on. However, you can't keep a good

web developer down for long because Google is

back with an all -new social network. Ladies

and gentlemen, this is Google+. Google Plus was

open to the public on June 28, 2011 in an invite

-only beta test format, with only a few chosen

users at launch. However, the number of users

grew rapidly as the initial group had invites

to send out and get others to join. Because of

the crazy demand for open accounts, this came

to an end just two months later on September

20, 2011, when Google Plus was fully open to

the public. Users can now log on to their own

Google Plus through their regular Google account.

Google, already known for its innovative and

popular Gmail and Chrome web browser, are now

putting its considerable muscle behind Plus.

Designed to emulate the hugely popular Facebook

and its simplistic style, Google Plus takes the

old and mixes it with a little of the new. For

example, we now have Circles, which allow users

to group their contacts together and also allows

them to be shared across various Google applications.

You can add people to multiple circles at the

same time using a drag -and -drop technique.

This replaces the Facebook style friends list

that many other social networks have been using.

There is also Hangouts, an easy -to -setup video

chatroom, and Sparks, which alert users to new

topics concerning a particular interest. Eventually,

Google Plus will see most of the other Google

applications integrated into it once a full version

of the site has been fully fleshed out. In such

a highly competitive area like social networking,

Google Plus has already carved out a little piece

of the pie, boasting just over 25 million users

as of August 2011. And despite being out for

such a short time, Google Plus has already drawn

some criticism. Some users are unhappy because

at the initial sign -up, when you enter your

real name and gender, this info is automatically

shared as public information. Google defended

this practice, but eventually added the option

to privatize your personal information. The other

is the design layout. Users have complained of

the lack of customization available and the stark

and simplistic design of the standard Google

Plus page. But, once again, this may change in

the future once a more fully developed Google

Plus is released. Google Plus has only been with

us for a little over three months now and it's

too soon to tell if it will be able to dominate

social networking that we certain other websites

have. But with the programming muscle and accessibility

of Google and the all too common human desire

for something shiny and new, it wouldn't be too

far off to say they may have a chance. For a

social networking thing that just started, thank

you again JT for that, just the facts on Google

Plus. The only the only actual way I heard about

this was actually through Mike the fist of Justice

Laidman He's like I have like a million Google

Plus invites who wants one Like what the hell

is Google Plus Michael Powers sent me one Well,

I checked it out and it's Basically when it was

in its quote -unquote demo mode, I guess they've

taken it public at this point But when it was

in its demo mode It was basically just a loose

version of Facebook is all it was. I don't see

the big deal about Google+. I mean, one of my

friends at, I think I was at PAX. and have taxis

this year my friend justin ecocke is one of my

uh... friends over at uh... new stock ten ten

had like i said had treated google plus like

it was the second coming of christ the beetles

and the return of crystal pepsi it was the most

amazing thing to happen the humanity and i played

around that for fifteen minutes and i know i'm

supposed to be the guy who gets social networking

and all this shit you know mister p r I don't

get it either, actually. I know a couple people

from Twitter and from Facebook and stuff like

that that have migrated over. They haven't fully

migrated over, but they're using it in addition

to Facebook and Twitter. I'm seeing all these

posts from these people and it's like, wow, I

just don't get it. It's basically almost an ad

-free Facebook. I think what I don't like about

is I'm not super familiar with the interface,

and I think that may be why I'm hesitant to migrate

over. I mean, I can't be like Leo Laporte who

just deleted his Facebook account and said, if

you want to follow me, I'm over here. And there

were some other very big tech people who migrated

over to Google +, saying, you know what? You

want to follow me? Here I am. I'm not using Facebook

again. I just... I don't know whether it's going

to have the staying power of Facebook because

it has been... It's a new product and it's entering

into a space against a juggernaut. But if you've

been on Facebook the last couple of weeks at

this point, you know how many people are pissed

off about... We'll get to that next episode.

Yeah, but you see Google +, it's like they're

listening to people. They see the faults of Facebook.

They see the faults of MySpace. And they're trying

to make it look, and supposedly, according to

Wikipedia, once again, take this information

with a grain of salt, but it is sourced, they're

saying that Google Plus may pass Twitter among

US adults online. And this was posted at the

end of August. They're projecting 13 % of US

adults have joined Google Plus and projected

to have 22 by the end of the year. That's a pretty

big thing. I mean, I love Google. I was hesitant

to even get a Gmail account up until a couple

years ago. Now it is my lifeblood. But I just

I can't see Google Plus catching on unless they

streamline the interface. Yeah, the interface

needs to be streamlined. I do like because it

is through Google and it is through Gmail and

the Googling. I don't know if they're incorporated

or LTD or whatever the fuck their initials are

for the rest of the company, but their incorporation

of, hey, look, if you have a Gmail account, you

can also check your Google Plus account. You

can do this. You can do that. And that's great.

The layout and the interface, like I love the

fact that there's no ads, but that'll change.

Well, we probably will once it gets going, but

I don't see Google Plus being a Facebook killer

and I don't see Google Plus going. I don't see

them being. A demise of themselves anytime soon,

if that makes any sense. I don't see them on

the decline because it is something new. I mean,

it's not like. you know myspace is in a decline

myspace is as we said earlier it's it's pretty

much dead i don't think google would have started

this well then again they did try to do that

google wave crap but i don't think they would

have started this with the almost facebook -like

layout of the interface i don't think they would

have started this without you know some sort

of futuristic thing of of you know for predicting

the future for themselves. I would equate Google

Plus to the Cylons with Battlestar and Galactica.

They have a plan. And what that plan's going

to include, I think they're going to work alongside

Facebook. And so I think you're honestly going

to see something happen in the next couple years

where they're eventually just going to merge

somehow some way. Yeah. Because I think Facebook

is a very powerful brand, just like Google. It

would make sense for them to work together. in

my opinion, to create the ultimate social network.

I mean, you would, I mean, if Facebook and Google

were to come together, I think you'd see Twitter

on a very sharp decline. You would see, I think

you just see this harmonious working together,

but I just don't think you'll ever see that happen

because of the management at Facebook. But Google

Plus, Don't know I'm cautiously optimistic. I

just don't see myself using it. I I used it every

now and then like when I first got the invite

from Mike Laidman, but I don't post on it whatsoever

i've tried to like it says oh hey we have a bulk

uploader for photos i tried using it like three

different times and then i eventually just had

to individually upload photos and it's like if

you have a bulk uploader why doesn't it fucking

work correctly it kept giving me error messages

that my photos couldn't be uploaded and it was

like what the hell why do i have to upload these

damn things individually every single time it

it's freaking stupid my guess is that that it

probably works now cuz this thing went open to

everybody on september twentieth so probably

works now probably does uh... steve any other

thoughts or anything you want to add to google

plus at all well i mean i'd like the the fact

that the interface is nice clean easy to read

uh... I like that it's got some of the what I

like that was in early Facebook Or at least within

last. I don't know about two years ago So it's

a lot more enjoyable of an interface, although

I don't still understand why we have to have

these circles Why can't we just you know cluster

everybody in one big fucking pile? But well circles

are almost like lists. They are but they aren't

It's I don't know. It's more of an annoying thing

to me because then I get notifications every

damn time I log in for one. Yeah, but I mean

that's the same thing with lists on Facebook

now. I get notifications from three different

lists and half the time the lists have the same

damn people in them. The thing about Google Plus's

circles, actually Michael Ademan pointed this

out at one point, I forget what the hell we were

talking about, but say you're a comic book artist.

Say you know you have two sets of fans you have

fans that are just now finding you and long time

fans. If you put the long time fans in the circle

of only new comics and the new fans in the circle

of hey this is my comic check it out from issue

one. The long time fans are gonna get you know

have to read every issue. From the beginning.

So. I guess it's okay in that sense. I don't

know see to me I like I like in the fact that

Facebook I can hide people like I'm the one of

his friends so that I can contact them easily

if I need to but I may not want to see every

damn post that they have and Granted I don't

want to have to switch streams based on what

circle it is I don't really care to do that and

as far as like and I'll get into the Facebook

crap later, but The whole list thing to me is

just a useless thing, but I mean I can see the

purpose for other people I just I don't have

a need for it or I don't have the time to sit

there and customize it No, I just want to add

people chat with them and share my crap and then

just be done with it I don't want to sit there

all day Like you used to have to do with like

myspace and like you have to do currently with

Google Plus It's just a mess And and I've been

kind of like I signed up for an account just

so that I had one But it was more so to explore

it and see if I would actually like it. And it's

still not enough to push me from moving from

Facebook over to Google+. I think the framework

is there for something really powerful. Like

my friend Justin Ecock has said, because you

can customize what content you want to share

with who, for people like us in the media and

me across like 10 different things I do content

for, it's really nice that I can share what I

want with who I want. The problem is though,

like Steve just said, it's customizing it. Taking

the time to sit there and say, okay, I want you

over here, you over here, you over here, because

you have so many people subscribing to you and

following you, it's going to take you a good

little while. And yes, I know it's a drag and

drop interface, but we are the society of I want

it and I want it now. I don't have the time.

And I know that sounds so weak and so defeatist,

but I really don't. I mean, with Facebook, awesome,

welcome to my Facebook page, let's talk, party

on. And that's it. With Google +, what circle

do you want this guy in? What content do you

want to share? Now, the one thing I think that

Google Plus has over any other social network,

it's such a minor thing. Can edit my post after

I do it? Yeah, that's what I was gonna bring

up earlier. It's like yeah Facebook should have

integrated should have had that from the fucking

beginning when they went public Well in Facebook

you have to copy your post delete it delete it

and then retype what you want in there and It's

crazy. Just it's such a it. You know what is

it's a fucking line of code Oh, I know it's something

simple that they could fix and they just choose

not to I wonder if, I really do wonder if, if

it's a patent issue. Like they may not be able

to do it because Google plus may hold the patent

on this. And that's why they can't. I don't think

so. I don't think they can hold a patent on being

able to edit because if that were true, no bulletin

board system would be able to do it. No. Maybe

in how they phrase it, like it might say on a

social networking platform, the ability to edit

a post after it is made within this certain system,

it could be just tricky wording. It's possible,

not likely, but you never know because we live

in the age of fucking people over. To me, I think

that. Facebook may address that in their future

incarnation, which again, we'll get into the

next episode with their timelines thing. Just

because it seems like they're kind of testing

the waters right now. Whereas like Facebook's

trying to get some of the things or not Facebook,

Google Plus is trying to get some of the things

right off the get go to try and say, you know,

hey, look, these are some of our perks. You know,

more is coming as time goes on. But, you know.

uh... did you know this is just what we've got

going on that face book doesn't have so hot one

of the things i really like about the group google

plus and this would be awesome for me because

i do so many uh... streams right interact with

my fans on a weekly basis is the hangouts idea

that's really cool and the schools have like

this really big hangout it may have already happened

with like will i am from the black eyed peas

or something and is to be able to be able to

hang out with people with video and voice and

everything That's cool. Now, I know they have

Skype integrated with Facebook. I am not touching

that. I don't like that idea at all. No, that's

too much. Bad touch. But with Google +, I don't

know, there's something about that. There's something

there. There's a real potential to do some really

cool shit, especially in the video game industry

in which I work. If you could premiere a new

trailer on Google Plus and have people hang out

and talk to you, giving you live feedback at

the same time, that's such a kick -ass marketing

tool. You know your demographic. You have access

to all their information because you're connected

to them. And that's another thing where Google

Plus, I think they've gotten into some trouble

over privacy. and the information that you have

to give there. It's a wonderful marketing tool

and Google is the master of getting information

from you. Oh, yeah. Well, especially because

they archive everything that's ever posted on

the net. But another thing that I think that

they may end up doing is think about it with

the Hangouts, with having your live webcam and

everything. You could be holding a live show

there and then right afterwards you could publish

it to YouTube. being that it's all interconnected

within Google. Oh man, that's a really good idea.

That's an awesome idea. I mean, because if they

did that, it would cut the time out of having

to sit there, edit the damn thing, upload it.

Whereas you could probably, I mean, they already

have some basic editing tools on there. All they

have to do is add a few extra features and you

could cut like parts of it out and resegment

it right there with them holding all the video

files right off the bat, and then you could just

throw it right on YouTube right away. No sitting

there for an hour and a half to five hours sitting

there waiting to upload it. Yeah. I mean, because

Google definitely has the processing power. I

mean, they've got server farms that make the

NSA stuff look small. You could have like an

iMovie like editor where you could just edit

the video online, not necessarily in real time

or something like that. But you could potentially

mean the potential for Google Plus is huge. if

they take advantage of it now and listen to the

community feedback they listen to big tech journalists

like leo laporte kim commando and other big people

there's a lot of coolness here there really is

i just i don't think it's cool enough for me

and i'm not saying that because i have an ego

i'm saying that because like most people my age

now i i fear change oh i do too You're only turning

30 this year, for Christ's sake. Well, I'm 25,

but I like familiarity. Facebook is constantly

changing every other week. Yeah, and we'll get

to that. I like the comfort. This is my comfort

zone. I like things to stay the same, so it's

kind of hard to jump ship. With Google +, I think

if they could ... uh... master everything that

they're hearing people talk about and i mean

hell i i've been thinking about uh... eventually

getting to doing a webcam show uh... you know

to some extent not like full -blown weekly but

i i don't know how i would go about it but i

mean if they were to do that i would be more

have to do it because i have no video editing

skills whatsoever i can sit there and i can do

audio all day long but the video that is boggles

my mind Yeah. Google Plus is kind of a wait and

see to see what they do. I know Mike mentioned

earlier about Facebook has really, really weird

management structure. But I think it would be

awesome if Google Plus and Facebook and Google

in general. Facebook Plus. Mashed together. Yeah,

there you go. Now, here's a question when it

comes to looking at some of these social networking

services. Would you be willing And I know this

is slightly not in there, but LinkedIn, that's

another kind of network for jobs. But it's a

huge one that's, you know, that everybody's kind

of joining all at different times. But they have,

you know, basic accounts plus paid accounts.

You can do a lot of it with the basic account,

but you can't, you know, do full profile checking

or full interactions unless you pay. Yeah, there's

a big door in the way for you to use it. But

if you're smart, you can get around it, but not

fully. You can stick your foot in the door, but

you're not getting anything more than your arm

in You know, I mean I think with some of these

social networks I'm the only one I'd be willing

to pay for is Facebook But I don't think I'd

see many people follow suit because a lot of

people like you there's so many different options

out there I think I think for Facebook I like

the community that, at least that I've built

around myself. I mean, looking at my Facebook

profile right now, for example, I'm up to 1 ,700

people plus. On Google Plus, I think I'm maybe

100 something. I just, I should really get around

to fixing that before that number grows to like

1 ,000. Or MySpace, the most I ever had was,

I think maybe, I don't know, maybe 1 ,200, maybe.

And it never felt personal. There was something

about And when you think about it, when you really

compare Facebook and MySpace, you see how similar

they really are. And Google Plus seems to be

pioneering something new. Yeah. In a sense. I

mean, like I said, it's exciting times to live

in when it comes to seeing how this social networking

evolves, how all this technological primordial

soup is now coming to a head. We've already seen

it evolve into MySpace. We're now seeing it evolve

into Google Plus. I guess what's the next step.

I think Steve hit it right on the head. Facebook

Plus. Yep. And on that note, we hope you enjoyed

this episode of GeekCast Radio. Wish you'll join

us next time when we'll be talking about part

two of the social networking spotlight when it's

almost going to be a face -off between Facebook

and Twitter. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with Steve

Megatron Phillips, Mike the Birdman Dodd. Thank

you for listening, until next time. No, this

is private stuff here. Hey dad, I need to borrow

some money for medicine and... And with Google

Voice, we now know every word you say to your

friends and family. What? Seriously? Why? So

we can serve advertisements specifically targeted

to your lifestyle. I am so not comfortable with

anyone knowing this. Now we're taking it to the

next level with the Google Toilet. Oh no, you

gotta be kidding me. Our data mining technology

can literally sift through your sh** to deliver

the ultimate targeted ads. Indian food? How'd

you know that I liked Indian food? Oh, yeah.

And it automatically updates your Facebook page

with your toxicology report. Are you nuts? I

don't want anyone to know that. What's going

on here? Too bad. Now all your crap is cataloged

information that can be bought and sold. Information?

This is my life. My private life. Hey, you registered

for a free toilet, pal. Now take another shit

so I can tell you where to shop. No, this is

out of control. How can I trust you with so much

power? Relax, we're just Google. What's the worst

that could happen? Daryl Nash at 14 Brooks Avenue!

The United States government is not cool with

the way you're living your life! You, sir, are

a freak. Yeah, something doesn't smell right

about this guy. What are we waiting for? Let's

take this guy to Gitmo! Uh, sorry, dude. They

Googled you. Nothing I could do to stop them.

What happened to our privacy? What happened to

the Bill of Rights? What happened to living in

a free country? Google. We're way up your ass.

You've just listened to Geekcast Radio. On the

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