by James Tennant

Created on: November 05, 2009   Last Updated: November 26, 2009

Social networking is a hugely popular element in everyday life. Millions upon millions of people have either a Facebook account or a MySpace one, in many cases, even both. With the success of Facebook and the decline of MySpace, perhaps it is time to find out if Facebook has indeed, put an end to MySpace, or if the latter still holds its own.

Facebook:

Since its release in 2004 Facebook has taken over as the world's most popular social networking site. What MySpace had started, Facebook had simplified, improved upon and taken to a new level. Facebook offers people the opportunity to stay in touch with each other from wherever they may be. Lost friendships can be rekindled, lifetime friendships can be maintained and it brings the world closer together.

Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in his University Dorm room at Harvard University. It started life as a program for fellow University students to use before expanding into the global networking site it is today. It went through several different names and versions before reaching the one we are all familiar with. "thefacebook" was the initial version which was so successful so quickly that the entire Facebook concept effectively snowballed.

MySpace:

MySpace was certainly the trend setter for social networking. When it came out in 2003 there was an explosion of people who joined up and used it as a way to communicate with friends, and meet new people. On August the 9th 2006, the 100 millionth account was created, an impressive statistic. What MySpace mainly offers over Facebook, and is often mentioned in comparisons between the two, are the customisable elements of each persons web page.

Allowing people to create their own pages using animations and colour schemes added an element of customisation that was probably a little too much. People can also add music to their home pages, which, for bands and musicians, is a great way of showing off their music. However, when accessing a friend's page, having to listen to their choices of music is not always preferred. All these little distractions being added to pages meant that load times went up. The longer a page takes to load, the less enthusiastic people are about accessing it. People could also be faulted for choosing some garish colour schemes, it made accessing MySpace a little annoying.

Compare and Contrast:

The question still remains then; has Facebook put an end to Myspace? A direct comparison between the two will be helpful here. First off, why is

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