by NikoRad

Created on: November 07, 2009   Last Updated: November 26, 2009

Unless you have spent the last several years under the largest metaphorical-rock in history, you have heard about Facebook.

Coming from its humble origins as a social networking tool restricted to college students only, Facebook has skyrocketed to internet 'celebrity' status. It is now free to join for anyone above the age of 13, although it still tends to appeal largely to the college age crowd. For many, it's a virtual address book of sorts, giving quick access to anyone a user has accepted as his or her 'friend'.

For many others, it is also a way of quickly sharing photos, easily organizing events, playing games, and promoting personal ideas.

You know...this all sounds really familiar...wasn't there a similar phenomenon only a few years ago?

Perhaps you've heard of a little thing called MySpace?

It really is amazing to consider how the tides of inter-web popularity have turned from one social network to another. MySpace was the undisputed king of social networking sites only several years ago, also becoming one of the most important marketing tools for bands, movies, interest groups, and celebrities.

But then Facebook came along.

Whereas many MySpace pages were cluttered enough to make anyone with an iota of web design aesthetic puke, Facebook ensured a simple and clean interface across the board for all users.

Whereas MySpace amassed an erroneous amount of information at the top of its users pages, Facebook made sure that the forum (called a user's 'wall' on Facebook) was the first thing people could view, with all other pertinent information only a click away.

MySpace also had a problem with being difficult to navigate once it hit its peak years. Its emails became spam-like, the box-based interface became monotonous, and it just seemed that there was a better way. Facebook became that 'better way' for people, with its tighter integration and more user-friendly approach.

So what is the future of MySpace? Has it run its course, now sailing slowly into the misty horizon, soon to be an obsolete memory?

It doesn't seem that this will be the case anytime soon. In fact, this mass migration of individual users from MySpace to Facebook has left the MySpace world open to many important groups - namely, music bands and, to a lesser extent, independent projects (special interest groups, small-budget films, and other entertainers).

Because, despite the growing appeal of Facebook, MySpace has one hand up on it for anyone looking to reach a large online audience:

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