Lately I have been seeing a growing number of articles/blog posts from people contemplating and arguing over which site, myspace or facebook, will ultimately take over the social networking world. Much of this discussion recently seems to have been fueled by rumors that yahoo is interested in potentially purchasing myspace for the incredible sum of $12 billion. Personally I think that this would not be a particularly good move for Yahoo, for reasons that have nothing to do with which social networking platform is better. Yahoo apparently tried to buy Facebook and didn't succeed so the point of which site would be a better purchase is not entirely relevant. However, I must say that I have enjoyed reading some of the funnier exchanges that this subject seems to have encouraged, particularly this one on the Center Networks blog. In the article, Allen Stern references another post I recently read on TechCrunch which attempts to refute the point that myspace is on the decline and does so by making various comparisons between myspace and facebook. Stern states that he does understand why the two sites keep getting compared and makes the interesting points that "Facebook is a business-oriented tool, while MySpace is for fun." and "While I believe many users may have a profile on both, I am willing to bet that most users are using one or the other. Growth of one does not mean the other suffers. Both can continue to grow independent of the other." He is promptly attacked by a commenter about the validity of these two thoughts.

First of all, I think it is quite ridiculous to say that the two sites do not have significant similarities, especially with many of the new applications that make Facebook just as customizable as a myspace page (the top friends application according to Facebook is the most popular application on the site right now, as an example). The fact that they may in some cases be used differently by different populations of people is not evidence that they are not competitors. And the fact that Facebook has and may continue to serve a different purpose for some users is mostly evidence that they have a better outlook on what users will want out of social networking in the future, not evidence that they are inherently a different KIND of platform then Myspace. I am not even going to comment on the idea that Facebook is for business, as I am not convinced that any social networking site has achieved that purpose, even LinkedIn which, despite the fact that I have been friend requested a lot on the site recently, doesn't really seem to a damn thing for me professionally. I would love to hear from someone who actually found a job from using LinkedIn recently. But that is besides the point.

On the topic of user demographic, which ultimately becomes the basis for stating that the two sites are not competitors, I think Facebook's demographic is and will continue to change as a direct result of the new applications and press gleaned from their release. To use my own case as an example, and I have stated this before, prior to the new platform being released, I never really used my Facebook profile. This wasn't because I didn't like Facebook necessarily but more because all of my friends were on Myspace. Those that weren't on Myspace yet had Facebook profiles because they felt that the site was more mature, private etc. are interestingly those who don't really interact within social networking sites regardless of what they are. These people still only sign into Facebook to accept friend requests or view comments. The bottom line is, there are some people who are first adopters of new or interesting things, but most people, when it comes to social software, will go where their friends are. As more people begin to explore Facebook, they will bring their friends with them, and some may even make the switch from Myspace entirely. I have seen many of my friends begin to use Facebook recently because I became excited about the new platform. They still have their Myspace profiles, and I don't think that will change any time soon, but I do think there is a distinct possibility that they may not want to maintain both in the future.

All this being said, I agree that the success of Facebook does not necessarily have anything to do with whether Myspace continues to grow. Myspace will ultimately succeed or fail on their own in the future. Personally, I have found that I was bored with Myspace long before Facebook became more interesting.