Myspace Vs. Facebook

These two social networking sites are at the top of the heap. Hundreds of thousands of people use them both. So I decided to try them both and see which is easier to navigate, which looks nicer, which loads faster and gets you to the places you want to be with ease. With no notions of either being better or worse and more computer savvy than the average user I embarked on this quest with determination.

First I created accounts at both Myspace and Facebook. From the very beginning Myspace seemed the easier of the two to understand without putting too much time and effort into it. Myspace was easiest to set up and certainly offers much more in the way of customizing the look and feel of your profile. Facebook looked and felt very technical, with no way to customize my profile and make it unique. There are things you can add on Facebook called applications, that sort of customize your profile, if only because you don't have to add them.

Adding friends was fairly straightforward on both sites. I found more people that I know have a Myspace. After adding some friends I decided to tweak the profiles some more. I added music on Myspace, created my own background with my own photo, using my own design. I created a photo album on Myspace as well. When I tried to create my photo album on Facebook, I had terrible problems with the interface, it kept timing out. But I finally got it done. I couldn't alter the background on my Facebook, but apparently there are some applications that add music to your profile. I searched for music and it gave me a lot of returns on the search, but honestly it was confusing. I wanted a simple music player, nothing looked simple. So I didn't add anything.

On Facebook you have 'Applications' to chose from. And let me tell you, there are tons of them. More appearing every single day. The irksome thing is that any of your friends can add an application and send you something via that application. Say they add the application to hatch eggs and send you an egg. You have to add the application to get the egg and/or message they sent you! After I first signed up for Facebook, I added every application that I was sent a request for. Before long it was terribly cluttered and confusing. I began to ignore the requests altogether. But to ignore the requests you actually have to click a button called 'ignore'. If you don't the request shows up every time you login. They build up after awhile too. Very annoying to have to go through and click ignore 20 or more times just to get rid of notifications. Some of the applications are cute and add to the look of your profile. Some are downright stupid and those are the ones it seems everyone wants to add you to.

On Myspace you don't have applications. You can add music or videos fairly easily directly from your control panel. You do not have to search for an application, you just click one button to begin to add whatever you want. It is much easier, in my opinion, to navigate the Myspace control panel and add elements, than it is to navigate the Facebook control panel.

Both sites had ads and that is expected, since both are free to use. The ads of Facebook are unobtrusive until you begin to add applications. Then it gets confusing because you have buttons that say 'send' or 'skip' in several places. Clicking on the wrong thing takes you to pages that are nothing but ads. I feel this is done to be deliberately confusing, so that many people click the wrong thing and go to sponsors ads. I really don't like being tricked into clicking an ad so that page count goes up. The Myspace ads are on the site when you login, they are to the top and side of your control panel and to the top or bottom of each users profile. The flashing ones on both sites are annoying. The Myspace ads are as unobtrusive as any ad can really be though. They don't trick you into clicking or pretend to be something they're not. They're ads and you see that they're ads.

By this point I'm sure you can tell I prefer Myspace. But that doesn't mean that Myspace is perfect. I detest the problem that many Myspace users have had and still have, including myself. Sometimes when you try to login, using the correct username and password, you get a Myspace message that says, 'You must be logged in to do that!'. There have been times that I haven't been able to login for days. I've switched browsers, cleaned caches, temporary internet folders and saved information to no avail. I've read up on this and I always make sure that it's the correct Myspace site and not someone 'phishing' for my password. It's a real glitch in the Myspace network and it needs to be fixed. Myspace tells you all the things to do to correct the problem, but their remedies do not work. All you can do is wait until it lets you login again, which could be anywhere from a few hours to a week or more.

Both sites have 'control panels'. I've already mentioned them briefly but they deserve a closer look. Myspace has a nice neat layout for the control panel. Everything is at your fingertips in a visually pleasing display. Facebook isn't so pretty, nor so easy. It's blocky and generic with the blue and white. It is not as straightforward with options. You have to search for what you want amid the clutter of the announcements of what your friends have done or added or updated. You get the idea. On Myspace you feel like you are really at your 'control panel' and you can change anything you want with a click. On Facebook, it's cluttered and probably feels more difficult than it really is.

Both sites offer social networking with your friends. Both are decent and do what they advertise. But for ease of use and looks, Myspace comes in first hands down. And well I have to admit I hate that tiny box to the right on Facebook that tries to sell me 'virtual gifts' for $1.00. Come on.

That's just my take on Facebook and Myspace. Join them and form your own opinions!