Myspace.com was launched in 2003 by Brad Greenspan as a social networking website with an interactive user-submitted network of friends, photos, music and the like. The intention was for it to be shared by everyone, teens and adults alike. Seemed like a great idea, providing a medium that bridges the gap between the young and the not as young generation.

This new social networking thing took off like a rocket, and by 2006, Myspace had become the most popular social networking site in the United States. It was never quite able to catch Facebook on the international level, but domestically it had carved out a huge slice of the market, landing it’s 100 millionth account in 2006. Did that person get a prize?

Today, Myspace has roughly 1000 employees after having laid-off 30% of it’s workforce. So what happened that this once hot-spot on the internet eventually lost a good bit of steam?

I’ve heard quite a few opinions on this and the criticisms have been wide-ranging.

To begin with, many Myspace pages were created by individuals with little or inadequate html coding skills, which led to all sorts of accessibility problems and complaints against the site operators about how things “don’t work”.

Anyone can customize their profile page without restrictions, so long as the ads remain visible. The placement of wide bandwidth videos, flash and photos only exasperated the problem. The result was freezing browsers and more complaints about the site’s architecture.  Bum rap? Maybe, but why allow this to continue?

What I began to notice early on was that the site’s security left a lot to be desired. Spyware and worms were being released at a frightening level, with many infected home computers being seriously compromised and damaged by malicious individuals.

There was also the phising expeditions where passwords were hi-jacked by embedded Quicktime videos that contained hyperlinks that activated javascript, eventually stealing your login information. This led to an outbreak of “Sir Spamalot” activity.

The once promising cutting-edge site had serious unintended consequences which removed all attractiveness, for me anyway.

But the most disturbing aspect of the site’s design was the breakdown in security which led to the young, trusting generation’s victimization. The horror stories began to surface about private photos being downloaded by the hundreds of thousands, a horrifying thought for the parents of teenagers and young adults.

The rendezvous setup by adult predators to meet teenagers, the party announcements which spread like wildfire attracting “gate crashers” at people’s residences and a host of other unwanted attention focused on the unsuspecting young, all have contributed to a negative view of the service.

In 2007 some 30,000 profiles belonging to known sex offenders were uncovered.

Sure, they have a minimum age requirement to register an account, but kids can do the math and they know what year of birth to enter to get around this, often with a parents’ permission. These public profiles were and are nothing but trouble unless they are closely monitored by a parent or guardian. After all, it is the responsibility of the parents to protect their kids.

In any case, the negative and sometimes tragic stories associated with Myspace have had a cumulative effect on the social networking site. This has been very unfortunate, as the underhanded behavior of scumbags exploiting the system helped pull it down to an unacceptable level of interaction for many potential users. The word was out. Stay away from Myspace.

In fact, many schools, public libraries and employers have restricted access to Myspace. With all of the negativity, many have determined that it is best left alone.

So where does the company go from here? Can they rise from the seedy ashes of the past?

The Myspace story is a troubling one, full of legal issues involving music artist rights and darker human exploitation stories. In the end,  I think that they will regain some measure of respect, although it is questionable as to whether or not they will rise to a level of acceptance on a scale of FaceBook or Twitter.

People tend to remember bad things for much longer than many would want to admit. It’s really tough shaking negative publicity.

In February of 2008 Myspace launched a platform that allows developers to write their own applications. From this perhaps a more stringent social networking model will arise with policies that will insure security for the younger generation, while not becoming a hindrance for all users.

It’s a tough balancing act, but the company’s future is staked on someone, somehow reworking the infrastructure of this service.