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MySpaceVideo

Wow. I just can't say enough bad things about the MySpace Video experience. I guess I expected it to be bad, but not this bad- especially since fox is now behind it. Myspace video feels like the worst of YouTube. Even the "top rated" videos aren't worth a click. The comedy section isn't funny. The "most viewed" aren't the least bit interesting - and I don't think I'm being harsh. "Featured Videos" included "chihauhau humping cat" and "sexy latina booty." There was quite a bit more racy material than I expected. Nothing explicitly pornographic though, just a little edgy.

I think the audience is even more targeted than the typical 16-30 year old myspacer. I feel like the video section is for the people that spend all day on Myspace. You can see from the user comments-- it's the same pool of users that comment on all the videos. Many of these users are the ones you suspect have an alternate identity-- ie-- they put 1 picture up of a half-naked girl, they have no friends/contacts, etc. After clicking on one of these "half-naked girl" profiles-- my friend informed me-- "guarantee that's a dude." So, what I'm trying to say here is-- from studying the video portion of the myspace site- it seems to be full of the...stranger members of myspace.

Another horrible feature-- is that apparently the "official" user profiles of comedy and film people (do they pay for these?) are able to track who's been looking at their page. I've been on myspace for a few years and rarely receive "friend requests" from any promoters outside the music community-- and after only 20 minutes poking around the site-- I started getting all kinds of requests from the pages I visited. As far as I know, regular profiles are not able to find out who has been looking at their page (unlike friendster).

Other the the obnoxiously horrible content, the myspace video experience is a lot like YouTube. The overall layout of the page and "embed code", "video url", and details like "views, rating, blog this, share this" etc., seem standard for all video sharing sites now.

Other gripes: The "Fox On Demand" link which features full episodes of shows like "Prison Break", "Standoff" and "The loop" does not work on MAC's, only PC's with windows 98 or higher.

The hodgepodge of sponsored videos from advertisers like "T-Mobile" with user-generated content that has titles like "Bootylicious" is confusing and unorganized. Surprisingly, the professional material doesn't look much better than the user-generated content. Perhaps this is a stylistic choice by the advertiser? I could go on, and on.... I'll end this critique with:

Pull yourself together Rupert, your video site sucks.