Given the breakneck growth and millions of Murdoch’s dollars at its disposal, it is even hearsay to ask the question: Can MySpace be upstaged?
Fred Krueger and Evan Rifkin think, no, believe its possible, and their self-funded, six month old start-up, Tagworld will be the one to bring down the giant. However, ridiculous it may seem, the goliath has been slain before. The Facebook and MySpace came out of nowhere and lapped the early social networking leader, Friendster. The roots for Krueger and Rifkin’s ebullience can be linked to David Hornik’s theory on Social Networking 3.0.
Social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Social networks inform the conversations that take place among friends on LiveJournal. Social networks enable the discovery of new music on MySpace.
The Santa Monica, California-based company has built an updated version of MySpace, and incorporates some of the Web 2.0 must-have technologies such as ajax and tags, blogging, social networking, social bookmarking and RSS. The service is expected to go live tomorrow.
Krueger, chief executive of the company says that while there are many discrete services out there, (such as Flickr and Blogger) it is difficult for those non-techies to cobble together a perfect personal page. In other words, they took everything that’s hot, and put it into a blender, and came up with a mass-market offering. Will this “remix” be too much for the mass market, especially when compared to folksy simplicity of MySpace?
Tagworld is making music the core of its strategy. The company will initially offer a gigabyte of online storage space for music, and will upgrade the capacity in the near future. Users can upload their own music to their online locker, and will be able to access that music over broadband anywhere, not just on their home computers.
Tagworld is also working with musical acts (it is signed up nearly 300 acts such as The Shins and The Postal Service thus far) which can upload specific tracks that Tagworld members can add to their playlists. Users can add their playlist to their Tagworld page, from where it can be streamed via a flash-based player. The artists will also be able to access details such as how many times a song has been played, or added to a playlist. Of course consumers can simply use that space to store and share photos. Rifkin believes access to this specific information is going to make Tagworld more attractive to record labels and indie artists.
“We think the MySpace hasn’t improved very much,” says Rifkin, “And that is our opportunity.” Krueger and Rifkin believe that their true competition is MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360, since they are two services that have all the elements of what Tagworld is trying to achieve. The service has a cleaner interface, comes with more storage space, and has many more features when compared to MySpace. Will that be enough to get people to switch from their social networking environment?
Having been a member of MySpace since its near inception I have to say I’m not seeing anything here that makes the average MySpace user say “OMG, I gotta be on here.”
People forget that a big reason that Friendster lost its steam to MySpace was because back at the time Friendster’s site was slow as molasses trying to deal with the crushing load to its servers. Granted MySpace has had its share of load issues as well over time but the biggest problem is one of critical mass of users. The whole point of being on a social networking site is to be linked to other people, friends, etc. What is the point of being on Tagworld when all your friends already are on MySpace?
Furthermore, what percentage of users on MySpace and Friendster:
A) Know what AJAX is?
B) Care about AJAX?
C) Know what social bookmarking is?
D) Care about social bookmarking?
E) Ditto RSS
F) Ditto RSS
And the reason why Krueger and Rifkin believe their true competition is to MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 is because those services have nowhere near the critical mass of users that MySpace has. Heck, just go look at traffic stats for MySpace. There is a good reason Murdoch paid that huge chunk of change for the site.
Basically, at the end of the day the question to ask is wether or not hot 20-somethings are going to ask if you are on TagWorld like they do with MySpace nowadays at clubs and other places. Just my $0.02.
-DES
aggressive marketing + ajax hype = tagworld
It will be interesting to see who ends up buying them. As long as they can purchase enough “users” and traffic, and have a product that doesn’t crash during due dilligence, someone out there will throw down 8 digits.
I agree with the other commenters that this won’t really work to pull users away from MySpace. Also considering all the money they have now, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of big improvements in the MySpace interface.
If any company would buy tagworld.com, then it would be one of the mp3 retailers – napster, real, apple.
ajax – i think its cool, but end users dont care, they just want it to work and look nice. (i think its cool
RSS / tagging, i think (really slow) later on, when its more intergrated in the new windows
my space looks ghetto (old web 1.0), so you can customize it your self, just like your your car with dub’s on it. and most people just look at the pictures anyway.
I showed some friendsters and myspacers riya, now they thought that was cool and they wanted to do that.
tagworld sounds like a weird name? should change it while its still early,
what i like is the storage, interface is nice, but i agree with the first post – stack up on servers cause users hate slow sites.
I think tagworld should let you link your myspace and friendster accounts + free storage, now i would join that!
“Normal” users do not care about “tagging”, “ajax”, or “rss”. They are going to be where most of their friends are, which is MySpace. I think TagWorld will just be another site that gets pushed back to collect dust in the corner.
I remain a TagWorld skeptic mostly because they have unverified registration, which points to bot-based users. Thus I distrust the metrics. Plus looking at the social net and the counts in there, it doesn’t mesh with the usercount.
Plus it doesn’t work on Safari. 🙂
I’m following this (I work at a record company), but I’m kind of dubious.
going after the music audience is just silly. myspace owns it hands down. there is no way i would start from scratch on a new music network.
wazz^
Gotta agree with Adam. The only way to avoid the lag in critical mass is to go after a different type of topic as the hub for building your “D-day” early target market. (D-day as Geoffrey Moore uses the term) Go after being the hub for something else individuals feel passionate about, want to talk about, and that the mainstream media isn’t necessarily doing a good job serving up the right content.
By the way, it sure looks like they’re hoping Apple will pick them up. The interface looks very compatible with Apple. Isn’t the music player Quicktime? Sure looks like it. Though not working with Safari blows that theory a bit.
I am not a tagworld user at this point, but something, anything, needs to come along very soon that has the music networking style and ease of myspace without the dubious connection to Rupert Murdoch. I definitely don’t want his ilk in my “friends network” and I would rather not have my personal information be potential demographic research for fox news, maybe that’s just me though.
While myspace has been a great tool for me to reconnect with old friends and classmates, the site is horrible. The worst are the people who use bad CSS code causing browsers to crash. The site itself is very poorly developed as well. I’ve been hoping a reasonable myspace alternative would pop up. I’ll sign up for TagWorld and hope it takes over myspace.
Tagworld does not support Linux or open source. It is just another vehicle to support software giant Microsoft and it’s “.net” architecture.
It goes against the spirit of community and open source and togetherness that MySpace is so famous for.
Also MySpace is successful because it’s intuitive and easy to use even for non-geeks. The user can deside for herself what she wants in the site or the level of sophisication she desires.
Unless MySpace cannot deal with the quality issues it’s having now and the lack of speed, I doubt tagworld will dethrone it anytime soon.
Maybe if it would support the community (in this case online community and free information exchange) and support Open source technologies (e.g.: Linux) it might stand a chance.
I’m really sick of myspace, and its delays. It was down for 5 hours tonight, and 3 the other night. why cant they get the mass amounts of people on a bigger server, there site cannot keep up with the users, maybe myspace should look and see who is really using it. tagworld is awesome, i deleted my myspace, and invited all my friends to tag. i think it does have the capability of taking over myspace, expecially when you can store so much, upload much more pictures, and put more organization, and catagories into the site. even if you dont want to leave myspace check tagworld out.
addition*
and half of the stuff on myspace also is under maintance most of the time, myspace better think of a plan to hold all of the people, with out having to put the site down so much all of the time, quick.
I have been using Myspace for about a month. I went through and made my page and made it look nice and added a bunch of features. It took me awhile to get things right and neat. I didn’t like that I would get errors now and then. I found Tagworld and signed up. I’m impressed. No errors even in there beta form. Customizing your page is allot better. I like that I can even add more than one page. I like to keep things organized and having everything on one page is not the best way for me. It’s nice if someone just has dial up and can view your page because you don’t have everything packed in. A found a decent amount of people in my area to make friends with and the site is also faster. I can say time will tell. If your looking for ease of use and better features then Tagworld is the way to go.
I’ve been on MySpace for about a year and a half. For about half that time I have been looking for something that had options I wanted. When I finally decided to see what TagWorld had to offer, I joined. If anything, the fact that one can create multiple pages is a great reason to join because I’ve seen way too many crowded profiles on MySpace. Now TagWorld just needs to become more Mac friendly.
Rumor has it that myspace is coming out with a better version of there site on another domain sometime in early march it will be another social networking community site with alot more features even then tagworld. I guess to stay ahead of other sites coming out like TagWorld.com also i heard it will be called http://www.FriendWise.com i guess well just have to see if FriendWise happens.
I’ve just signed up to Tagworld after cancelling my account, because of idealogical differences with MySpace..
Hope Tagworld proves long running and succesful.
I want to be a member.
need to have
Tag World will be the next big thing. Myspace is getting old, they are not updating their content and features fast enough to stay current.
I AM IN BOTH MYSPACE AN TAGWORLD I LIKE TAGWORLD BUT ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE ON MYSPACE SO I AM ALWAYS IN MYSPACE MORE
yea but i i havent used tagworld yet so i dont no wut im missing but myspace is the bomb holmes
I am new to tagworld and I love it!!!!
I am trying to get all my friends and family to move over!
I tried myspace first and been on for about three months, never once did anyone come over to visit my space or ask to chat or have the same interest I did “problem” if you don’t look good or of course not 14 to 22 your not in. Ive been on tagworld less then a week and have met people of my interest and age. Do try it you will love it and it is easier to set up.
ii THiiNK THAT MYSPACE WAS GETTiiNG WAii OUT OF HAND.. PPL TRYiiN TO ADD ME.. SENDiiNG ME DiiSGUSTTiiNG MESSAGES AND THATS WHii DELETED MiiNE AND ii SWiiTCHED TO TAGWORLD AND ii DONT GET THAT THERE… ii’M HAPPii WiiTH THAT! :)AND MYSPACE GAVE ME AND MY FRiiENDS ALOT OF ViiRUSES!! TAGWORLD DiiDNT.. THATS ANOTHER PLUS!! GOOD JOB TAGWORLD!! KEEP iiT UP!!
I am new to tagworld and I love it!!!!
I am trying to get all my friends and family to move over!
I tried myspace first and been on for about three months, never once did anyone come over to visit my space or ask to chat or have the same interest I did “problem” if you don’t look good or of course not 14 to 22 your not in. Ive been on tagworld less then a week and have met people of my interest and age. Do try it you will love it and it is easier to set up.
I will stick with myspace. I like them better. tagworld is ok, but myspace is better. Sounds like most people agree.
Myspace is a nightmare they deleted my account with 400k friends over errors there such idiots I lost a record deal over it.. I couldnt even get a hold of customer support I joined tag world and they email me back right away and help me out etc I enjoy the site much better.. The people at myspace are shaddy/ and need to get there shit together.
Myspace is a joke there cd titled myspace records only sold 6k copys with over 60 million users its a joke and the only people who bought it were those who wanted more pictures on there profile.. While on the other hand tag world gives you unlimited pictures without having to buy some crappy cd with tila tequila who cant even sing to save her life. The whole myspace community is a joke and there top musicans suck … myspace is a dating site and is only good for getting laid.. That is when the site actually works.. They belive they are bigger then they actually are when in reality its just 13 year old girls who are trying to find dates and 40 year old guys looking for the 13 year olds.. From being the former most popular person on myspace id like to say IF you ever want to gain popularity forget it you gotta pay myspace its just a buisness as soon as tom sold it . Myspace limits you to 350 messages a day and limits everything youre doing .. The people who work at myspace are all a bunch of dick stains.
Another thing myspace has tons of pop ups and adds That you can never get rid of. They also have a very annoying captcha system Which just makes me mad when im trying to do something on the site… Another thing is it always says unexpected error When The error was really expected the whole time.. I belive tom is a robot .. Myspace is always down more then someone who just got socked in the face by mike tyson. I love how all the myspace top musicans use programs and tom allows it as long as there signed to myspace records or agreee to not tell anyone he is a robot.
A bunch of idiots who always post bulletins telling you to add there even stupider friends who take shirtless pictures in the mirror. I also love how the usless band hollywood undead who sounds like a bunch of wanna be eminems and ware jason mask from friday the 13th .. Get so much promotion on the site for being nothing more then eminem rip offs with not even a fraction of the talent who dont even play instruments. On the other hand If you wanna use myspace for dating be ready to find out youre date looks nothing like how they do in the pictures. They will be like 500 pounds with painful acne all over the face.
JC Cannegieter
http://www.Number1hater.com
fuck you myspace
Lorraine what are you talking about most people do not agree with you, I think you better go back and read over again!!!!!!!!
myspace is better so shut nthe hell up yuo don’t see many band on their crappy tagworlds site. Also tagworld won’t let you cusotmised you site as much as you can with myspace so agian shut up!
Okay hexagram, are you nuts? You say tagworld doesn’t have many bands? Are you insane. Tagworld has Obie Trice, Eminem, Christina Aguliera, Fall out boy, and a shit load more musicians, signed and unsigned! They have awesome constests that help unsigned acts get exposure too. Take the Snakes on a Plane contest. Tagword members vote for their faveorite band and the winner had their music in the movie!! I am a member of both Tagworld and myspace and to say that you can’t customize youe tag site is bullshit! the only way you can customize a myspace site is by having knowledge of CSS and HTML which not everybody does. I joined Tagworld before I know any thing about web coding and I was able to customize my site just fine with their easy user interface and customizing tools. Now that I know HTML and CSS I’ve taken it that much further!! I’ve seen sites on Tagworld so customized that they look and function like an actual WEBSITE!! Plus the ability to have multiple pages means you can add as much content as you want without crashing somones system, and you can organize your content so it’s easy for viewers to find what they want. Before you tell people just expressing their opinions to shut up you should make sure you know what you are talking about! These people are just expressing their own personal views on the two sites. It is possible to do that without being rude to people who don’t share your view. As far as I am concerned Tagworld blows myspace out of the water, and they are still only in Beta. Imagine the possiblilties. Plus they have excellent user support system which listens to user feedback and resolves issues as quickly as possible. Early on in my membership my site was deleted due to technical error. I sent a message to support and my site was reinstated quickly fully intact with all user stats intact!
i cant even get into that tag world shit, i personaly love myspace and ive been on sience i was 10. i think its alot more people consuming bitches hit me up on myspace
jamerican
I found a link to tagworld.com on myspace…and i havent been back since…Had a fairly respectable group of listeners on myspace after about a year …even better than my paid “loud artist” account at “isound.com” after having been there for about two years…after just one month on tagworld, i am much happier with it than i was with the other two combined (even with 20,000 plays at isound, i havent even been back to check my mail, same with myspace…way too many kids, and way to much crap being passed off as “music”…etc.etc.etc…
–AT8FATES
aka
–HIPPY-GYPSYS
PS.. to any artists out there, TAGWORLD.COM is the place to be! TRUST ME!
Face Buddies LTD have introduced a new a community portal called
FaceBuddies.com When asked why is Face Buddies so unique Managing
Director
Kerr Gracie quoted ‘We offer the user a new experience in all aspects of
community portals. We have new video uploading software for people to
upload
their own videos which would be a great way for bands to promote
themselves
cheaply and effectivley by targeting people who really want to listen to
them,Members can upload as many photos as they want which is unique with
these
types of groups and make a really unique blog along with music that they
may
have produced which would be great for bedroom dj’s and producers, We
encourage people who are wanting to promote themselves and it will be
exciting
to see some of our members express their talent and get noticed and we
hope
they do as we give a opportunity for younger generations to promote
themselves
in a freindly and safe enviroment which we feel other site lack which is
of
prior importance’
Face Buddies LTD can be found at http://www.FaceBuddies.com
I don’t spend much time on My Space but I use to be on TagWorld every day until recently. I’m chatterbox813 on TagWorld but I can’t write or leave any messages to any of my friends because there is a (block user) at the top of the page where change backgrounds use to be and I have been trying to get someone to help me fix this problem but no one has helped me yet. I want to keep my same site with TagWorld if someone can help me fix this problem please contact me at hellis813@yahoo.com because I really love TagWorld and my friends. Please let me know if you or anyone else can help me get back in touch with my friends on TagWorld. Thank you sooooo much! Love, Helen
Is it easy to do THIS with the lame myspace? I think not. Myspace isn’t mine anymore. lol
I don’t think tagworld will ever catch up to myspace but good to see there are alternatives to myspace and the facebook really isn’t in the same league as it just targets college students which is a niche in it self they are the ones that shell out the money not little kids.
TagWorld sounds like much more fun, by the way its better tham myspace,myspace is only photos and friends
great, website!
i like tagworld beter becuse you dont just chat wit ur friends and put pictuers of ur self . from:julie
I hate MySpace. Too many emos, its interface plain sucks, and it’s too restricting and a bitch to customize.
I created my tagworld site, and it merges the “modules” with some advanced HTML and multiple pages to create an almost proffessional website. It’s sick. Check it out at tagworld.com/AmazingAndrex
i want to find out how to be a tagworld member becuase myspace is washed out and will be the greatest website ever
I think myspace is a joke they deleted my account because I was messing around and put 99 instead of 16 or whatever. Myspace is gey and i hope..ugh
Donnie, when you say “99 instead of 16,” are you referring to the age input? Does MySpace monitor that in order to look for users who aren’t trying to make legit content? Interesting!
I’m an ex tagworlder. R.I.P TW. It was good while it lasted….