I created a MySpace account today. Several of my friends have a MySpace account, and I realized if I want to be able to read their MySpace pages, I need an account. While I was in there I went ahead and filled out my profile, even though that’s not really required to look at other MySpace members’ pages. Let me just say that MySpace.com must have one of the most horrendous user experiences of any web service I’ve encountered. Aside from the fact that the site is just plain ugly, it’s UI is laid out very poorly, and is very user-unfriendly. Switching between your Home page, and viewing your profile requires that you use your browser’s back button. There is no link from your profile page, to any of your profile settings. Inviting people to be part of your network is a huge hassle. I spent probably 15 minutes just trying to figure out how to do it, and once I figured it out I thought that the process was bloated and inefficient. Also, the search engine used for searching for people on MySpace isn’t very powerful. You can search by name, and then can only narrow your search by geographic location. How about further narrowing your search by keyword? Or age? That would come in very handy. I found myself clicking through pages of search results for my friend April, because I didn’t know where she lives now, but new she was a couple of years older than me. Narrowing the search by age would have helped a lot. (I’d also like to note that in all my searches, probably 80% of all the people that came up were in the 14-21 year old age group.) I don’t like MySpace at all. For the most part I feel that it’s just the new web-trend for exhabitionist teenagers.
Geez, I’m getting crotchity and old. If I’m not careful I’ll be yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn…