I’ve recently started using Facebook a bit more because more of my friends, including my boyfriend, have signed up (it’s not quite the same when it’s just you.) After using it for just short while, you really start to realise just how much MySpace is missing. Simple things such as using AJAX to make a new post without a page refresh or the way it keeps track of how you know people and doesn’t encourage the competition to get the most friends that we see all too often on MySpace. My favourite feature that I now always pine for when I’m on MySpace is that of tagging people’s faces within photos. This is such a fantastic feature, allowing you to easily know who everyone is and see how they know each other. Of course, there is also the fact that Facebook is beautifully put together and doesn’t allow people to desecrate their profile with custom CSS (Hoorah!) and the way the site is implemented is fantastic and above all it’s fast.

The funny thing is though, as well all know, MySpace still reigns high – but why? Well I looked through some groups dedicated to saying that MySpace was better than Facebook and the general consensus from these people was the lack of customisation, music and, to my absolute shock, the fact that MySpace was “prettier”. The last point is certainly down to your own opinion, but the first two could certainly be applied to many users. For me, I love the lack of customisation – I disable nearly all custom styles on MySpace anyway but I suppose allowing a little customisation wouldn’t hurt. Maybe allow people to change the colour scheme of their page to give a little bit of an individual edge. For music, I think it would be nice for Facebook to start looking into getting music onto people’s pages. MySpace built itself off of its media-centric approach, and I think Facebook could draw in more users by going down a similar path. Arguably, this would be a big undertaking considering how much time MySpace has had to get ahead, but if they could strike a few details with some of the record labels (don’t scoff, I’m sure they could do something) they could at least make a start in making music an integral part of the site and thus giving MySpace a bit more bother.

Few things I would like to see Facebook do is allow us to see big versions of photos of people who aren’t on our friend’s lists. Sometimes you need to see a bigger photo to see a face and remember whether you know them or not – for example, an old school friend. It’s only a minor problem, but it is a bit frustrating when trying to find someone and all you have a is a tiny thumbnail that may as well not be there in terms of trying to visually recognise someone.

Overall, I think Facebook is definately on the right lines with what it’s doing. It’s strong presence in University groups is certainly a positive thing because it creates a viral effect where by people get their friends to join and so on. Aslong as Facebook continue to innovate as they have done so far, they’re sure to maintain and most likely surpass their current popularity with ease.