It appears that the bells are tolling, the organs are playing, and the funeral for MySpace may be imminent. Why is it that in three years this company went from being #1 on the internet to nearly becoming another member of the digital graveyard?

I believe MySpace was a social media pawn played by Microsoft and Google in an attempt to beat each other out with Facebook sitting in the middle benefitting handsomely from this crusade. Read the Tech Crunch article, “How MySpace Tom May Have Inadvertently Triggered The Google/Facebook War,” which supports my argument.

To return back on topic, MySpace used to be the place to be back in the heyday. I was persuaded to sign up for an account in the summer of 2004. Before going social, I kept my online friends limited mostly to my high school buddies and a popular music program forum.

The reason why MySpace lost ground was because it was nightmare to load pages and navigate. Users added several HTML and CSS modifications to their profiles that it essentially crashed internet browsers, not to mention the flashy backgrounds that made a disco party rather pleasant to view. When MySpace cleaned up their site and disabled many of their customizations, Facebook already beat them.

Not to knock them down, they did a great job courting musicians and major brands in a way that has been phenomenal. Plenty of bands promote and share their music through the site which they can incorporate visual aspects of their website into their MySpace page. Lately they have moved to “Social Entertainment” and leaving businesses to reach their customers using other forms of social media.

Has MySpace been edged out of social media stardom? Perhaps, especially if they have bowed to having a “Connect with Facebook” button on their front page.

Roger co-presented with Greg Koch on “The Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Networking Sites” at the Annual STC Summit in 2009 and a similarly titled presentation for the  STC webinar series in September 2010. At the time, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn were the social networks to use.

It’s been less than a month since I started using G+ (Google Plus, Google+) and I absolutely enjoy using it. I don’t automatically love it like a zombie, but it has the look and feel of the major social networking sites except that it contains unique features that are not easily found elsewhere.

I patiently waited for my G+ invite from a tech friend of mine who went to high school with me and when I jumped on board, it was a relief to find similarities and differences between the other social networking sites that I’m signed up for.

I won’t delve much into the similarities. G+ utilizes a stream, which like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, show the activities of users. It is similar to Twitter in which people who share public posts will show up on your stream and similar to Facebook which certain users can post content and have “friends” freely comment.

G+ Welcome Page

What stood out the most was Hangouts, Circles, Huddle, and the various integrations across some (and hopefully all) Google properties.  My two best friends and I engaged in Hangouts for the first time since we haven’t seen each other in year and it was a pleasant experience to hear their voices again.

Instead of the fumbles that Google Buzz and Wave experienced, G+ appears to hit the right spot and Facebook may have some head to head competition. Google has integrated parts of the G+ experience across the sites and launched mobile versions that actually work. I hope they can keep it up and make it worth using often.

G+ iPhone App Version

G+ Mobile Version

Jump on the bandwagon and add me to Google+! Find me at http://profiles.google.com/roger.renteria

I have a Circle made especially for technical communicators and I would be honored to have you included.

In this day of smart phones, it is super easy to blast out an angry Facebook update or Tweet from nearly anywhere. Rather than ranting out-loud to people within your vicinity, it may be easier to vent online. The only issue with publicly ranting about superfluous issues is that everyone in your social networking circles can read it and respond.

Lately my own experience has been to think about what my Facebook friends or Twitter followers might think if I posted a silly rant or something unprofessional. I am aware to keep in mind that I am a professional and that there are new and potential opportunities out there. I would rather keep my ranting to my close circle of friends and share my positive experiences with everyone else.

I have seen my friends share their frustrations online and it can be a high class dramatic act played out online. One of my favorite examples happened 4 years ago when a friend decided to lash out on Facebook against another person. What made it interesting was the individual who initiated the rant was one of the most popular people  on campus. It didn’t go well for the victim because people tended to believe the misinformation and other people from the peanut gallery added more fuel to the fire which kept the controversy alive for a week and it contributed to slight entertainment  because it kept us distracted from doing homework. I wish I could divulge into more specifics but I prefer not to since these individuals continue to remain my Facebook friends. What was detrimental about this Facebook flaming situation was that it worsened throughout the week-long ordeal before the school intervened and corrected the matter.

The take away from what happened was that news travels fast regardless if it was factual or not and that anything can be poison for participants in a social network circle. The end result from that after the drama was over, the post was eventually deleted and people continued on with their lives like nothing ever happened.