paul boutin

Paul Boutin over at Slate tries to explain the YouTube and MySpace phenomenas. (Side note: according to Webster, that's the correct plural. Go figure.) Basically, it comes down to ease of use, cool factor, and the fact that they don't tell you what to do. (Personally, I think it's because "you get to see cool videos on the web for free," but maybe that's just me.)

But Boutin does get into something I've been wondering about lately: why is MySpace so popular? It's basically a place where you can put up a web site, but those kinds of sites have been around for years (Tripod, GeoCities, Angelfire, etc). What makes MySpace so popular (besides the whole "friends" thing)? I'm amazed that so many celebs have a site on there, because the designs are pretty crappy, if you ask me. The sites look like the web, circa 1996, from what I've seen. Though I guess like any other site you have to design them well.