MySpace's Meteoric Growth Might be its Own Undoing

STAR TELEGRAM -- May 14 -- "It got too fake," 18 year old Summer Stoker said. "You have all these people saying they want to be your friend. It's just a waste of time." MySpace is the third most-visited Web site in the country after Yahoo and Google, according to Alexa. Some say MySpace's fast growth is destroying the site's sense of community, and a host of competitors hope to take advantage of the possible fallout. Why did Friendster fizzle? Friendster was slow to respond to what users wanted, such as the ability to incorporate media into their profile. Friendzy.com was an all-purpose social-networking site that attracted more than 50,000 members in six months. "We poured $600,000 into Friendzy without having a completed business plan," Chang said. "I was a little naive." Of the many networks still striving for a future, three appear to have arisen as potentially sustainable businesses. MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mark Brooks: ...and Bebo, and hi5, and Piczo.  Ryze is doing ok.