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Had some fun over the weekend reminiscing about the past.  I decided to do some research and see what some people I went to high school and college were up to through searches on Classmates.com and Myspace.  My finding were pretty interesting…

First, let me start by saying that I am 30 years old, have been out of high school for 12 years, and out of college for 8.  At 30, I am getting close to that creepy age on myspace, where some of the younger members are young enough to be my kids.  But I digress…

I have had a “listing” on classmates.com for a while, even though it was empty.  I think everyone who has ever attending high school in the United States has at least a blank listing.  I’m just happy they don’t scan everyone’s yearbook photos in.  Classmates.com is great for remembering names, but offers little information about the person you are searching for, either because their profiles are empty, or you have to pay to become a member to find out more info.  This is the old-school model of community websites.  While they are heavily ad-supported, they just give you a taste before making you cough of some dough. Hmm, this could be why there are so many blank profiles.

Myspace is a different story.  After filtering by school, only those who have myspace accounts are shown.  Those that are members are certainly not shy about posting picture and writing about themselves.  Myspace has similar profile questions as classmates.com, but most people do fill them out.  You also essentially get your own webpage and blog with myspace, with it’s own URL.  Myspace also music and  comedy sections, forums, classifieds, and much more.

Now, my results.  I was able to find a few people from high school on classmates.com.  It’s been really nice emailing them back and forth.  The big surprise was finding an old friend that was a foreign exchange student from Sweden, and an outstanding soccer player for our high school team.  Now he is a poker star in Sweden!  On myspace, I ended up creating my own page.  I’ve been able to find a few people from high school, and a few from college, and have been emailing them as well.  Myspace is great for the shock value of seeing what people you knew 15 years ago look like today.  Honestly, I am amazed some of them even know how to turn on a computer.

But what these two sites really demonstrate is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call them.  Classmates.com, as much as it is trying to change, is still fairly one dimensional.  You go there to see if old classmates have filled out their profile, then you leave.  You may check back in a few months later, but chances are nothing has changed.  Myspace is all about social networking.  I can rekindle old friendships, even if only online, or even become “friends” with a popular local radio show.  You keep checking back in and getting your fix, sometimes hourly.  And that is why is the most visited site on the internet, and why is advertising delivery model is so effective.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 9:38 am and is filed under Internet Marketing, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.