myspace.com

Intended Audience

Yes, I am not ashamed to say that I, like so many others have been sucked into myspace. The website does seem to be tailored to a younger demographic, from young teens to maybe early 30's. The demographic has been opening up a bit however, as many businesses and institutions have caught on to its usefulness as an advertising/exposure tool to a large population of people. In our area of study, we are seeing libraries (i.e. Austin Public Library) creating their own pages as an opportunity to get the word out about their programs and correspond for book clubs and such.

Usefulness of Content

I have to say that when I go to myspace I always go straight to logging in and checking any new messages on my own page. Until investigating the website for this project, I never used the webpage for anything else. I recently read in an article for reference class that the myspace search engine ranks about 5th for most used engines after top dogs like google and yahoo. At the time I didn't even realize myspace had a search engine. However, I have to say there is a wealth of information on this website for a wide array of people. There's lots of information for flim makers and a classified section that strongly resembles craigslist. The groups sections allows people to look up pages for various special interest groups and there are forums where you can post questions or comments for the topic of your choice. Many musicians are now using myspace to pad their wallets, so the music section allows you to browse and listen to the available music (or even download it to your page). The events section allows you to narrow it down to your area, and the comedy section is some good free entertainment when you're bored. All that said, the authority of the information you will find on this website won't exactly be up to Phd standards. You have to take all comments in the forums and blogs with a grain of salt.

Consistency of Design

The design is consistent throughout. There was never a time where I felt lost or was redirected to a completely different page.

Ease of Navigation

Very easy to navigate through. So easy in fact that I ended up spending a lot more time on this website than I should have (which never happens on a website that I'm having difficulty with). The tabs at the top are self explanatory and there is always a search feature that helps you to narrow the scope if you're looking for something specific.