Anyone who has spent some time on MySpace knows it has problems and a few drawbacks. I have spent time over the last week or so checking out some alternatives to MySpace and here is my report on Bebo, Multiply, Tag World, Hi-5 and Vox. Update: added FaceBook review.
Everyone of these sites lets you share photos and videos, write a blog, and network with friends and join groups. In other words they are very similar to MySpace however none has as large of a membership base that MySpace has.
- - - - -
Bebo
The Good: Bebo is becoming more popular and already is very popular in England. It also has some nice templates to choose from. The White Board and Quiz pages are unique. Works with PhotoBucket.
The Bad: You are out of luck if you want to customize your profile with HTML and CSS - Bebo doesn't allow it. No music player, no way to share your music (there are links to bands). There is a nice liitle music player, you have to create a playlist first and then add songs to it.
Links: www.Bebo.com | mydree.Bebo.com
- - - - -
Multiply
The Good: The default template is nice and clean looking, very Web 2.0-ish. Nice use of tags. Header adds links to sections as you add content to them. HTML - Yes you can!
The Bad: Most of the templates that I tried had problems displaying sections - things just didn't line-up properly. Also the wizard to copy videos over from YouTube doesn't seem to work properly. Forget about music, no player - just links to files. Is anyone using Multiply? There seems to be very few people using it.
Links: www.Multiply.com | mydree.Multiply.com
- - - - -
Tag World
The Good: The nicest looking default template, it's so nice I didn't even change it. Easy to customize by adding and removing modules, HTML is also allowed.
The Bad: The Music player is real bad and the way it handles videos is not much better.
Links: www.TagWorld.com | www.TagWorld.com/mydree
- - - - -
Hi-5
The Good: Nice music player but I can't seem to find out how to turn off auto play (if it is even possible). Videos are also easy to use. Customization is easy and HTML is allowed.
The Bad: Auto play with the music player on profile page (this really bugs me). The name is corny enough but you can also Hi 5 people - get it? I haven't wanted to high-five anyone since grade school, but I guess it's OK in this context.
Links: www.Hi5.com | mydree.Hi5.com
- - - - -
Vox
Vox is by Six Apart, the same people behind Movabletype, TypePad and LiveJournal. Vox is like Blog 2.0 and blends blogging with social networking.
The Good: The best looking of the bunch and easy to customize. Decent linking to videos. Easily integrates with Flickr, Photobucket, iStockPhoto, Amazon and YouTube. 'Collections' folders allow you to group similar things together across media types. Blog posts have a variety of privacy settings. Extensive use of tags.
The Bad: No user HTML or CSS. Music player is very basic.
Links: www.Vox.com | Six Apart | mydree.Vox.com
- - - - -
Update: Bonus, a sixth alternative to MySpace.
The Good: Very popular. FaceBook badge is a nice feature (much better than Bebo's).
The Bad: No video or music player. No HTML (but a URL is turned into a link). Long profile URL (see below).
Links: www.FaceBook.com | www.facebook.com/p/Mydree_Eerdym/558505653 (Is the URL for my FaceBook profile page really that long?)
- - - - -
Conclusion
I would be glad if any one of these supplanted MySpace in popularity. I'm going to throw my support behind Vox and start using it more. I will keep an eye on the others, so if you are using any them then feel free to add me as a friend. Maybe together we can end the social networking hegemon that is MySpace. Until then my MySpace profile is here: Mydree at MySpace.