How MySpace Tom May Have Inadvertently Triggered The Google/Facebook War
Gotta love Tom Anderson. Newly reinvigorated by the launch of Google+, “MySpace Tom” has become a social power user (and regular TechCrunch contributor!). As a man at the forefront of the early days of the social wars, he's obviously full of information.
Context & Ripple Effects
Tom Anderson's return to relevance rides on Google+'s launch: the MySpace co-founder has re-emerged as a power user on Google's new network and a regular TechCrunch contributor, giving him a pulpit to retell the early social wars he helped start. The arc behind him is long — MySpace joined Google's OpenSocial coalition back in November 2007, positioning itself against Facebook alongside Bebo and SixApart.
By the time Anderson hit his MySpace friend limit in February 2010 and MySpace underwent its much-covered youthful relaunch that March, the traffic-and-ad-revenue gap versus Facebook had already been laid out in side-by-side analyses. His claim that he may have inadvertently triggered the Google/Facebook rivalry is just that — an unconfirmed personal account, not settled history — but it lands at the exact moment Google+ makes the two companies direct competitors again.
First-order effects
- Google+ gains a recognizable early-social-network figure actively championing the product, while TechCrunch secures first-person social-war commentary from someone who was inside MySpace during its peak.
Second-order effects
- The framing of the Google/Facebook fight shifts from product comparisons toward origin-story narratives, as insiders like Anderson supply the history both camps will cite or dispute.
Third-order effects
- If Google+ sustains momentum, the industry structure points back toward a two-platform contest between Google and Facebook — with the MySpace-era coalition logic of OpenSocial as precedent for how rivals align against a dominant network.
The trend: Social networking is consolidating into a Google-versus-Facebook contest, with founders of the first wave returning as commentators who shape how that rivalry is remembered.