Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America

by Julia Angwin

Book Overview

A few years ago, MySpace.com was just an idea kicking around a Southern California spam mill. Scroll down to the present day and MySpace is one of the most visited Internet destinations in America,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400066948
• ISBN13: 9781400066940
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 371 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

More interesting than I thought it would be

If Variety had a threesome with Wired Magazine and a ColdFusion manual, it would look a lot like this book. It captures a great story of an unlikely internet company (from LA no less) overachieving and does what I think is a great job of walking through the nuances that separate myspace from friendster and a lot of other companies nobody remembers. I think this would make a fantastic movie as it highlights some over-sized personalities/egos, covers the torn friendships that often happen when startups and $$ are involved and shows how a company can capitalize on a shift in technology (digital pictures/mp3.s + broadband) before most people understand what has happened.

Excellent, rarely heard perspective on social media history

The book occasionally lapses into excruciating detail on financial and biographical detail, but it's a minor annoyance. It is the best book on the emergence of social networks that I have read to date and contains perspective and first-person details that you cannot get elsewhere. It's good to read this book and be reminded that MySpace was initially no more than a "me to" copycat social network, that was underfunded, managed poorly and had to use second-rate used technology and used network equipment for nearly all of its early history. However, the slightly-insane founders worked like crazy 24/7, made some lucky mistakes such as a programming error that allowed users to customize their profiles (turned out to be a big hit!) and used...are you listening? - NON-internet means to help achieve critical mass - parties, networking and road tours. If you are developing a social network read this book.

The best book I've read all year!

Well written and engaging. Stealing Myspace chronicles Myspace from its ambitious and rocky beginning to its almost unrivaled internet prominence. Julia Angwin also provides insight into the various personalities and key players involved in Myspace's ascension. Few things are left unexposed. This is a must read for anyone who has ever used Myspace or is simply wondering what's behind the "hype".

Money, Greed, Hollywood, Spam, Spyware and Porn - Oh My

In Stealing MySapce Julia Angwin turns a complicated story of "theft", greed, and luck into a comprehensible page-turner. It's straight forward enough for the Social Networking novice, has enough detail and dirt to interest the technorati, and has plenty of facts and figures for the business crowd. Like Barbarians at the Gate it offers a fly on the wall look at boardroom maneuvering and backstabbing. And, Angwin has the good fortune of working with a varied cast of larger than life characters - Rupert Murdoch (the media titan), the pretty but talentless Tila Tequila, and every MySpace user's first friend Tom Anderson to name just a few. In addition to a business history of MySpace Angwin gives us a glimpse at the way internet companies cannibalize one another and lose ground by failing to innovate - MySpace copies and eclipses Friendster, Facebook copies and outshines MySpace... Twitter anyone? In the end Stealing MySpace is both a how-to and a cautionary tale about making it in the digital age. So, whether you're interested in business, social networking, the tech world, or are just looking for a good read, this book will explain how we got to the point were congressmen are tweeting during congressional hearings and mothers surf the web to expose real-life and cyber bullies. Social networks are here to stay, you might as well know where they came from.

Good read.

I took up this book with some misgiving. Like most people I knew what MySpace was, but I wasn't exactly sure how it made money, why so many people seemed interested in it, why it matters or why I should care. I mean, MySpace seemed to be a site where teens and "indie" rock bands build tacky pages promoting themselves. Why on earth was NewsCorp not only interested in buying such a strange and silly thing, but willing to put up over half a billion dollars to make it the crowned jewel of their internet operations? Thanks to Ms Angwin, now I know. The history of Myspace (and the other internet businesses she touches on) is a strange, complex and at times bizarre story, filled with business and social shennanagins, which the author unwinds and explains using a dry wit and an easy to follow prose. As much as we'd like to avoid admitting it, MySpace and Facebook and the other similar sites are going to be a bigger and bigger part of our society. Not only is this book a tight history of Myspace but, depending on your point of view (and age!), it will serve as either a warning or a celebration of what's to come. But from either perspective, you'll likely enjoy this book.