A Missouri teen committed suicide after a friend's parents created a fake MySpace profile to pose as a cute boy and harass her.

This map has some pretty interesting information, but the blues used for MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are so similar, it's hard work telling which YASN is used where.

An Army officer anonymously explains some of the reasoning behind blocking YouTube and MySpace.

Out of the fear soldiers might reveal sensitive information to the enemy, soldiers are barred from using DoD networks to access sites like YouTube and MySpace. I'm sure this will be great for morale.

There are so many things wrong with this, starting with "Myspace Books."

danah boyd offers some advice for educators negotiating the social impacts of Social Networking Systems.

I'm late posting this excellent account of how the Obama campaign wrestled control of a MySpace profile from a committed volunteer.

Josh Porter addresses complaints about the design of MySpace by pointing out that users are drawn to the site because of the user base. I might go even further and say that many younger users would feel a significant social cost by not using the site.

Cameron Marlowe looks at the numbers, and suggests that Orkut's traffic will continue to rival MySpace's. I know it's user base is centered on Brazil, but the only activity my account sees is spam.

This article argues that Murdoch and News Corp. aren't as powerful as the highly capitalized tech titans.

This is a good question, but I do think that users are often ignorant of the tradeoffs they make by uploading UGC or sharing personal information.

Tom Coates offers a retort to the notion inspired by MySpace that design doesn't influence the success of online social software.

This strikes me as strange. Although Murdoch & Co. have stumbled with the site, it seems like the way to bootstrap an online presence for Fox and other News Corp. properties.

Long NYTimes story about the failure of Friendster and the runaway success of MySpace. I'm wondering if wearing my Friendster shirt will now be read ironically.

This vlog post situates ugly MySpace profiles within the history of print design and adds a little Web 2.0 sassy sauce.

Provides background on DeWolfe and the social networking portal in a non-paranoid way.

"New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. "

How-tos for "pimping out" your MySpace profile.

This Hollywood Reporter story discusses how studios are using MySpace to promote their pictures. I'm often a little surprised to see non-Fox productions promoted, but I suppose money swears for the folks at MySpace.

forum for complaining about MySpace.

Rupert Murdoch regrets a major purchase.

Newsweek story about law enforcement's use of MySpace to solve crimes, maintain order.

This site aggregates profiles of MySpace users who have died.

Realistic assessment of the Web 2.0 responding to critics of the Web 2.0 hype. It includes a nice diagram explaining how peer production fits with the technology.

James Dobson's Focus on the Family issues a press release warning parents about MySpace. It doesn't mention desensitizing kids to hideous design.

lo-budget satire of the vaguely evil yasns

MySpace is banning videos from other hosting services. While I'm hardly sympathetic to News Corp., the article hardly mentions the copyright issues involved.