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Just over 2 years old, MySpace now has twice the traffic of Google Inc., and it quickly eclipsed Friendster as the top social-networking site where users build larger and larger circles of friends.
Credit luck and acumen: MySpace learned from predecessors and figured out the right tools to package. And when its founders noticed heavy usage among musicians and fans, MySpace embraced that community with custom features.
"It's like being at a giant music conference 24 hours a day every day," said Greg McIntosh, 27, guitarist for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Great Lakes Myth Society.
College students, meanwhile, can rate their professors and find classmates or alumni. Others play games, view classified ads, send online party invitations or rate the brave on how "hot" they are.
"I noticed a lot of my friends talking about it, so I went on it and signed up," said Magda Olszanowska, 24, a University of Toronto senior. "And I've really pressured my friends who don't have it to get it."
Instead of using e-mail and instant messaging, Olszanowska keeps in touch with many friends simply by posting bulletins on her personal MySpace page, known as a profile. There, friends can send her a private message or post a public comment; they can see her photo album or read her Web journal, called a blog.
The free, ad-supported site has gotten so popular among teens -- a quarter of its users are registered as minors -- that parents, schools and law enforcement officials have taken notice, warning of sexual predators and other dangers.
Big media noticed, too. Last year, News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Australian native Rupert Murdoch, bought MySpace's owner for $580 million in cash.
The U.S.-heavy site now wants to expand internationally and on wireless devices, and it is adding such features as video sharing to become more like a Web portal.
The development comes as the leading portal, Yahoo Inc., becomes more like MySpace, starting a social-networking service called 360 and buying content-sharing sites such as Flickr and Del.icio.us.
MySpace was by no means first. In early 2003, Friendster Inc. introduced a system that connects people for networking and dating through existing circles of friends, rather than randomly or by key-word matches alone.
But just a half-year after MySpace launched, it surpassed Friendster in monthly visitors and now ranks 13th among all sites, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. ComScore Media Metrix places it fourth by total page views, two notches above Google.
"MySpace gives you more freedom to express yourself," said Zlatan Stankovic, 21, a sophomore at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. "You can leave different kinds of comments, pictures, movies, stuff like that."
Brad Greenspan, an early MySpace investor no longer affiliated with the site, said that after observing Friendster, "we just realized that to allow people more personalization and control would give people more attachment to their Web pages."
MySpace profiles are also more accessible. A challenger named Facebook requires an affiliation with a high school or college, while LinkedIn focuses on professionals. Friendster requires registration before viewing full profiles.
McIntosh's band can update fans on new gigs, when sending too many e-mail messages might otherwise appear to be spamming. People who happen to catch a performance can look up the band's MySpace profile and "friend it" when they get home.
"All you have to do is press 'play,'" said Rob Theakston, 28, Detroit-based music editor for the site AllMusic and a co-worker of McIntosh's.
MySpace has even started its own recording label, and it is now hoping to bring that magic to filmmakers and later to comedians and fashion designers, said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's chief executive.
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