Is Virb Better Than MySpace?
March 20th, 2007
Recently I got an IM inviting me to join a new social network site named Virb. Initially I was a little bit skeptical because I didn’t understand why I needed yet another social network site to keep track of. After asking a couple of people I found out that Virb from Unborn Media (the people behind popular music networking service PureVolume) was a lot like Myspace. Not exactly a great selling point for me since I really don’t like Myspace at all, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try anyway. It’s bee a little over a month since I joined Virb and now that I understand what all the fuss was about - unlike MySpace it is actually enjoyable to use.
On the surface Virb is similar to Myspace with the ability to edit your profile, manage friends/groups and customize the look of your profile page. When you look at the sites however the difference is striking. Even in its current somewhat incomplete state Virb is light years ahead of MySpace in terms of usability, interface, features and customization ability. Virb is hot and the difference is clear, just check out the following screenshot comparisons of Virb and MySpace:
Better Homepage
To say the MySpace homepage/dashboard is non-intuitive is an understatement. Besides being overcrowded with Ads, the MySpace homepage just isn’t easy or fun to use. Virb offers updates from friends, a clear view of friendship requests and new messages (without scrolling) and a brief view of profile stats.
Profiles can truly be customized
My least favorite activity on Myspace is attempting to customize profiles. It’s difficult and very inflexible. A lot of people have told me that Myspace users don’t really care about how their profile looks, that why it’s so popular. I have a different theory. I think that users realize that they can choose between a crappy default look or a crappy third party template, but want to be there with there friends so they put up with it. Ultimately you end up with a God awful nearly unreadable page. Virb changes this by making profile pages very flexible and easy to customize. Users have access to a drag and drop interface that lets them move “modules” around on their profile and a simple editor for changing the color scheme of their profile. For users that want more power the advanced editor lets you create attractive custom profile pages using CSS. This advanced editing feature will probably be used by Virb users with experience modifying CSS at first but its still a great feature.
VirbTunes
Music is always a great way to bring people together and Virb takes this to another level by allowing users to share ta list of the music they are listening to and create playlists that will be displayed on their profile home page. One really cool feature Virb has included is called VirbTunes. VirbTunes is a iTunes plugin that pulls information like your most frequently played songs, artists, and more, and displays that information on your Virb profile for everyone to see.
Myspace is well entrenched in the minds of most Americans as “the” social network. But let’s face it, Myspace hasn’t really innovated all that much over the years and right now a lot of things are happening with Myspace that are turning off its users. Don’t take my word for it, I was interested to see what other people thought so I conducted a informal survey to get the opinions of others. Here are some of the things that have impressed the early Virb users:
It’s faster, more useful, more controllable. Also has a higher class member base (as of now), useful groups and music tools.
Easy customization process, much easier to keep tabs on friends when they update anything!
Despite the better code and sexier, cleaner design. I chose Virb because it makes things simple and gives the advanced users some freedom. In myspace everything takes a dozen clicks, a dozen screens and a bundle of frustration to complete. In Virb everything takes one or two clicks - and it’s fun!
Virb is a lot easier to use. The homepage actually makes sense and half the screen isn’t taken up by ads.
Overall design is cleaner - “Like MySpace designed by Apple.”
With the ability to pull in your Flickr photos and the ability to pull your blog’s RSS feed into your profile coming soon Virb is going to be a powerful social tool. Add to that the ability to create pretty much any custom module you want - including pulling in data from Twitter and Imeem and Virb could be all you need to keep your friends up to date on what you are doing. - This one is mine.
A Little Reality
Despite all the love that Virb is getting there is still one major obstacle that it will need to overcome. People are comfortable with Myspace and most have LOTS of friends who may not be as willing to switch to a new service after having investing so much time in building their Myspace profile. Then there is the profile customization issue. Clearly Virb has very powerful customization features. The problem is most people won’t know how to use CSS that well, so until there are a large number of easy to find Virb layouts that users can copy and paste Virb growth will be slower than it could be.
Last, the number one complaint I have heard from beta testers and public users in that there are too many incomplete pages.
Will Virb kill MySpace. Most likely not, but this will be fun to watch.
nurturingnature
March 21st, 2007
eh it looks like facebook and friendster with a spare msn-style style guide. i like imeem and xanga. better visual layout, and more content posting and sharing stuff happening with other people. one of my old favorites was livejournal too for the simplicity but they never moved on from blogs. maybe that was a good thing.
Erica
March 21st, 2007
Nice Review — I’m really looking forward to the day when VIRB kills MySpace ;)
Jonti
March 21st, 2007
I have quite a few friends that have embraced Virb when they have shunned MySpace. Most fall into the 20-40 age demo. Any ideas on the actual target market? I love the cleaner lines, especially side-by-side with MyAdSpace. Virb already has a few ads, but they don’t take away from the experience. Keeping my fingers crossed they can maintain the philosophy.
Alex
March 28th, 2007
It could use some RSS love as well.
Joel
April 6th, 2007
i love VIRB
hmmm mmm
April 13th, 2007
Seeing as you didnt really like myspace and have a general distain for such things, seems strange how you went to all the trouble to explain to us just how good virb is.. how much did they pay you anyway?
craig
April 16th, 2007
I totally dig it. After spending less than a day on Virb I am ready to get everyone to make the switch so I can shut down the MySpace account. I think what bugs me most is that MySpace has turned into a teeny bopper page with ads out the yang, but not much has been re-invested into a better user experience. Go Virb!
Spirit - XIII
April 21st, 2007
Yes VIRB is better than Myspace
But sadly it wont kill it
….yet
sheldin
April 24th, 2007
OMG ii want this tto kill myspace
i had a myspace but then it got freaken boring so come on Virb!! rite now i’m gonna sign up fools had me!!
Michelle
April 27th, 2007
Yeah, I think Virb is wayyy better than MySpace. Today I got 10 spam messages on myspace and a few attractive people who wanted to be my “friend.” I’ve since put a lockdown on my friend preferences so i don’t get so much crap.
Mikal
May 2nd, 2007
Well virb is ok.
But personally i find trig to be better. Not only is it a prettier version of myspace, but it rarely has problems if ever.
I encourage you all to check trig out.
Plus trig seems to draw a more indie vibe. The people are friendly you have great options and it is wayyy more fun and less time consuming then myspace generaly,
CHECK IT OUT
www.Trig.com
CHECK ME OUT
www.trig.com/guiltybyassociation
Vincent
May 16th, 2007
@sheldin: I agree myspace is getting a bit boring, but why couldn’t Virb become boring? They’d have to keep updating it even if it does kill myspace to make it interesting
Andrew Kumar
May 30th, 2007
Nice review… I love how there are so many nice virb pages out there!
Lukas
June 3rd, 2007
I use Virb, and I like it way more than myspace. Like everyone else is saying, it i a lot cleaner. It does have an ad or two, but the ads are relevant to your interests. (usually) If I put something about how I like Nintendo DS games, I get ads for DS games and accessories. Not perfume ads like myspace does.
Robin
June 4th, 2007
I’ve only just discovered virb, but my first impressions are that it’s alot nice than MySpace - looking forward to playing around with it, and I’ll probably send a message to all my MySpace friends to sign up with virb as well
SierraNightTide
June 18th, 2007
I’m trying the Virb and so far I like it much better than MySpace
SierraNightTide
June 18th, 2007
I’m trying Virb to see if it is everything people say it is. http://www.virb.com/sierranighttide
I loaded my pictures which wasn’t oo hard. I added my first blog entry - simple and Now I’m moving into more detailed stuff. I hope it beats MySpace - sick of webcam girl and It’s ok to look ads.
chris
August 21st, 2007
imho Virb is professionally design visualy and in the Coding. I think its better for Graphics/Web Designers [CSS all the way!!!], photographers, musicians, and other media. One problem with virb is…. No one has one.
Bre
December 7th, 2007
Myspace is stealing features off of every site that is in the run to be better than Myspace.
Myspace needs to give it a rest!
JDiaz
January 10th, 2008
virbLover but myspace is too big for it to be murdered by virb or any other social site for that matter. All in all, i loveVirb.
What are your thoughts?
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