I don’t know if this violates the MySpace terms of service or not, I wouldn’t be surprised, but it’s cool. MyWhatSpace is a PC desktop app that lets you separate your MySpace friends into groups and send messages to all the members of any group at once. So I can send one message to college friends, one to family members, etc.
This would be a very logical feature for MySpace to include itself, but it doesn’t. In the meantime, leave it up to four guys in New Mexico to put together a tool and fold in some AdSense. What a great example of the superior agility of a small team. It’s so easy to use and could come in so handy that it just might work as part of a small business.
Imagine if all the people developing tools for spamming and otherwise making the online social networking space even dirtier spent their time making tools like this instead. Let’s hope MySpace doesn’t give these guys a hard time. The company has shut down two other services (DatingAnyone and SingleStat.us) operating alongside MySpace in recent months. It certainly seems like a loss for everyone when a company shuts down small start ups working in conjunction, not competition, with a large popular service.
I hope these guys looked at the ToS of myspace before making this tool. With two other third party services shutdown, Myspace is a little unpredictable now.. This tool looks cool, and does add a neat functionality to the messaging system..
This will most likely be shut down.
The reason MySpace can get away with stuff like this is that the majority are not even remotely tech-savvy and wouldn’t have known about this unless MySpace told them… Apparently what users don’t know isn’t good for them, and what MySpace won’t tell gets rid of competition (or a userbase which is aware that it is possible to have better features than MySpace and actively seeks an alternative)…
The reason it won’t be that easy to shut this down compared to the others is because the software is run on individual users computers and not through the company’s servers. So there is not only one source IP to block and it is in fact the users who are running the software locally. The company is just distributing it. Even if Myspace gets them to stop distributing it the software is already out there and will be around for download via P2P forever. So this is going to require a coding change to stop. And how do you stop a local browser scripting program? Well its not that easy because the program now has all the authority of the local user. Myspace could limit the frequency of messages a user can send, but then only down to a reasonable number that would be possible for a real user to accomplish. I wrote an app like this for personal use over a year ago and there are people using their own for spam currently. But there are intelligent countermeasures that Myspace can implement. If someone is sending group messages only to their friends and it isn’t getting marked as spam then its probably fine. New users are already monitored for number of messages that get marked as spam. And people are just going to have to be a little more careful about who they add to their friends list, even if it means their e-popularity suffers a bit. It has the potential to do more good than it does harm, and if Myspace really wants to stop it then they should add the Features natively.
Az1324, well said. Seriously
By my understanding, this does violate Myspace’s TOS:
(Not exactly hard to find that information… Anyways.)
And as far as: “This would be a very logical feature for MySpace to include itself, but it doesn’t,” here is Facebook’s explanation for its own lack of the feature. (Emphasis mine)
Note that both Facebook and Myspace have opt-in groups, and while I don’t know about Myspace, on Facebook the moderators of groups may send a limited number of mass messages to all their group members.
This will be shut down very soon I imagine. It is too great a tool for spamming. MySpace doesn’t want the nonchalant befriending of strangers to stop, that is part of what makes MySpace such a powerful viral marketing tool.
Yes, it is something run locally so you can’t stop it from being distributed via p2p, but all they have to do is change the name of some forms on MySpace, or change every so slightly the behavior of the emailing, and it renders this app worthless. So there would need to be an underground movement to keep it current, and I think it would just fizzle out.
Anyone have a list of cool myspace tools that aren’t shut down?
Well, I guess it’s a better name than MyWhoreSpace…
But that’s strange, I thought this feature is no different from those Myspace Bots thingie used to send mass messages to random people. I don’t know why those could still be available for sale when Datinganyone and Singlestat has to be closed down.
In all honesty the other two had a hint of stalkerish intent.
Yeah, but Myspace Bots can kinda be, well, exploited as a tool for major spammage!
I meant MyWhatSpace.
well it is kinda sucky when BIG guyz like myspace just small like singlestat.us… Eventhough myspace states that they did it because do not want other services put load on their servers. I am not buying this one though
correction: first line goes as; “well it is kinda sucky when BIG guyz like myspace just crush small ones like singlestat.us”
well thank you tech crunch we’re getting
bids from all sorts of big boy companies
trying to buy this site out already
how funny is this name
my what space ?
haha
JJ COX
p.s. i have a TON more idea to ake software
much more addicting to users and more viral
well thank you tech crunch we’re getting
bids from all sorts of big boy companies
trying to buy this site out already
how funny is this name
my what space ?
haha
JJ COX
p.s. i have a TON more idea to ake software
much more addicting to users and more viral
This is a great app…anyone know whats up with the site / email…i cant get ahold of anyone.
Sounds like a good idea
i realy like this guy in bus and he always put’s on a black jacket
the guy i like i don’t really know his name
wath are you taling about