University Business

Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The internet has a rising star whose name isn't Google. Just over 2 years old, MySpace now has 2 1/2 times 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.

Sure, none of these features is unique, but what's the point of going elsewhere if your friends are already on MySpace?