Tom Anderson, best known as the default friend on MySpace during its early years, co-founded MySpace with Chris DeWolfe in 2003. For years, it was the world’s most-visited social network. In 2005, News Corp. acquired the hot Internet property for $580 million.
MySpace would thrive for another year or two, but it wasn’t long until trouble hit the social network. Facebook beat MySpace as the #1 social network in early 2009 (just two-and-half years ago) and soon the site’s traffic fell off a cliff. After several layoffs and failed attempts to save MySpace, it was eventually sold for just $35 million to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake.
Tom Anderson, who never has to work again, rarely speaks out about the decline of th e company he founded, but earlier today he broke his silence on a Google+ thread, explaining not only his thoughts on Google+, but on the failed vision of MySpace.
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“My original vision for [MySpace] was that everything got better when it was social — so I tried to build all the super popular things used on the web (blogs, music, classifieds, events, photos) on top of MySpace’s social layer,” Anderson explained in his post. He then reveals that, after years of success, he “choked” and Facebook seized on his vision.
But Anderson thinks Google has the opportunity to truly realize his original vision. “Google+ really seems to be primed to make good on that original premise — that everything gets better when it’s social. And unlike [Facebook], Twitter, or anyone else, Google already has the most advanced set of products. And i f I can clearly see where...
