Move over, MySpace | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Move over, MySpace | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Monday, June 5, 2006

Move over, MySpace

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post

Martha Stewart's foray into the world of social networking Web sites is scheduled for late 2007. But will these sites still be as hot by then?

JASON DECROW | Associated Press

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. — which already has magazines, a radio show, a television show and a line of furnishings featuring the eponymous founder and domestic expert — said last week it will enter the social network space by launching a site in late 2007. It will be similar to MySpace.com, the social network site hugely popular with teens and young adults, but aimed at adult women, the company said.

The company said ... OK, that's it. I can't hold a straight face any longer in this story. The mind reels with the comic possibilities:

It'll be just like MySpace. That is, if your space happens to be an 8-by-10 cell in a federal pen.

Why do I have a feeling it will be a lot more like Martha's Space than MySpace?

Further, how will she stand all of those people in her space, clicking on things, looking at things, getting things out of place? You people ever hear of viruses? Stop touching everything!

And then there is this: 2007? I bet a couple of smart guys in a garage could set up a decent-looking social network site in about a month.

By the time Stewart hangs out her site, social networks could be so 2006. We may be into anti-social networks by then, which I'm looking forward to, as in KeepOutOfMySpace.com. (Note to self: Register that, quick.)

MySpace, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. last year, has some 70 million users and is growing. The idea is a proven one. Talking to investors last week, Susan Lyne — the chief executive of Stewart's company (and one of the ABC executives who got fired after green-lighting "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost") — said Stewart's social network site will be aimed at the 25- to 45-year-old female set, and will let them swap such things as pictures, recipes and scrapbooking tips.

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