The problem with MySpace wasn't technical. The problem was, it was a better GeoCities. Vanity blogs for people with internet friends. Facebook used real names

The problem with MySpace wasn't technical. The problem was, it was a better GeoCities. Vanity blogs for people with internet friends. Facebook used real names, so it helped people connect with their real friends; even the ones they weren't confortable being "internet friends" with. I'm not saying this was genius. It was probably just luck. Or the result of Facebook being optimized for a single college, which was a microcosm of the real world - getting everyone to sign-up was only possible using real names. Of course, it helped that Facebook has stayed small, and stayed pretty close to its pragmatic hacker roots.