I guess I'll just use Newgrounds for my blog or something of the sort. I don't want to go through the trouble of building an entire blog from scratch, so this will do.

For today's post, I'm going to write on Myspace.

My opinion? Myspace sucks. They have some of the worst security a site could have, and the whole site is practically a phone book for pedophiles. The whole site was poorly designed, and people are paying because of it.

On PCWorld's article on the top 25 worst websites on the web today, Myspace got #1! Here is a little quote from the website:

Yes, we know. With more than 90 million users, MySpace is now more popular than Elvis, "American Idol," and ice cream. But the Web's most visited destination is also its most poorly designed and counterproductive.

The ease with which anyone of any age can create a page, upload photos, share deeply personal details of their lives, and make new "friends" quickly turned MySpace into a one-stop shopping mall for online predators. That in turn has made the site an easy target for politicians who pander for votes by playing on parental fears. In an era when the basic tenets of the Net are under attack by both Ma Bell and Uncle Sam, MySpace is a headache we don't need.

But let's put all that aside for a moment. Graphically, many MySpace pages look like a teenager's bedroom after a tornado--a swirl of clashing backgrounds, boxes stacked inside other boxes, massive photos, and sonic disturbance. Try loading a few of those pages at once and watch what happens to your CPU. Watch out for spyware, too, since it turns out that MySpace has become a popular distribution vector for drive-by downloads and other exploits. And in a place where "U are soooooooo hot!!!" passes for wit, MySpace isn't doing much to elevate the level of social discourse.

In response to a public backlash and some well-publicized lawsuits, MySpace has begun modifying its policies--for example, limiting adults' ability to contact minors. That's hardly enough. Requiring some kind of authentication from MySpacers--or their parents--to validate their ages and identities would go a long way toward scaring off the creeps and making the site a kinder, gentler social network.

Is MySpace totally bad? Not at all. Are we old farts? Yeah, probably. But the Web's most popular site needs a serious security reboot. And probably a makeover. Until then, MySpace won't ever be OurSpace.

And surprisingly, Hotmail ended up #20 on that same list.

Best email host in my opinion? Gmail. Secure, easy to use, and it's from Google!

Best domain host? Bluehost. Look at what you get! 1,500 GB of server space!

So, leave a comment, tell me what you think of my first post!

(And my new icon!)