Please, Google, stop cramping my style.

I mean it.

Why must Google feel the need to constantly - to continuously update and 'modernise' their sites? 

I logged onto YouTube today and did not know how to find the comments on a user's channel. In fact, I did not even know how to find the list of their videos. 

What's the difference between 'Video', 'Feed' and 'Featured' anyway? This is where the videos are located - but what is the necessity of categorising them into three sub-menus? Isn't it enough to have one Videos tab, and put all the videos in the one place like the old YouTube? What was wrong with the old YouTube?

It seems these social media giants feel a nagging pressure on the backs of their necks to consistently 'stay with the times' and make their sites look fancy-schmancy with millions of different features. Perhaps it's one big competition on whose got the most technology. And brains.

And I'm not trying to be slanderous here. I'm simply making known the frustrations of a social networking user to be continuously adapting to these types of changes. Websites should fulfil the purpose for which they were created. Leave Google as a search engine. Leave YouTube as a video-sharing site and leave Facebook as a social networking site. 

Now, I may be wrong, but surely the simplicity of these sites when they first started out was what made them so globally successful.

Does anyone remember Myspace?

8 out of 10 could easily say we had one some four or five years ago. And what about now?

Myspace has 30 million users worldwide.

Facebook has 845 million users worldwide. 

Back when Myspace was at its height, Facebook didn't even exist. In fact, when it came about only a couple of people that I knew had gotten it. And I refused to make the switch. Why should I, when Myspace was so awesome? And simple.

It only took a year or so for everyone to abandon their Myspace accounts and jump to the new fad which was Facebook. Facebook became like a virtual human magnet.

Now, the reasons for this have been widely argued by professionals and business-people alike time and time again. Many of them cannot answer their own questions and come to the conclusion that Facebook is simply the 'in' thing to have.

As a personal user of both Myspace and Facebook, I can add some analyses into this equation.

Just as Facebook began beating Myspace in the march to the finish line of popularity, I noticed that Myspace began changing rather radically. The entire site got an overhaul, and your profile was now able to be customized in an array of ways - from personalization of theme, to personalization of the song you had displayed to personalization of core layout principles which made up your page.

Facebook, at the time, was basically a piece of ugly white canvas through which people could communicate.

If you ask me, no friggin wonder Facebook overshot Myspace by almost 100%.

Myspace later went on to add sub-Myspace sites which included Myspace Celebrity, Myspace Fashion, Myspace Movies, Myspace Television, Myspace Games, Myspace Twats, etc. That last one was a joke if you hadn't noticed.

Myspace used to be known as the prime social networking site, and is now known as a 'social entertainment destination'.

On that note, Facebook's piece of ugly white canvas is not so ugly anymore. They, too, began adding features of astronomical purpose to their site. And I don't blame them; advancement is advancement. Facebook now has many features, the most significant of which may be the new Timeline. This feature allows posts to be categorized by time and date, much like blogging sites. It also allows users to personalize the theme of their page, and how it looks. Sound familiar?

I am in no way opposed to the idea of advancing social networking sites to keep up with technology. I think it shows great innovation and allows us all to move forward in the digital age.

But for God's sake, keep it simple. Not all of us are computer engineers. 

Perhaps we should be thinking in Leonardo da Vinci's words,

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."


It goes something like this:

-Dahlia