If You Can’t Beat Them, Block Them

When Facebook began to allow people to create ad campaigns, they needed a way to filter out offensive ads, such as ads for adult websites. Their solution was to block words and phrases that many would deem as inappropriate, mainly swear words.

Among the words that made this list was Myspace, Orkut, and Xanga, thus preventing ads that would point traffic to their competitors. Don’t believe me? Try creating an ad campaign and type “Myspace” in the body or a link to a Myspace page, click on the Continue button, and you’ll see these words in red: “The text contains a blocked word or phrase.”

Don’t feel so sorry for Myspace though. Nearly a year ago Myspace began to prevent members from embedding flash players from Vidilife, Stickam, and Revver. In March Myspace added imeem to this list, but recanted in June, 2007. This appeared to be a flinch since it came at a time when imeem exploded onto the scene.

UPDATE: imeem has informed Puddlegum: “I believe that right now imeem is back on the blocked list at Myspace.”

It’s not as if Myspace is trying to clean up their website; in October, Myspace announced they will be launching an API platform, allowing their cluttered site to be filled with applications similar to Facebook apps.

Why would Facebook inconspicuously block the names of a few of their competitors? Two reasons: to maintain an ounce of control over the content in the news feeds, and to limit outclicks to their competitors. Myspace’s decision to block certain flash players is motivated from a similar desire to stem the migration away from their network.

People don’t appreciate control, especially when it’s meant to be their space to express themselves. Maybe the networking sites should take notes from the music industry’s failure with the DRM and stop blocking their competitors.

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