MySpace turns 15: Looking back at a pre-Facebook world
From your first friend Tom to Top 8 drama, we look back at one of the most popular social networking sites before Facebook.
Fifteen years ago, on Aug. 1, 2003, a man named Tom Anderson launched one of the most popular social networking sites of its time. Known as MySpace, it went on to earn $800 million in revenue and generated 4.3 billion daily page views in 2008. Eventually, the site would be usurped by Facebook as the largest social networking platform, but from about 2005 to 2009, MySpace was the place to be on the internet.
The site featured easy customization options for profile pages, a place to blog your daily thoughts, and a section to list your top MySpace friends. Besides from automatically adding MySpace co-founder "Tom" as your first friend, the site was also known for its music industry presence, where you could follow your favorite bands, listen to their latest singles and see where they were touring next.
On its fifteenth anniversary, CNET editors take a look back at our time spent wasting away on MySpace. It was the days before Facebook and iPhones really took off -- when many of us were just getting acquainted with social media in its most modern and awkward incarnation.