The secret behind MySpace, Facebook, Friendster...

There's a fascinating read on CNN Money about the ingeniousness of Newscorp (parent company of Fox News) to buy MySpace.

Newscorp (hearts) MySpace

An excerpt:

"The best explanation of MySpace's appeal that I've read comes from not from the business world but from a Berkeley Ph.D. student and social researcher at Yahoo! named Danah Boyd who describes the site as the virtual equivalent of classic 1950s hangouts like the roller rink or burger joint -- a place where kids can go to escape parental (and other) authority, to try out different identities and, of course, to connect with one another. She gave a lecture about MySpace at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of all places, that you can read here and she blogs at length about it here."