Well,… obviously, if you head over to Myspace, you’ll see that Myspace is in fact, alive and well. “Well” may be an overstatement, but it is alive. Unfortunate as that may be, I have to admit that I do have a Myspace profile. I rarely check it. I rarely reply to peoples comments, which is why there aren’t that many comments to be read. I use it as a way to keep track of all the bands that I like. It’s a way to keep current on tours, album releases, and the latest news. Myspace has never really been my space. Music has a hard time loading on band pages. It’s been abused by those who think that sparkly, animated gifs are God’s gift to the design world, and it’s horribly designed. The only way to make Myspace look presentable, is by bending it to your will with a few css hacks.

Well move over Myspace! There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s here to clean up the world of social networking sites. His name is Virb. Virb comes from the folks over at Unborn Media Inc., who are most easily recognized by their hit creation, purevolume.com. Virb is everything Myspace isn’t. The first thing you’ll notice is that it just looks good. Like Myspace, the basic design is simple, but with Virb it’s simple, clean, and refreshing.

With Virb you get something none of the other major social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Friendster) have given you… customization. Virb gives every user the ability to customize their profiles, and it’s all built in. Through the use of what they call modules, you can add or remove just about anything you want. If you’re good with CSS and HTML, well they give you the ability to edit as you see fit. If you don’t even know what CSS or HTML is, no worries, because they have a very user friendly area where you can still change everything with a little imagination, and a few clicks of a mouse. Say your surfing Virb, and you come across someone who, despite public scrutiny, has managed to slip in an animated graphic announcing to everyone that they’re a “bad girl”, just get rid of it. Just as you can customize to your heart’s content, you can also de-crappify. No more being forced to be blinded by all the flashing light on someones profile, because all you have to do is click “Remove Customization” at the top of the page, and you’re back to a clean, light-show free, Virb profile page.

There are a lot of people who have set themselves up a Virb account that also have Myspace profiles. Some have even gone as far as to mask their Myspace profiles with an image stating, “I have moved to Virb. Who’s coming with me?” I have gotten myself a Virb profile, and although I haven’t had time to customize it yet, I like it. I’ll update this post with a link whenever I do get it customized. Now, I’m not saying I’m going to join the ranks, and abandon Myspace, or that Virb will get me to check my profile more often, but I do know this… I’m not going to be embarrassed to tell people I’m on Virb. Myspace could learn a lesson from the people at Virb. Of course if they did, it would kind of ruin all the fun of being a part of the largest, ugly website in the world.

One more thing. There’s no Virb equivalent of Tom, so there’s no more need for, “Tom is not my friend” groups.