Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendfinder, Linkedin, and probably thousands less-well-known; every single one of them has one product and one product only - the stupid consumers who visit those pages to view advertising.

So yeah, who are you to call millions of people "stupid consumers"? I've had a page on Bebo for a few months and it's just a harmless laugh, there's nothing for sale. There's one banner advert at the top of the page which is easily ignored, which is far less than all the shit that's advertised on THIS site, several banner ads, then there's the fucking annoying popup ones that you should be shot in the head for El Reg!

Granted, reading the above, I kind of feel a bit stupid feeding the marketing info that is the "favourite films etc". Believe me, the minute it gets more intrusive I'll be off.

Also, I don't think I can remember seeing any adverts on MySpace either, which is a brilliant site for lesser known/local bands etc.

Adblock Plus + Filterset.G from firefox addons will remove the ads. Trusted by millions, enjoyed by me.

Bebo like to kid themselves ... but the pictures give the lie to that. Many users explicity state that they are at primary school, which they usually name. I've shocked loads of my daughter's friends parents by showing them the pictures that their children have uploaded.

Then again, if you are so ignorant to give a 10/11 y.o. unfettered access to the internet, it's amazing you have the intelligence to be shocked by anything.

"Facebook, on the other hand, tends to be a web utility, similar to a phonebook."

... is it just me or does that actually make it sounds more useful than "your home on the web"? MySpace ~ Geocities 2.0. Geo-who? shyeah, exactly... there's enough pointless blogs and useless, uninteresting personal homepages (mine included) out there; does anyone actually look at them? Thought not (unless it's an unsigned band page or something) - most people, honestly, have nothing interesting to say.

WAKE UP AT THE BACK! pfffff