I was chatting with some co-workers today about the phenomenon of MySpace and, to a lesser degree, Facebook. Among the conversation points was the criteria that indicates a given medium is authoritatively important and more relevant, and by that metric you'd say that MySpace is a clear "winner" over Facebook.
But that assumes that bigger means better, and that's rarely the case. Heck, the whole "wisdom of crowds" nonsense often just shows that crowds can be really, really stupid. So once we take the size out of the debate, which is really better, MySpace or Facebook?
Let's first identify the purpose of these sites. At their core, they are social networking sites that let us keep up with other people. They also give us the opportunity to meet new people. That's just about where the common ground ends.
MySpace is a complete free for all. You can pretty much do whatever you want and post whatever you want. In that respect, it's like a glorified GeoCities site with friends lists. Facebook, on the other hand, has a system of closed networks. Despite the recent protests, opening it up to the world at large hasn't changed that. If you go to Michigan State, a Wolverine can't see your profile unless you allow them to. Ditto a stalker from Cleveland. You can certainly cross-reference your data points to people with similar data points, but at the end of the day, you decide what they can see.
The free for all nature of MySpace also makes it quite vulnerable to spam. I don't care who the company is, but if the pink iPod Nano can have a MySpace page, that's spam. I get invites for "hot pics" all of the time on MySpace. That kind of thing will never fly on Facebook.
Facebook is, on the other hand, limited in the fact that you can only post the kind of media they allow, namely pictures and an endless stream of witty text comments on user walls, pictures and notes. Honestly, I don't find that to be a negative. I hate landing on a MySpace page and getting assaulted with music and the most hideous combination of colors ever displayed on a computer screen. A familiar and consistent look makes it easier to find stuff.
MySpace is heavily saturated with teens, where as Facebook tends to still be very college-centric. In my own experience at least, Facebook is growing up quickly because of the ability to do specific networking with classmates and alumni of your college.
In terms of user experience, MySpace can't even touch Facebook. The user interface elements on Facebook, including the dynamic display of UI, auto-complete features, etc., are top notch and perform very well.
As I said from the start, MySpace is a lot bigger, and you can do more with it in terms of your profile, but the chaos associated with that makes it less useful. For my money (which is none since both are free), I find that Facebook is infinitely more useful for the purpose of maintaining relationships, keeping in touch and networking.
Facebook by a landslide.