MySpace offers a lot of options for personalizing your page, but to the point where it became cluttered, flashy, and immature.
Facebook offers applications and games. At one point, they had separate pages for users - on for information and one for applications and boxes (think "What Disney character are you?" quizzes). Facebook, too, becomes easily cluttered.
Twitter offers personalization for one solid background with a set layout for everything else.
Google+ has very little style personalization and a lot of informational personalization right now.
Who has the right idea? How much should a customer be allowed to personalize their options?
Insightful post! You're right-on about all four.
ReplyDeleteI'd change two things about Facebook to improve it greatly. First, I'd like check boxes that let me rate Friends and Pages as "Ignore," "View Personal Messages Only," or "View All."
The other would be to list all Friends and Pages together so I can easily gag, unlike, or un-friend anybody who becomes annoying. Right now, it's very difficult to find the various lists and work with them.
As you can see from my suggestions, I have more interest in personalizing function than in personalizing style.
Speaking of personalization, why does your blog still have dark blue text on space-blue background? Hmmm, Miss Marketing & PR?