Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools, Reviews
Get your social network on with Spyder
Spyder is an interesting concept: an app that
First and foremost is the fact that the language at Spyder's site makes it sound like it will (eventually) work with more than one network, but for now, it only shakes hands with MySpace. While it allows users to manage more than one account (for example: if you run a band or an org in addition to a personal account), it doesn't let you do much more than browse friends and their friends, send messages and leave comments. No blogging, no iPhoto integration for picture posting, no vlogging, etc. While these missing features (hopefully) might arrive in a future version, there is still the glaring problem of price: Spyder is $40. Now I'm not really a fan of MySpace (though yes, I succumbed to peer pressure and opened an account in the hopes of silencing my friends), but $40 sounds way, way too high of a price for the minimal convenience it offers above going directly to the site itself. I could see $10, maybe $15, but $20 and above for Spyder - in its current state of minimal, MySpace-only features - is just too much to ask. I think the developer would get a lot more attention if he/she offered the app at a discounted price during its present feature-maturing state, while simultaneously promoting what features are coming, and how the price will increase through development (commercialism 101: people love a sale, and they love to know what they can get for their money in the near future). I've seen other developers have success with this open promotion and development method, and Spyder could really capitalize on this due to the relative cornering of its particular market; I've never seen another (potentially) full-fledged social networking app like this.
Long story short: Spyder is a great idea and it has a lot of potential, but I can easily see its price knocking it off many potential customers' wishlists. It will be interesting to see how Spyder evolves in the future.
[Update: readers have noted in the comments that MySpace, for some mind-boggling reason, doesn't have an API, while others like Facebook, Flickr and Upcoming do, making it much easier for 3rd parties to make apps like this. My gut reaction as to why Spyder stuck with MySpace for its launch is probably because of its massive popularity.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joshua said 3:48PM on 9-15-2006
Please tell me your joking. $40 for a program to shake hands with MySpace? I would just enjoy being able to log into MySpace myself without constant 'sorry folks...were doing...stuff. -Love Tom'. Would I pay $5 to try it out...probably, but $40, good luck with that Spyder.
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Gavin Strange said 2:24PM on 9-18-2006
No screenshots, version 1.01 and $40!?
Fair enough, a good idea but... $40!?
You're havin' a laugh sunshine! (said in cockney accent)
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Andrew said 3:31PM on 9-15-2006
Wait wait, it supports MySpace, which has no API. Which means Spyder is a huge feat of brute-force programming and screen-scraping, but the thing DOESN'T support services like Facebook, Flickr, or Upcoming, which *do* have APIs and would be presumably easier to work with?
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Dom said 3:33PM on 9-15-2006
Unfortunately, this kind of spidering breaks the MySpace terms and conditions, don't expect it to be around very long.
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maz said 3:36PM on 9-15-2006
It's a great idea, but myspace breaks shit so often that there's really no point in ever using this if you have to pay for it. It's the same reason why various word press plugins for cross posting to blog.myspace.com aren't in development anymore.
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Richard said 3:45PM on 9-15-2006
$40? I don't think so.
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Jon said 4:43PM on 9-15-2006
I doubt MySpace will ever have an API as they love you seeing their annoying ads (which I block).
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tim said 4:33PM on 9-15-2006
Wow, dude. Your posts keep getting longer and longer. For those who don't want to read all your diarrhea of the mouth, here's a condensed version:
Spyder only supports MySpace at the moment and costs $40, which is probably too much. But it has good potential! Check it out.
Sometimes less is more, man.
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Daniel D said 4:47PM on 9-15-2006
Downloaded it. Used it a little, thought: "cool". Then I AppZapperd its ass. Next.
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tofu713 said 5:15PM on 9-15-2006
$40 to avoid crappy myspace designs that crash my webbrowser... hmm... maybe.
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nod said 6:53PM on 9-15-2006
If it allows me to avoid myspace even 50% of the time, it's worth $40. So far, I like it alot... kinda like iTunes for myspace.
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Leo M III said 5:25PM on 9-15-2006
Hmm.. last time I flamed TUAW for cheapskating TextExpander. But I think the contrib has a point here because:
* MySpace is free.
* The target market is kids, who don't have money anyway.
* The -current- MySpace only functionality can be replaced by a thoroughly GreaseMonkey'd, AdBlock Plus'd, and Stylish'd FireFox. If I run these extensions, their user and css scripts, etc then this program is toast.
* Ditto for Camino if I use CamiTools CSS Site filtering and copy the FireFox Stylish scripts from userstyles.org into the script list. MySpace, easily toasted.
And this application made superfluous. Sorry, Developer.. but I can't even reach your site, and what the other user said, "Downloaded it. Used it a little, thought: "cool". Then I AppZapperd its ass. Next." pretty much caps it for me.
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AUGP said 5:43PM on 9-15-2006
Sounded like a great idea untill I saw $40, what ever....
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BLACKOUT said 6:23PM on 9-15-2006
best myspace whore thing ever
¬_¬
i like it.
i payed through the nose for it, but it works, and works well.
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patrice said 2:28AM on 9-16-2006
net4mac.com will add soon such concept.
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tim said 3:57AM on 9-16-2006
its really a crappy program too. not laid out well and doesnt work in a way that would make me want to use it instead of FF with greasemonkey.
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Mag said 10:52AM on 9-17-2006
You are not the only one who has that opinion.
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