The two are, probably, the most talked-about Web 2.0 wannabes. They have, obviously, been very lucrative for the respective creators, too - considering how much money they got for them.

But, seriously - will they really make it? Are their business models valid? Or will they continue to suck out the profits off the generous sponsors like Google?

Ok, I do understand the whole social network/high traffic/online marketing speculation/blah-blah but it does not bring money by some magic. Seriously, there is more than that to it. More traffic also means much higher operaitonal costs (especially for high-bandwidth YouTube) - so, come on, wake up!

I like YouTube in the sense that it allows anybody to post large media files - that’s cool but would I want to own it? Hell no. Just one fact, ok? When something as ridiculously nonsensical as lonelygirl15 series tops the charts of YouTube - that makes me sick to my stomach.

MySpace is much more complex and sophisticated. Yet, it’s still too juvenile and cheesy for my taste. Whatever they say - their age group is really, really limited and I suspect it’s quite localized - mostly US users. I think, Google played a dumb curd, when they cut such huge check for MySpace ads.

Conclusion: both of them are highly overrated and Google made huge mistake to throw so much money at them. These guys (Google) are really trying to diversify their portfolio, but, sorry, so far they are mostly just wasting profits from their core business.

P.S. Don’t get me wrong - I do find a lot of value in several other Google services, but owning YouTube, investing so much in MySpace and that wannabe Checkout are definitely not at the top of my list.