I’ve been avoiding this topic for a while, but it seems that now I need to say something. I’m looking at my query echo today…here are just a few searches:

• how to remove myspace
• myspace remove blog
• deleting myspace blogs
• deleting myspace.com
• deleting myspace

You get the idea. First I will say that I do not provide any information here for vandals. To be clear: there is no information here that would help you attack or vandalize Myspace in any way.

This has been going on here at KnowingArt.com for some time now, ever since I quoted a Myspace announcement concerning some downtime in the UK. These searches add up to a significant amount of traffic, and I believe that I can help provide some insight. So, who might be doing these searches? Here are some of my guesses:

• Early adopters that found something else.
• Myspace employees that want to know what information is out there.
• Investors that might have money invested in Myspace.
• Competition like Friendster, Gather, Facebook…
• Job hunters seeking to remove embarrassing information from the internet.
• Concerned parents that want to remove/cancel their child’s Myspace account. This is in the news everywhere and I don’t need to elaborate, people are concerned. If you are a parent and you want to get your child off Myspace, this is what you need to do. First you need to know your child’s username and password. Probably you can go to Myspace.com and the password will be saved right there in the browser. If the password isn’t saved, you can probably get the password by email. Once you are in, edit your child’s profile and remove all of the information–there are many menus of information. Delete every blog posting, one at a time. If you were to cancel the account without removing everything first, there’s a chance that your child’s information will stay online, and you would then be locked out, so make sure that everything is removed before you cancel. Delete each “friend”, one at a time. Remove all of the comments. Go into each group, remove all of the members, remove all of the posts, deactivate the groups. Once the profile is blank, click the link that says “Cancel Account”. Myspace will then ask you to confirm that you want to leave, and they will even ask you why you are leaving, and then you will need to respond to a confirmation email, and then you will need to confirm your cancellation request again. Why is this so complicated? Myspace wants to keep your content–that’s how they make money.

If you want to add yourself to the list, let me know or add a comment. Personally, I’m not that interested in Myspace anymore. I found the advertising offensive, but some people don’t seem to mind. Myspace is introducing telecommunications to an entire generation for the first time–that’s big. Many people leaving Myspace will move on to bigger and better things. Maybe some of you looking to “delete myspace” are ready for the next step: get your own domain.