The *main* thing I like about it is that there are no ginormous flash banners advertising everything from hot singles to "free" lambroghinis. Instead, there are really well placed Google *text* ads that get their information from what you've listed as you interests (I figured this out a while ago when an ad for books by Jack Kerouac came up). I actually *like* that, and have clicked on several ads purely out of interest.
Then there's the pretty. Just vanilla out of the box, it looks really nice. If you want to make it your own, but don't know things like CSS and HTML, there's a simple customization thing that does a really great job. You can change the layout a bit, and totally customize all your colors and stuff.
If you *do* know CSS and HTML, you'll be even more delighted to find that you can *totally* customized your page. Which means you can make it do things like
this or even
this, or if you *really* have to...
like this... you get the idea. And yes, all of those pages were created within the normal context of virb (click on "remove customization" at the top of any page to see what a plain virb page looks like).
There's already people starting to develop templates that you can just copy and past, too (I'll be making one soon just for the fun of it all).
The Blogs feature already kicks ass over either xanga *or* MySpace, (but not as good as LJ or Vox) and is about to get infinitely cooler. You'll be able to point virb to another blog you run, and it will automatically update your virb blog every time you update one of your other blogs (like Xanga, LiveJournal, Vox, or anything that uses RSS, really).
Two words: Flickr integration. For me, that's a *must*.
Also, you can post videos that you upload, or post them from vimeo, youtube, etc. Oh... and the videos that you upload can be embedded on to other sites (like you can do with the aforementioned video sites). And... although I personally don't need it, you can post true widescreen videos.
The site just came in to *public* beta a couple days ago, so they're still tweaking stuff. Morgan and I have both complained about the way groups aren't really what they *should* be. The good news is that they are working specifically on making them better (much).
Take a look at
this page to see what features they have as well as what is in the works
The people who made it and run it are the same people who make
Pure Volume, so I'm certain that many bands will be joining in the coming weeks (there's already quite a few ""big name" bands...)
Also, I have to say, it feels much better to play at a site made and run by a bunch of guys and gals that do this shit because they're in o it, rather than one that's been cobbled together over the years and is now owned by Rupert Murdoch.
And finally... it's not like you have to *leave* MySpace to play at virb.
BTW...
WHAT THE HELL?
Right before I quit MySpace and destroyed my profile, I was told (by that dude who acts like your husband or something) that you didn't "do" MySpace.