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| Tom Anderson | |
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| Born | November 8, 1970 Los Angeles, California, USA |
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| Spouse(s) | None |
| Website MySpace |
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Thomas "Tom" Anderson is the President of the social networking website MySpace.
Tom Anderson co-founded MySpace, along with Chris DeWolfe and Cody Olson in Salem, Oregon. He is now a strategic adviser for Myspace. Because newly created MySpace accounts include Tom as a default "friend," he has become known as the goofy, default picture of MySpace. As of 2009, Tom's profile has more than 200 million friends.
In 2003, working for eUniverse under the purview of Brad Greenspan, he and a few other eUniverse employees set up the first pages of MySpace, and the site grew from there.[citation needed] It is currently one of the most popular social networking websites in the United States (listing consistently among the top ten on Alexa Top 500 Global Sites, after its main competitor, Facebook).[1]
Age dispute and teen life
As of 2007, Tom Anderson claimed he was born on November 8, 1975.[2] In 2008, reports indicated he was 5 years older.[3]
According to several sources, in 1985 then-14-year-old San Pasqual High School (Escondido, California) student Tom Anderson was a computer hacker operating under the alias Lord Flathead. He was known for leading a team that broke into Chase Manhattan Bank computers, altered records and left a message saying that unless he was given free use of the system he would destroy records. He was never charged.[3][4][5][6]
The corporate history of MySpace has been a matter of some public dispute. When MySpace was purchased by News Corp. they also gained control of the editor's account (the Tom Anderson profile) from which all service announcements are made. Such announcements are not from "Tom Anderson" personally but from the corporate owned identity. It has even been claimed that Tom Anderson's role and image as MySpace founder and "first friend" is a public relations invention.[7]
Another aspect of MySpaces origins that turned out to be misrepresented was Anderson's age. Supposedly 27 when the site was first created, the age stated on his profile followed this information, adding a year with each birthday. It was subsequently revealed that Anderson was five years older than his profile claimed. Speculation on the reasons focused on the benefits in reaching the youth market, by positioning the founders as hip young entrepreneurs instead of "30-somethings."[8]
References
- ^ Alexa site rankings
- ^ Bennett, Jessica. "Is Age Just a Number?" Newsweek, November 5, 2007.
- ^ a b Arrington, Michael MySpace Co-Founder Tom Anderson Was A Real Life "WarGames" Hacker in 1980s, TechCrunch, 2008-08-30
- ^ Sanger, David E. FBI seizes computers from high-school hackers: 'Lord Flathead' and pals had access to bank but never did any business, The New York Times, October 19, 1985, retrieved 2008-08-30. Available from the New York Times archives under the title "CHASE COMPUTER RAIDED BY YOUTHS, OFFICIALS"
- ^ Gorman, Tom A Hacker Vanishes Computer Whiz, Missing Since September, a Source of Mystery, Los Angeles Times, Dec 11, 1986 section 1 page 3, retrieved 2008-08-30
- ^ Tom Anderson from MySpace Hacked A Bank!, PureTalkForum.com, retrieved 2008-08-30
- ^ NYTimes article
- ^ Arrington, Michael. "Has America’s First Friend Been Lying About His Age?" TechCrunch, October 23, 2007.
