Tip for better MySpace searching

Bob Baker has produced an e-book on using MySpace as a music marketing tool. Lots of interesting ideas, from how to set up a MySpace profile to tips from musicians in the trenches. (Disclaimer: I’m one of them, and quoted in the book. Yay me!) In the past I’ve written about my own MySpace experiences on my own site.

One of the things that burns me up about MySpace: the search tools, well, stink. The truth is, the search features are geared more towards dating (well, duh!) than finding suitable fans. Even if you use the keyword search to look for fans of a particular artist, you’ll have to page through tens, maybe hundreds of unordered search results to find the fans in your touring area.

So here’s a tip: forget MySpace’s search and use Google. By using Google’s domain-specific search, you can target your search only to MySpace profiles containing specific keywords. It’s a little hacky, but it works. Here’s an example search for Seattle-area MySpace users that list Damien Rice as a favorite:

site:profile.myspace.com "Damien Rice" "Seattle Washington"

Here are the actual search results. Of course, you still gotta do the work of contacting each user and inviting them to be friends, but Google makes the process a lot less painful.