I’ve been aware of virb ever since I heard that Breaker Design signed over to Unborn Media. For those unfamiliar with UM, they are the brains behind PureVolume, The Big Noob and other cool stuff yet to be unveiled. It wasn’t until last night when I found a screenshot of the virb backend that I decided I HAD to have a beta invitation code.

In the past when I wanted to part of something that hadn’t been released yet I pretty much knew who to go to. My connection at Google got me in as a very early beta tester for Gmail, Analytics, Writely, and Google for Domain. I’m nerdy enough to have pursued invites for Mac Heist and this urge to be on the bleeding edge has led me into a rabbit’s hole of developers and designers eager to show off their latest work. After seeing what was happening behind the scenes at virb, I knew I had to get in there. Luckily for me, Natasha is friends with Piebald’s Lucian Garro, who I happened to spot on Purevolume’s myspace profile modeling some of their first t-shirts. One email and a couple hours later, I’m in there! (turns out.. you have to have an account to see my profile, even though its public. Oh well)

It’s no secret that I’ve grown disenchanted with myspace in recent months. I rarely have the energy to face their battery of advertisements, cam whores, server downtimes, and over ugly profile pages. It boggles my mind when I think about everything myspace could be doing (targeted ads based on the incredible amount of personal meta data they have on their users) to add new features and increase advertising revenue, and yet consistently refuse to adapt. Hell, they can’t even keep their site online and up-to-date. I guess 580 million FOX corp dollars doesn’t buy much these days. I join new social networks weekly in hopes of supporting a david that can take down the goliath. And now the word seems official: Unborn Media is building the next big thing. The target is myspace and I think they might just do it.

Upon initial examination, I can tell you that the backend is amazingly slick. Ajax abounds and the design is gorgeous. A complete novice can edit their profile without editing a single line of CSS, and advanced users can control the CSS and the HTML layout without needing any hacks or tricks. Uploads are fast, and browsing users is fun. It’s everything myspace should have been and had multiple chances to be. There are sections that are clearly under construction, but there is a lot to explore. Although I can’t find specific references, I feel a lot of Shaun Inman’s design influence. It is also apparent that UB plans to leverage their immense music database (Purevolume) to create an immersing music and video experience.

One clear indication that this is a service that understands its community: Virb comes with a iTunes plugin called Virbtunes that automatically uploads your iTunes playlist to your profile. It also studies your preferences and makes recommendations. I can see this thing replacing last.fm and Pandora if they enable some RSS features.

While it’s clear that I’m biased, it wouldn’t be fair to not comment on one thing: parts of the backend appear to be heavily influenced by Flickr. I took a screenshot to demonstrate this: flickrb? This isn’t a smoking gun, and no one is being accused of plagiarism. Flickr has defined web2.0 in more ways that one, and they have serious design-foo. I just wish UB would flex its design muscle (like we know it can) and create a new standard. And maybe they will.

So, here it goes: I’M DONE WITH MYSPACE. All hail the new leader.