MySpace has become one of the first very busy sites to adopt the use of Windows Server 2008, using the new Microsoft operating system on its redirection site at msplinks.com.

MySpace started using the msplinks.com site last year, in a bid to protect its users against spamming and phishing attacks. When users added a link into MySpace, the URL would be replaced with a link to msplinks.com, which would then redirect to the intended URL. This gave MySpace greater control over the links that originated from their site, allowing them to disable the links if they are found to point to spam, viruses or phishing sites.

MySpace initially received criticism for implementing their redirection system, as it resulted in all destination URLs being converted to lowercase. For some users, this broke links to popular sites such as YouTube, which uses case-sensitive URLs for its videos (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU).

While the msplinks.com server exhibits the TCP/IP characteristics of Windows Server 2008, and runs Microsoft’s IIS 7.0 web server software, the main MySpace site at myspace.com continues to use IIS 6.0 and Windows Server 2003. Netcraft’s Web Server Survey contains more than 8 million sites hosted by myspace.com.

‘Msplinks’ that are no longer in service cause the user to be redirected to a MySpace error page, which states that, “…the link was very naughty, and, much like head lice, had to be eliminated before it spread.” The page then goes on to describe the possible reasons for the link being disabled.

A casual glance at the msplinks.com homepage reveals a distinct lack of content; however, the purpose of the site is contained in a hidden message written in white text, which can be viewed by highlighting the contents of the page, or viewing the HTML source: