MySpace Gets Facelift, New Focus
MySpace has re-launched itself as a social entertainment destination.
Wednesday MySpace finally bowed down to Facebook by officially re-branded itself and launching a new beta website focused on serving the "Gen Y" user as a social entertainment destination. Rather than provide a website for users to generate pages solely focused on themselves, MySpace now allows members to discover content and connect with other fans with similar interests based on music, celebrities, movies, television, and games.
"This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace," said Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace. "Myspace is unique in that it is powered by the passions of our users, who program the site by expressing interests, sharing tastes and knowledge around particular topics, and scouting out up-and-coming subcultures. This is the just the first step, and there will be many more features, programs and improvements to come."
Existing users should see the new beta site by the end of November--new users will have access to the new site immediately. According to MySpace, the new design will incorporate content "hubs" dedicated to movies, television, and celebrities, however additional hubs focused on games, comedy, sports and fashion are planned to launch in the coming months. These hubs will provide specifically related content including news, editorials, videos, and photos.
In addition to the Hubs, the new MySpace will also offer additional features including topics piped in from MTV, LA Times, Access Hollywood and many others. Additionally, users can set up a personalized stream of content, check out relevant recommendations, earn badges, see current trends, view profiles and more.
Can MySpace make a comeback? As BusinessWeek pointed out, the total makeover and re-focus seems to be a last-ditch effort to keep News Corp from kicking MySpace out the door. The site reportedly loses just under $100 million a year while the number of visitors have dropped 20-percent over the last two years. According to Evercore Partners analyst Alan Gould, MySpace is only worth just over half the $580 million News Corp originally shelled out in 2005.
With Facebook gaining users and MySpace heading in the opposite direction, News Corp seemingly needed to do something to bail out the sinking social ship. Perhaps the new MySpace will redefine the term "social networking."
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I loved MySpace's layout you could have pictures in 800x600 format across a full page/full screen and music to go with it. But it fizzled a couple years ago and people transitioned to FB I really never understood the draw to it and still dont. I miss myspace layouts so much better they were more personal. Facebook is really simplified to me pics are too small as well and no music.
I think the reason myspace lost to facebook is because people want to simply communicate with all their friends in a very easy way. its like MSN messenger, but with the ability to do much more like post bulletins and soforth..myspace lost its taste because of how gawdy it has become..that, and certain trends only last so long. but i just didn't need all the music and backgrounds, and other random, useless junk on my page. other people may like it, but personal preference is all that matters, and the majority obviously say they like it simple.
Music was annoying, especially when you're just browsing around and every single jackasses page is pretty much spewing the most annoying song ever freaking made. I believe the worst was Lips of an Angel by Hinder.
MySpace is dead to anyone past the age of 16, and a facelift isn't gonna save it.
Music was annoying, especially when you're just browsing around and every single jackasses page is pretty much spewing the most annoying song ever freaking made. I believe the worst was Lips of an Angel by Hinder.MySpace is dead to anyone past the age of 16, and a facelift isn't gonna save it.
you know, i probably could've saved my fingers from having to type my message, cuz you basically summed it up for me
The ability to customize your myspace page is a good idea in theory but in practice almost all myspace pages look awful. With seemingly random background images all around and music that automatically plays without your permission. Reminds me of the old geocities websites people used to create eons ago, animated gifs and all.
Zaam MySpace was the Geocities of our generation.
The biggest problems with MySpace is the slow download times, bugs and viruses.
This is whats killing MySpace.
I enjoy being able to personalize my own page, something facebook does not offer.
Also facebook is having problems now with slow download times and bugs.
"This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace", yea straight downward.
So. I love HTML, I had MY
What will happen to all those camwhores out there?
Like others have said, customizable layouts were good, but were also what killed Myspace. I banned blacklisted myspace from my home computer when my GF got me my first virus in 3 years from going to "Free Myspace Layout" pages.
Not to mention how annoying it is to see some guy who just figured out wtf HTML is use all over his page and imbed 5 different videos that are set to autoplay.
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I haven't been on Myspace in about 3 years...
Like Nexopia died at some point, MySpace will too.
MySpace is dead to anyone past the age of 16, and a facelift isn't gonna save it.
Nonsense! There's always the creepy 50+ age group too!
Actually, this could work if handled properly. Murdock is a media magnate and MySpace already is specializing in music & band promotion. Adding video and other entertainment media may work for them. It certainly offers a more feasible path towards viable monetization than Facebook.
The new myspace s%$kS. It is not user friendly like the old myspace, in fact, it limits so much creativity and to change their brand? That is a mistake. They are going to lose their loyal followers, the ones who didn't jump ship when Facebook took over as the leading social networking site. Think of Coca-cola when they launched their new recipe, they gave their customers the option of sticking with the classic version. That proved to be more popular with consumers and the new version eventually faded from view. That's why myspace is going to lose the race in the social networking media. They just lost their classic appeal because they don't offer their loyal followers the choice of keeping what they had with the original. And forcing users to conform to their limited standards is not going to go over well. BAD MOVE Their loyal friends will be moving on. I give them to the end of the year to work it out, if they haven't fixed it, I'll be deleting my profile permanently.