After spending the last few years as the red headed step-sister of social networking powerhouse Facebook; Myspace owner Rupert Murdoch finally decided it was time for a change. With the launch of the new and improved Myspace, Murdoch aims to separate his site from the “social networking” label, insisting Myspace is now a “social entertainment destination” above all else. Albeit a powerful insistence, the seemingly-dead website proves to live up to its name thus far.
With a mountain of adversity looming over its head, Myspace started its overhaul by completing redesigning its homepage. A once cluttered eyesore of advertisements and uninspired design has been cut down to a simply coloured, fully-functioning, user-generated experience. Myspacers can now decide whether they want to view their homepage as a grid, list, or “player”. Adding an even deeper personality to the site, Myspace decided to add the “my stuff” and “discover” tabs to the top of the page that will allow the user to access his or her own uploaded content at a mouse-click, along with the ability to access content that is “trending” around the site at the time. These features will allow users to stay as up to date with what other people are interested in, all the while making it easy to receive feedback on their own material. Following in the footsteps of Facebook’s “fan pages”, Myspace has introduced an all-new “topics” page that allows users to connect with their favorite things, and discuss everything regarding that topic with other fans. The thing that sets the “topics” page apart from Facebook’s fan pages is that each topic is accompanied with a related article, allowing fans to stay completely up to date on the things they care about the most.
One of the most unique parts to the new Myspace is it’s “badges system”. Based around the blueprints of another popular social networking site, Foursquare; the most active users on Myspace will receive specific badges for their participation. As of right now, there are no real-life rewards for having a more prestigious badge than others (as this is still a work in progress). However, the badges system is a fair excuse for users to flaunt their superiority in a friendly manner.
With all of these changes, it is clear that Myspace recognizes the value of social networking in this day in age. They’ve come to terms with the idea that it’s going to take nearly a miracle to reign supreme over other, much more popular websites. Understandably so however, as for most people, switching sites would be comparable to switching high schools during senior year. Maybe even as dramatic as learning to drive a five-speed and realizing an automatic will take you to the same destination without the hassle. I truly commend Myspace for their efforts, but I think this one is a lost cause.
Thanks for this page. I’ve read it in the metro with my phone and found it very interesting.
Thanks and good to know it works on mobile just as well