According to the Wall Street Journal, Myspace was bought in 2005 by News Corp. for $580 million. Since then, the company has been trying to bring a fresh image to the social networking site in order to combat Facebook's increasing popularity. Myspace's users were down 12% from September 2009. Yet, the owners believe users have use for move than one social media site. The new website, released on Wednesday, has been in development for 8 months and was designed to appeal to people between the ages of 13 and 35.
An enormous difference between the old Myspace and the newly enhanced website is the shift of focus from networking between friends to finding media appealing to the user and also allowing the user to share media of their own. The sharing of video will be encouraged by rewarding users who frequently upload content with graphical "badges" on their page. The home page of the new website shows content that's rising in popularity and when the user signs in, personalized music and media is displayed. The point of the website is to provide the user with content that will appeal to them. Myspace has also announced that not only has their image been revamped, but the techonology driving the site has also been updated to provide better searches and decreased loading time. As always, Myspace, as well as Facebook, is being facing critisism about users security. This is an inevitable issue when it comes to anything on the Internet, and it is a big issue that should be addressed with full attention. If users don't feel safe, they simply will not use the site.
I think this redesign is a great move for Myspace. Facebook has become so common and popular that Myspace has been left in the past, but it is time for something different. The new features of the website are very interesting and can prove to be very popular by users. I think media content is a great way to appeal to high school and college students.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578061368013890.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews
ReplyDeleteThis revamped Myspace sounds like a combination of two of the most popular sites on the Internet right now - Pandora and Facebook. While combining the appeal of personalized media as offered by Pandora and the incredibly simple social networking as offered by Facebook, the new Myspace could easily be just as successful as the other two. I think Myspace's major obstacle is going to be combating their image as washed-up and something that only middle and high school students use, which is what many people think of Myspace now. If they can successfully convince people of their new image, then it could move back up to a position as one of the most powerful sites on the Web.
ReplyDeleteYou offer some very interesting insight on the future of social networking and where things look to be going. 4 years ago Myspace seemed to be king and there didn't look like anything else out there that could possible rival it. Today, most people would laugh at the mere mention of mySpace due to the increasing popularity of Facebook, as you mentioned. While I think that the recents efforts to revamp MySpace are a step in the right direction, I'm not sure that they could possibly reclaim all of the customers that were rightfully theirs who have since switched to Facebook. Even if this brings about a revolution in terms of media sharing, surely Facebook will be quick to adapt the trend into it's platform sooner or later.
ReplyDelete