Blog

The rumors of a total MySpace overhaul have been confirmed today, with an announcement made about a total network overhaul.  What was once one of the most popular social networking sites around (at one time, boasting more users than Facebook), has fallen out of favor with the masses, and is now revered as a more “junior” or “elementary” social network.

In 2005, I joined MySpace and started to reconnect with old friends from high school, college and past employers.  I thought it was the best idea ever!  My own, personal “webpage” where I could change the background image & layout (which I did probably every other week), add photo slide shows with captions (from 3rd party sites like slide.com) and jukeboxes that played some of my favorite music over and over whenever people logged in (whenever I hear Natasha Bedingfield’s “Love Like This” I’m immediately brought back to MySpace, 2006).

What happened?  Why did I slowly stop using MySpace?  Facebook.  I had been introduced to Facebook by a colleague who had been an early adopter.  At the time when Facebook launched, it was only available to college students, and I was long out of college at this point.  I saw Facebook as something that was a little too “young” for me and didn’t like how I couldn’t change the background on my profile or even write blogs (darn it - where was my green plaid print that I loved seeing so much?!).  While my initial reaction to Facebook was reluctant, I quickly realized why Facebook had begun to grow in exponential numbers – people who were “locked out” before, were now fascinated to see what one college student could create.  After about 6 weeks I had exclusively been using Facebook over MySpace.  While I still have a MySpace page, it is pretty much inactive, with 110% of my social networking activity focused on Facebook.

As more and more people began to shift, as I had, MySpace began to fall out of favor and began to revert to what it had begun as:  a place for music.  MySpace still remained a source for artists to showcase their unreleased singles, latest albums, and provide downloads.  Along with partnerships from Zynga and the like, it also became a place for gamers.

Today, MySpace officially announced a total makeover:  new interface, new logo, new attitude.

The site is now focused exclusively on the 13 to 35-year-old demographic — Generation Y, in other words. Its new goal is to become “the leading entertainment destination that is socially powered by the passions of fans and curators.” This is in contrast to its old goal of being “a place for friends.”

What do you think of the new MySpace?  Is this makeover what the social network needs to remain relevant?