Some might say that the slick, new MySpace redesign is tantamount to putting a tux on a corpse. The once-great social networking giant has suffered a severe one-two combo to the breadbasket from the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Even in its diminished state, however, MySpace has gathered over 100 million active global users since its 2004 launch, which is quite a remarkable feat. Still, it seems likely that unless it can turn things around, one of these supposed "last gasps" might someday actually be the last one.
"We're testing a new look and feel of our site among users and the response so far has been positive," a MySpace spokeswoman said in a statement. "As always, we're interested in hearing feedback from our community as we roll out enhancements to the user experience and look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks."
MySpace's profile pages represent a big step forward for the site, but are they a big enough change to help the former social--networking king remain relevant in 2010 and beyond? We decided to take a look.
The new MySpace profiles attempt to give the beleaguered social-networking site much-needed finish. Although the changes haven't been applied to all accounts in the system, certain users (such as Sean Percival, vice president of online marketing, above) have the new profiles pages, which is noticeably more eye-catching than the clunky, older pages.
The new MySpace profiles give extra highlight to the user. Previously, your profile photo lived in the upper left portion of the page with small links to Pics, Videos, Playlists, and Games located beneath it, making it seem cluttered. Now, the profile lives as a vertical island separated from the main content; a user photo is positioned at the top of this column, with links to Profile, Photos, Videos, Blog, Stream, and Friends stacked beneath. It's far cleaner and more pleasing to the eye, and certainly gives the user prominence on the page—something that was previously lacking in the old design.
Just south of the main menu bar (with drop-drown boxes for Profile, Friends, Music, Video, and more) is an update field. Percival's page at the time of this writing had it set so that it was pulling in his tweets. I'm not certain if this is a dedicated Twitter section or an area that can also be updated manually as it isn't available on the old MySpace accounts, but I suspect the latter.
The cluttered Contact box that was a staple of the old MySpace pages is now gone, replaced by an open horizontal bar that has large "add friend" and "share" buttons aligned to the left. To the right is an add comment link, and a drop-down box that lets you Send Message, Send IM, Suggest Friends, Block user, or Report Spam. It's much easier to read at a glance.
Beneath this bar is the heart of the new MySpace: The Stream. It looks very much like Facebook's Wall, where links, online video clips, and photos can be posted. Like Facebook, friends can comment on content and share it with others. Scrolling down from here takes you to the Comment area, a holdover from old MySpace pages. Frankly, it looks antiquated, and the comments should be integrated into the Stream.
The right column is topped by a prominent ad box, but is followed by useful information boxes. There's a remarkably plain About section, which sits above another section that displays icons related to the other services that the person users; in Percival's case, RSS, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Friendfeed were listed. Below this are a Flickr app, a user's companies, and Top Friends.
Despite these changes, MySpace is fighting an uphill battle. Many social media users, myself included, view the community site as a relic of the past whose main purpose is to serve as the home for independent bands. In fact, I can't recall the last time I actually signed into my account.
Of course, hands-on time with the revamped MySpace profiles is the only way to truly judge the changes, which admittedly, look mostly positive. Still, it remains to be seen whether the droves of Facebook and Twitter devotees will be eager to give MySpace a shot once the changes roll out across the board.
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