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MySpace Revamps Site To Recapture the Magic

Posted by samzenpus on from the good-luck-with-that dept.

Ponca City writes "MySpace has unveiled an overhauled website and logo as it attempts to recapture the magic that led it to top the social-networking sphere. According to the report 'MySpace is positioning itself for the so-called Gen Y crowd, or those roughly between 10 and 30 years old.' A beta version of the new website will start rolling out Wednesday and is slated to be accessible to users globally by the end of November. Plans are for the site to focus on entertainment with the home page constantly updating items about music, movies and television shows that are most discussed on the site at any one time."

98 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Name fail by sapgau · · Score: 1

    My (blank) ???

    1. Re:Name fail by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Wait...between age 10-30, you're Generation "Y".

      What age group range is Generation "X"?

      Where is the cutoff for boomers age-wise?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:Name fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I thought boomers were fat, not old!

    3. Re:Name fail by operagost · · Score: 5, Funny

      Last time I checked, Gen X was composed of those born between 1962 and 1980. If you have a Journey song on your MP3 player that's not "Don't Stop Believin'", you're probably Gen X.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    4. Re:Name fail by Trepidity · · Score: 1

      Gen X is roughly people who're now 30-50. Varies a bit, can include people in their late 20s, maybe some early 50s. Maybe doesn't include late 40s.

      The literal post-war "baby boom" of 1945-1950 would be people now 60-65. It's used more broadly to include some people born later, though, but not much later than, say, the late 1950s. If you think of boomer culture involving things like anti-Vietnam protests, the Beatles, hippiedom, etc., that has to be people who were at least, say, teenagers by 1970.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    5. Re:Name fail by KillaGouge · · Score: 2, Funny

      Does "Wheel in the Sky" from the new album count?

      --
      GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
    6. Re:Name fail by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Any way you want it thats the way you need it any way you want it bowdowdowdowdowdowdowdoodoo

      Oh hey, sorry, was just playing Rock Band 2, whats up?

    7. Re:Name fail by Infonaut · · Score: 1

      Dude, it's painful to me that you used Journey as an example. In my darker moments I still have flashbacks to the feathered Steve Perry hair and horrible lyrics like, "The smell of wine and cheap perfume... ." Now I feel a bit ill.

      --
      Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    8. Re:Name fail by owlnation · · Score: 1

      Seems to my Gen X mindset, that there's a big difference between the Gen X-ers that are under 35, they seem more Gen Y -- similarly, there's an HUGE difference between the Gen Y-ers aged 35 - 20 and those under 20.

      Those under 20 are more like Generation Z.

      From a Gen X point of view, Gen Z are terrifying -- God help us all when they are in charge of something important. It seems that Gen X has become terrible parents.

    9. Re:Name fail by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Agreed. There's definitely a transition period, depending in large part on when people first got computers. For people like me, at 33, we're more like the generation that contains the twenty-somethings. For the ones who didn't get computers until high school or college, they're more like Gen X. That said, I don't think I know anybody my age who doesn't fit better with the younger crowd. By the time you get to people who are about 37 or so, you're well into the Gen X territory.

      That said, I readily admit that I don't get the whole text messaging thing. It's not that I can't parse it---it's just a subtle variation on the dialect we used to use on 1200 baud BBSes in the 80s. I just don't get why anybody would willingly pay money to use it when it costs more for a few hundred bytes than for a few minutes of talk time.... I also don't get why so many young people seem to think ROFL, LOL, etc. are new.... Kids today....

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    10. Re:Name fail by skuzzlebutt · · Score: 1

      Just picture it sung by a Korean kid, and you become hip again!

      YMMV

      --
      My debut novel AMITY now available: http://jeremydbrooks.c
    11. Re:Name fail by hedwards · · Score: 1

      It's kind of annoying that previously there wasn't a lot of question that somebody that was born in 1980 was Gen X. And now all of a sudden journalists have changed their minds.

      Mapping generation boundaries is tricky business and there isn't really an absolute. But if you were born during the Carter administration, when your parents were expecting to get you a small pox vaccination, I think that's gen X.

      So much of what folks cite as Gen Y life experience just doesn't apply until you were born in at least 1982 or so.

    12. Re:Name fail by pseudofrog · · Score: 1

      And can we use one of the alternatives to "Generation Y", like the "Millenial Generation" or the "Net Generation"?

      All Generation Y says is "the one that came after Generation X".

    13. Re:Name fail by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      Not sure. At 29 I fall into the 10-30 range, but every previous definition I'd heard put me into Gen-X territory. Also heard it called "Nintendo Generation" a few times. Of course a roommate of mine who was once completely "anti-videogame" took EXTREME offense to that and swore (to the point of getting flustered) that he was NOT a member of "nintendo generation". Explanations that it just referred to an age range and not a hobby fell on deaf ears. He was of the video games are "uncool" variety - strangely enough when he emailed me recently to get back in touch he forwarded me a 360 gamer-tag as a means of contact :S.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    14. Re:Name fail by kenj0418 · · Score: 1

      I even played the Journey arcade game. I guess that makes me really old.... now get off my lawn.

    15. Re:Name fail by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In retrospect though, how many brilliant lyricists have existed in rock music? Elvis's music was ripe with horrible lyrics. I still think The Beatles' talent lay mostly in their music and not in their lyrics. Just to make a disclaimer, here are some musicians I feel are/were brilliant lyricists and songwriters: Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Steve Harris (Iron Maiden), Stan Ridgway (Wall of Voodoo), Andy Prieboy (Wall of Voodoo), Ronnie James Dio (Dio, Black Sabbath, Elf, Rainbow), Russ Ballard (Argent), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Neil Peart (Rush), Bernie Taupin (Elton John), John Cougar Mellancamp, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Sting (The Police), Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Tom Waits, etc.

      Steve Perry's lyrics weren't really that bad. No more offensive than those of Survivor (still a guilty pleasure of mine). And all the guys I named could really come up with some cliched lyrics too. :D It's all in good fun though!

    16. Re:Name fail by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 1

      I live by a simple rule. If you met your significant other online using a bulletin that you either dialed or telneted into, you are definitely a Gen Xer. If you met them on a web forum, you might be a Gen Yer. If you met them on a mobile phone or game console based social net, you are definitely a Gen Zer, and legally I'm not allowed to touch you.

      Does this rule work in every case? No. I never said it was a good rule.

      I like texting. I never thought I would, but I like the instant connection to my girlfriend that I have when we can't always speak on the phone. I just wish text messaging gave me as many characters as Citadel did in an Xpress message.

    17. Re:Name fail by paedobear · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm 31 and my family who are even 3 years younger than me have a totally different mindset - further away from mine than my aunt who is 13 years older (This is especially true for the relatives who were born from the late 80s on.) The plural of anecdote is not "data" after all.

    18. Re:Name fail by julesh · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked, Gen X was composed of those born between 1962 and 1980. If you have a Journey song on your MP3 player that's not "Don't Stop Believin'", you're probably Gen X.

      Hmm. I don't. But I have two Toto tracks that aren't Rosanna. Does that count?

    19. Re:Name fail by julesh · · Score: 1

      Well fuck, I was born in '87 and I have four*. Should I be worried?

      Depends. Were you intentionally being retro when you put them on there?

    20. Re:Name fail by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      That said, I readily admit that I don't get the whole text messaging thing. It's not that I can't parse it---it's just a subtle variation on the dialect we used to use on 1200 baud BBSes in the 80s. I just don't get why anybody would willingly pay money to use it when it costs more for a few hundred bytes than for a few minutes of talk time.... I also don't get why so many young people seem to think ROFL, LOL, etc. are new.... Kids today....

      In most countries (except the US apparently) texts are free to receive and very cheap to send, which is precisely why they are so popular with relatively cash-strapped teenagers/schoolkids.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    21. Re:Name fail by markhb · · Score: 1

      Hell, I prefer "Baby Busters" to "Generation X". The X thing never made much sense to me. (Also, AFAIK the official end of the Baby Boom generation in terms of the tail end of the birth rate bubble was 1964, so 1965 and later is the Baby Bust or Gen X.)

      As to when it ended, I think that if you don't clearly remember where you were when the Challenger exploded, you're too young for Gen X.

      --
      Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
    22. Re:Name fail by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 1

      Only left him out cause the list was running long, but yeah, good call.

    23. Re:Name fail by operagost · · Score: 1

      I was going to use Styx or Poison, but I didn't want to be banned from Slashdot.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  2. What? by shougyin · · Score: 1

    People still use that site?

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No. That's the problem they're trying to address.

    2. Re:What? by justin12345 · · Score: 1

      Funny coincidence, last night I got an entire email inbox full of friend requests from spam bots. About 7 before my spam filter auto-blacklisted MySpace. I was impressed, its been years since I got one of those (or logged into MySpace). So if by people you mean robots then evidently yes, "people" still use MySpace.

      --
      Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
  3. Too late. by Winckle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As soon as Murdoch bought the site it tanked completely. Now obviously those two things aren't entirely connected. I can still be happy about it though. :)

    Also worth seeing:

    1. Re:Too late. by pspahn · · Score: 2, Funny

      And according to that chart, myspace still has some users in Malaysia. But unfortunately, I don't have a joke to follow up on that observation.

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    2. Re:Too late. by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As soon as Murdoch bought the site it tanked completely. Now obviously those two things aren't entirely connected.

      I wouldn't be surprised if they were entirely connected, though with perhaps the reverse of the causal relationship some people might assume.

      After all, if you think you've driven your product to the maximum market value its ever going to have, its obviously a good time to sell; if you think you can cost-effectively make it worth more on the market before selling it, it makes sense to sell it.

    3. Re:Too late. by melikamp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wonder which magic they are gonna recapture. This one? Or this?

    4. Re:Too late. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      For a demo of the new site, go here.

      Well, it's not as bad as it used to be.

    5. Re:Too late. by Bertie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know someone who works there, and he tells me that when it was bought out, that Tom guy was very resistant to making the sort of changes to the site that anybody could see were needed. So it limped on with its awful mess of a Coldfusion codebase and no attempt to give it the sort of stickiness that saw Facebook skyrocket.

      It's too late now. They've had their five years in the sun which any site like this can expect to have. It's just another graveyard like Geocities now. And honestly, did anybody expect anything else?

    6. Re:Too late. by blair1q · · Score: 1

      As soon as Murdoch bought the site it tanked completely. Now obviously those two things aren't entirely connected.

      Yes they are.

      That's the day I stopped logging in.

    7. Re:Too late. by falsified · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow, I totally forgot about Google Trends for some reason.

      Were any other Americans surprised how few people in other countries went on Facebook compared to the US?

      http://trends.google.com/websites?q=facebook.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

      I figured it was kind of US-centric, but not to this extent.

      --
      HI, MY NAME IS ISAAC.
    8. Re:Too late. by whiteboy86 · · Score: 1

      Owners just sold it when the site peaked in popularity and the threat of Facebook loomed.

    9. Re:Too late. by countSudoku() · · Score: 1, Troll

      That's so great. I think the ONLY thing that can save this dead site is the ability to post and share music, movies and television shows. Of course, they and the MPAA and RIAA could never come to grips with that, not for free which it would need to be. Even though it would generate shitloads of real traffic and sales through the roof for the bands willing to be involved with freely shared music and other medias. That'll never happen. Hey, I'm sharing anyway. Make me want to join, or expect defeat.

      --
      This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
    10. Re:Too late. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      MySpace Revamps Site To Recapture the Magic

      Recapture the MAGIC? Does it involve PINK PONIES?

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    11. Re:Too late. by rudy_wayne · · Score: 1

      I know someone who works there, and he tells me that when it was bought out, that Tom guy was very resistant to making the sort of changes to the site that anybody could see were needed.

      It wouldn't have mattered. My Space, Facebook and all the rest are fads. They come and go. Once your 15 minutes of fame are up, that's it, people have already moved on to the latest "new big thing".

    12. Re:Too late. by vlueboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If we take into account the prices they were charging people for hosting 100K pages with one time setup fees from your 13 year time machine, it's interesting that they took the "free" route at some point. Well, we now know the whole internet did.

      As visitors became the product to ad corps and data miners, the value or cost in myspace's business model must have remained pretty similar to those rates, and someone is paying for those. A kinda lowest ballpark of how much our visits are worth to sites like facebook.

      I did see take interest to the simplicity and lack of immediate apparent user-driven content back then. That has morphed to the today's pr0n-site-like content layout (first illustration in the article) and the facebook-like social layout (second illustration.) Nothing original here, purge your myspace contact info now if you still haven't

    13. Re:Too late. by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      The irony is that the first page *is* from 1996, yet doesn't feature the uber-90s/early-web non-scrolling fixed background pattern.

      Whereas, after that aspect of web design had apparently died out by the millennium (because it was obviously horrid, I'd assumed), the first place I see it on a new page in years is... MySpace. Along with lots of other Geocities:The Next Generation style tackiness.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    14. Re:Too late. by Dogtanian · · Score: 1, Insightful

      As soon as Murdoch bought the site it tanked completely. Now obviously those two things aren't entirely connected.

      Yes they are. That's the day I stopped logging in.

      (Assumed implication being that you stopped using MySpace because Murdoch bought it).

      I can't figure out if you're being serious here. Are you actually suggesting that you think your decision to leave for that reason is significant in the scheme of things (i.e. millions of users) or even that it reflects the reasons for everyone else leaving?

      Because- much as I think Murdoch is worthless scum and understand your reasons- it's egotistical or deluded to believe that either of these is the case. Sorry to say that I doubt the vast majority of its users gave a toss about him buying MySpace per se.

      Maybe he did something that caused people to leave, or maybe the seeds of its destruction were already sown by the time it had been sold. But I doubt most people left directly because they didn't like Murdoch- you're not typical.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    15. Re:Too late. by blair1q · · Score: 1

      Okay. Everyone else avert your eyes while I reveal the secret clue to our friend here:

      I was making a joke. "MySpace sucks because I left." See?

      Alright, you can open your eyes now.

    16. Re:Too late. by Dahamma · · Score: 1

      Actually, both of those pages would be an improvement over the current MySpace.

    17. Re:Too late. by antdude · · Score: 1

      Can Murdoch buy Facebook too? ;)

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    18. Re:Too late. by hedwards · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing it's shitter. A filter of twitter which filters out anything that isn't related to the restroom. Also Jersey Shore.

    19. Re:Too late. by wmac · · Score: 1

      And I see only the home page has been updated. Not even the profile pages. They want to do magic by redesigning a few pages?!!

    20. Re:Too late. by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      I think facebook is a bit different than myspace in that it's EVERYWHERE. Myspace was a cool place to find people I haven't spoken to in a while, but required an actual visit to their site. Facebook has almost completely replaced personal e-mails. Both of my phones have access to every phone number of every one of my Facebook friends who post them. Facebook has SMS alerts, Outlook 2010 integration, and, though I despise them personally, Farmville and Mafia Wars. Also, it was much simpler to actually find the information you're looking for, rather than reading yellow text on a sparkly white background.

      I'll bet bucks to beans that Murdoch would have laughed you out of his office by saying that Myspace should figure out indirect ways of making their service useful that wouldn't involve serving up an ad at the same time. He would have downright pissed in his pants if you told him in 2005 that in four years Myspace would be the 00's Geocities at the hands of a college kid whose alternative service did just that. Okay, now I totally want to do that now. Excuse me while I fire up my Delorean. Anyone got some Plutonium?

    21. Re:Too late. by totally+bogus+dude · · Score: 1

      Costs for hosting have dramatically decreased, but also I think that 'myspace' bears no relation to the 'myspace' social networking site. I would say it's more a case that MySpace's founder came up with the name, discovered the domain was already registered, and offered to buy it from whoever was using it to sell business web hosting.

      Quite fascinating to see, though. Thanks.

      May 2000 seems to be when they started offering free web hosting with an eye to building a userbase. I get the impression ownership of the domain changed here, as now the copyright message is for YourZ.com.

      May 2001 they put up a maintenance page, and then in June switch to a page where you can sign up to receive news of what's going on. Seems to stay that way until May 2002, at which point it starts showing a blank page, or an almost-blank page.

      Something happened in August 2003, but without the images I can't tell what. Another change of ownership or focus?

      October 2003 seems to be when the social networking site was launched. The Terms and Conditions refer to MySpace LLC as the company behind it, so potentially another change of ownership here.

    22. Re:Too late. by shikaisi · · Score: 1

      They just need sufficiently advanced technology. That would be indistinguishable.

      --
      No left turn unstoned.
    23. Re:Too late. by kd5zex · · Score: 1

      It's actually very simple, most Americans are obsessed with "one-upping" their peers as it is the American way. We want to see the jock/popular-girl 10 years down the road and read or see about his/her failures with higher education / weight gain / hair loss / unplanned pregnancies / divorces / legal issues. We also hold events known as class reunions, this event is held for the same purpose.

    24. Re:Too late. by markhb · · Score: 1

      From what I've seen, part of it was when high school kids who got accepted to college got their .edu email addresses early; that allowed them to register for Facebok and join the community of their new school. This led to a stratification where Facebook became the place where the college-bound kids hung out and Myspace was left to the people who weren't going to college. I've read that this extended to the military in Iraq, where Myspace, largely used by the enlisted men, was blocked at the firewall but Facebook, used by the college-educated officers, wasn't. FB then was able to build up a lot of buzz about itself behind it's .edu-only wall while Myspace received very little in the way of investment, and once FB opened itself up to everyone then Myspace became deserted.

      --
      Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
    25. Re:Too late. by vlueboy · · Score: 1

      Very true. Thanks for the added research. It seems too sudden to just be one company changing models, and yourZ.com appears to be dead. Anyway, I took another look and found there are a couple pictures in the tour page, and forgot how much of a Friendster clone it was --its AOLification is what made it win that battle.

      Date-hopping on wayback machine tends to be a pain. Just last night I was browsing through some fan forums for a Showtime show ending on 2004. Less than a year later, the domain was parked, apparently without notice, and 2 years ago it was deregistered from DNS, to my surprise. What is interesting is clicking at the end and then back and back.

      DNS aside, looking at the /. and Yahoo landing pages morphing throughout 13 years can be eye-opening too.

  4. recapture the Magic by turkeyfish · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and the money. There's a fortune to be made both stealing and prying into people's private lives. Expect Murdoch who always trolls for scandal that will advance his business interests to be eager to tune his new media property, you.

  5. A site for Gen-Y 10-30 somethings? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 1

    MySpace?.. I liked it better when it was called Facebook!

  6. its dead by Nyall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    myspace == new geocities.

    I stopped using it because I was sick of all the garish pages people would put together and the automated music playing.

    --
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
    1. Re:its dead by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      myspace == new geocities.

      I stopped using it because I was sick of all the garish pages people would put together and the automated music playing.

      Amen, brother. That and the endless pages that grow so big that they crash my browser. Who in their right mind designs a social networking site that displays every comment ever made on your page?

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    2. Re:its dead by LSDelirious · · Score: 2, Funny

      I actually kinda liked all the overdecorated pages.... if you check someone's profile and its loaded down with flash garbage, you know right away this person is a complete moron and you should avoid talking to them!

      --
      Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property; A Corporation is the legal fiction that property is a person.
    3. Re:its dead by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Also getting spammed by shitty bands. I realize that may have been the original point of myspace, which ended up being what drove me back away from myspace.

      The bigger issue was probably that facebook seemed to have better features, and it took me a while to realize that those features were coming at an increased cost of privacy.

    4. Re:its dead by kaizokuace · · Score: 1

      there is a reason that only a very small portion of the population actually gets paid to design things.

      --
      Balderdash!
    5. Re:its dead by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      myspace == new geocities.

      I stopped using it because I was sick of all the garish pages people would put together and the automated music playing.

      Amen, brother! They let people program their own webpages with html and look what it got us, a garish nightmare of unreadable crap. What we really need is some site that prevented people from doing whatever they wanted with their own site. Hem it in like some sort of garden. Then block them from doing what they want with it like it was walled off. It's the only way that these things will be useable. If we are to make these sort of things actually readable and useable, then they need to be tightly controlled or they'll end up a chaotic mess.

    6. Re:its dead by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      Uh, doesn't facebook do the same thing, more or less? Sure it's hidden with some javascript junk, ...

      No. It uses AJAX to retrieve older stuff once you ask for it.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
  7. What else is new? by operagost · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since when was Myspace ever NOT Gen-Y oriented? My Gen-X brain had it filed under "Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany" since the first day I stumbled onto some 14 year old's putrid purple-and-pink theme, complete with animated-GIF hearts and skulls and two Avril Lavigne videos playing simultaneously.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    1. Re:What else is new? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Since when was Myspace ever NOT Gen-Y oriented? ...

      Hm. I heard MySpace was for young girls and old men looking for young girls. No wonder Rupert wanted it! And, I'm sure he lost many a night's sleep trying to figure out how to pay-wall the damn thing...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    2. Re:What else is new? by genfail · · Score: 1

      I'm sure he lost many a night's sleep trying to figure out how to pay-wall the damn thing...

      Monsters don't sleep, they wait.

    3. Re:What else is new? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Since when was Myspace ever NOT Gen-Y oriented? My Gen-X brain had it filed under "Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany" since the first day I stumbled onto some 14 year old's putrid purple-and-pink theme, complete with animated-GIF hearts and skulls and two Avril Lavigne videos playing simultaneously.

      Hey, I'm a forty-something male, you insensitive clod!

      Oopsie...

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  8. Yeah. by blair1q · · Score: 1

    Yeah.

    The place is so full of 30-60 somethings that you can't get a Justin Bieber quote in edgewise...

  9. the #1 reason myspace failed by rev_sanchez · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most people have terrible taste and myspace gave them a lot more of an opportunity to unleash that onto the internet. They became the social networking version of Geocities and that ruined their branding.

    Facebook locks down the look and feel of their website quite a lot and for branding purposes that's a good thing.

    --
    If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
  10. Durned kids by Snufu · · Score: 1

    MySpace is positioning itself for the so-called Gen Y crowd, or those roughly between 10 and 30 years old.

    As a member of the decreasingly relevant Gen X crowd, let me be the first to say 'Get off MyLawnSpace.'

    1. Re:Durned kids by aekafan · · Score: 1

      You kidding? X is just getting old enough now to get real political power. As all generations before us have discovered, that's all that matters.

    2. Re:Durned kids by El_Oscuro · · Score: 1

      Its "Get off my LAN", you insensitive clod!

      --
      "Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
  11. Gen Y? by Daetrin · · Score: 1

    Everyone in the 10-30 range? So they're targeting absolutely everyone who grew up with the internet? That's a nice goal, but not really practical. Everyone who's comfortable with the level of social networking involved in MySpace has already moved on to Facebook, and everyone else is holding on desperately to their LiveJournal/DreamWidth or their Wordpress or their IRC or whatever they use for their communication with the world. One group has already moved on to something "bigger and better" and the other group is quite happy with what they have already.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:Gen Y? by icebraining · · Score: 1

      Also Tumblr, seems to have a decent userbase.

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
    2. Re:Gen Y? by hedwards · · Score: 1

      More like 10-20 year olds. I remember going over to my friend's house in the midish 90s and seeing compuserve. IIRC we even spent a couple minutes on the internet and he explained how much better it was than compuserve.

      IIRC I was almost driving age at that point. By the time we got the net a while later, it was still way before most people were using it.

    3. Re:Gen Y? by kd5zex · · Score: 1

      Internet access was not prevalent in South-Central Texas until about '98 or '99, and it was dial up AOL.

      IIRC, broadband was not rolled out widespread until about '01 or '02 and I did not get broadband in my area until about '04.

    4. Re:Gen Y? by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      pedantic warning:

      IRC is different from the others listed in that:

      -It's a pretty well established, matured PROTOCOL. Many other chat applications use some principles of IRC on the back end (I've dealt with several java and AJAX-based chat/support products that boil down to a really shiny skin over IRC)
      -It's used a lot for the file transfer functionality (we only swap Linux distros! really!)
      -the alternatives to it have been AIM/MSN/ICQ (which are better for one-on-one chats, but not for groups or an "open door policy"), full-blown chatrooms (which have existed for quite a while, and again also use some flavor of IRC), and Facebook Chat (great idea, terrible implementation, but useful courtesy of Digsby)

    5. Re:Gen Y? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The point is that if you are now 30 and so were born in 1980, you didn't grow up with the internet unless your parents were very techy people
      By the mid 90s when internet access became fairly widespread you'd have been fifteen or so, and there's not that much difference from first using the internet at fifteen or thirty.
      The big difference is with people born after the early Nineties who have been exposed to the internet since they were conscious.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  12. The target isn't FaceBook by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Plans are for the site to focus on entertainment with the home page constantly updating items about music, movies and television shows that are most discussed on the site at any one time.

    IMHO they don't want to steal users from FaceBook, they want to prevent Apple's Ping from becoming the next largest media-based social network because that's where the money is: movies, TV shows, music and ads.

    The thing is, all iTunes users already have the potential of being Ping users, it's only one click away.

    1. Re:The target isn't FaceBook by countSudoku() · · Score: 1, Troll

      The thing is, all iTunes users already have the potential of being Ping users, it's only one click away.

      Ewwww, tell me where so I don't accidentally click on that! That's the cyber-equivalent of stepping in dogshit.

      --
      This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
  13. Trends doesn't tell the story by Infonaut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Facebook is doing quite well in Europe.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  14. Suggestion: contact Richard Hell by RevWaldo · · Score: 1

    The perfect theme song for the rebrand - let's get some marketing synergy going!

    http://www.richardhell.com/lyrics2.html#BlankGeneration

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP3x-VdOb44

    (And of course: http://www.myspace.com/richardhellvoidoids )

    It even addresses MySpace's problem:

    I belong to the blank generation and
    I can take it or leave it each time
    I belong to the ______ generation but
    I can take it or leave it each time

    .

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
  15. The Site that Brought you.... by Macrat · · Score: 1

    Tila Tequila

    The world will never be the same.

    1. Re:The Site that Brought you.... by hedwards · · Score: 1

      There's always been whores, it's just now we're supposed to settle for sharing the same one and looking but not touching.

  16. Gotta love PHB's by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    'MySpace is positioning itself for...those roughly between 10 and 30 years old

    A brilliant strategy to capture a niche ignored by FaceBook, which targets 11 to 31 year-olds.
       

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  17. More? by genfail · · Score: 2, Insightful
    So their answer to users fleeing their site in droves is two parts; 1. Examine what drove their user base away in the first place 2. CRANK THAT SHIT TO 11!

    Good luck with that.

  18. News at 11 by Kazymyr · · Score: 2

    As someone who has made a conscious decision from the very beginning to shun the whole MySpaceBook/Twittedin/social networking phenomenon, let me be the first to say:
    Pffrrghttblargh!

    --
    I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
    1. Re:News at 11 by El_Oscuro · · Score: 1

      Don't you know, the correct spelling is:

      PFFTFTHTF!!!!!!!

      How can a website go PFFTFTHTF!!!!!!! anyway?

      --
      "Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
  19. How about music sites that cater by future+assassin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    to people in the 30/40's, what are we dead? But I guess that would mean they would have to dig up creative artists that don't release songs that have ran through some software algorithm too see if it'll be consumed by the masses.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:How about music sites that cater by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Never mind that, I'd be happy to simply have tunes released without the "screw dynamic range, let's make it sound LOUDER for radio diffusion" crap.

      Seriously, watch the waveforms of a lot of tunes sold on iTunes and other places. It's a shame to see the music labels completely destroying the tunes they're in charge of selling.

    2. Re:How about music sites that cater by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I think that as you get older you realise there's more to life than listening to fucking music and saying how hot the singer is. Not a lot more, mind.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    3. Re:How about music sites that cater by SparkleMotion88 · · Score: 1

      From the point of view of marketing, you die when you turn 30 and come back to life when you turn 55. In between that time, you have just the right combination of poverty and responsibility that prevents you from throwing money away based on advertising.

  20. huh? by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

    What's a myspace?

  21. Received an email about it this morning. by TodLiebeck · · Score: 1

    Just received an unsolicited commercial email from them advertising this new site (what's that other term for these again?) It went to one of our support accounts...the kind that wouldn't be found unless one were to skim a web site for email addresses.

    The unsubscribe link from this invitation to join requires that I first "log into my account". The email is an invitation to join.

  22. SNL's MySpace Seminar by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

    http://breesays.buzznet.com/user/video/16709/

  23. If they really wanted to generate buzz... by vortex2.71 · · Score: 1

    They should announce the new site on their Facebook page.

    1. Re:If they really wanted to generate buzz... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Or they could tweet everyone.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  24. MySpace is still around? by Tangential · · Score: 1

    Wow! I didn't realize MySpace was still around. I guess I haven't been as bored as I thought I was.

    --
    Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
  25. Re:It worked for Yahoo... by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

    different ideas. Google's home page is great if you're actually searching for stuff. Yahoo is a bit better at putting some ideas in front of you when you're not quite sure what to look for. While the page may not be layed out perfectly, it does have much more information on it and I've read some articles on it (and -don't judge me bro- MSN.com) that I wouldn't necessarily have searched for, but was worth 2 minutes of my time to skim through. The fact that I got distracted by half a dozen ads has made Yahoo a dollar or three as well.