Myspace: Will a redesign resurrect the site?
There’s an affectionate Italian greeting that loosely translates to “Look who’s come back from the dead!” Well, the once-mighty social media site Myspace has a slick video showing off its new look. And pop star Justin Timberlake likes it so much he’s endorsing it… though it should be noted that Justin’s also a major investor.
The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.
But will some celebrity power and a thorough redesign make Myspace a go-to spot again for online users? Laurie Baird is a social media and entertainment strategist based in Atlanta. She says the new Myspace could try to exploit weaknesses in the competition.
“The features aren’t in a sort of unidirectional Twitter feed where you’re not really given this engagement,” “Or like Facebook, where you’re really not building playlists or engaging with artists in as much of a communal way. So it promises some great things.”
I know, talking about promises of MySpace sounds like an archive tape from 2003. But nine years after it was born as a networking site for musicians, Baird thinks Myspace could be getting back to basics.
“Maybe these other sites are too popular,” she says. “Facebook is already adopted by my dad and my grandma…I want to go back to my roots. These are the types of ideas Myspace is going to try and take hold of.”
We’ve requested an invitation to the new Myspace. We’ll see if I’m special enough to get it into a club that now has “only” 50 million members. In the meantime you can still “friend” us the old fashioned way… on Facebook.
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