Myspace unveiled Wednesday a comprehensive company rebranding and site redesign, an ambitious effort to reclaim some of the service’s former glory lost over the years to Facebook and Twitter.
The site has, over the years, slowly inched away from its identity as just a social network. Today, Myspace aims to be a social entertainment destination for Generation Y, that ambiguous demographic of individuals born somewhere between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s.
“This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace,” proclaims Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace (the lower-case “s” in “space” is just another part of the site rebranding). “Our new strategy expands on Myspace’s existing strengths – a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface emerging cultural trends in real time through our users.”
The most intriguing and obvious change has to be the new minimalist logo, which drops the word “space” in favor of an actual symbolically underscored space.
Says the company in a statement:
“The bracket in the logo represents a space where people can express themselves, enabling users to personalize the logo and make it their own – just as they can throughout Myspace.”
Backing the logo transformation are other aesthetic changes like an updated color palette and improved navigation.
And then there are the more meaty changes.
The redesigned Myspace homepage will be a hub of content being shared on the site in real-time. Registered users, who will see content tailored to their interests, can choose between three different layouts for the homepage: list view, grid view (“magazine” style), and play view (a video-based format).
Myspace is also launching a bevy of new products whose intent is to bolster the quantity and quality of content on the site. For example, users will be able to find 20,000 “entertainment-focused” topic pages, each of which aggregates content from a mix of media sources, including MTV, The New York Times and Village Voice.
In the end, no one can argue about the facts. Myspace has lost tens of millions of users over the course of just a few short years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all hope is lost. While it might not be the current social network of choice (Facebook’s title in most of the world), Myspace has some things going for it. Myspace Music, for one, must undoubtedly be the Web’s most comprehensive resource for music samples from bands as big as The Beatles and as tiny as Timmy’s garage band next door.
If the site redesign funnels content to users in meaningful and lasting ways, Myspace could survive and (gasp!) gain users. But it will be a battle.
The Myspace redesign will roll out to users in beta starting today and will be available worldwide by the end of November. All new users immediately see the new beta site.
Mobile users will see the beta site in their browsers soon and iPhone and Android apps are slated for release by the end of 2010.
