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MySpace Trying To Regain Lost Ground With Games and Music 76

Posted by Soulskill from the time-to-face-facts dept.
Over the past several years, MySpace has lost a significant amount of the social networking market to competitors like Facebook. Now, MySpace is trying to recapture lost interest by increasing the site's focus on games and music, as well as keeping an eye out for new technologies that would directly benefit their users. "[News Corp.'s Jonathan Miller] said he is 'obsessed' with real-time technology, such as the one Twitter has exploited in its social networking and microblogging service, and he wants to see MySpace incorporate it. He also said MySpace is lagging by having a platform that has been 'too closed' to external developers, something that he wants to see changed, especially for the sake of MySpace's gaming offerings. In addition, he wants to see MySpace push ahead in mobile."
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MySpace Trying To Regain Lost Ground With Games and Music More

MySpace Trying To Regain Lost Ground With Games and Music

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  • Leaders in "eye bleed" technology (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DoninIN ( 115418 ) <don.middendorf@gmail.com> on Saturday October 24, 2009 @01:22AM (#29854463) Homepage
    Myspace makes my eyes bleed, I'm old, get off my lawn, etc, I don't participate in facebook, I think twitter is largely inane and stupid, it's an internet distribution list for stupid OMFG LOOK AT THIS LOL! posts from idiots... However, Twitter and Facebook, while I find them inane and largely irrelevant to my aged lifestyle do not make my eyes bleed, my head explode and my browser crash, as I'm assuming myspace would, if I'd ever look at it with IE, or with javascript turned on etc... blech...

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by FooAtWFU ( 699187 )
      MySpace could do better by opening itself up to developers with a real theming engine, instead of the abomination of a system they had last time I checked where you inserted random CSS style rules into one of your profile sections.

      • So - myspace is in the lead to take "Lowest Common Denominator" title? Surely they deserve some award for the tons of fugly they force through the intartubez.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      my head explode and my browser crash

      To be hip and "with-it" on the web, you have work with beta stuff that crashes. As soon as it stabilizes, it's out of fashion. Remember the crashy early Java applets? Sure, Java's more stable now, but nobody uses it except big unhip corporations making tax table input apps.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

        I thought all the really big corporations used Flash and broken JavaScript that will only run on IE, if that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Fred_A ( 10934 )

        To be hip and "with-it" on the web, you have work with beta stuff that crashes.

        MySpace must have been super hip for a while then. It still looks like a beta from 1998.
        Some of the photographers I know work on concerts and point me to their MySpace page (for some reason, anything that has to do with music here apparently *has* to have a MySpace page) but those things are just too atrocious.

  • Too little, too late (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eln ( 21727 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @01:24AM (#29854471)
    MySpace is the Detroit of social networking...once vibrant and full of life, it's not a much smaller and more depressing version of its former self. Adding things that are already widely available all over the Internet isn't going to change anything.

    News Corp. wildly overspent for a turkey when they bought MySpace because, as has been proven over and over again by Mr. Murdoch himself, they have no understanding at all of how the Internet works, they have no idea what it takes to make money on the Internet, and they have no idea what anything on the Internet is actually worth.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eln ( 21727 )

      it's not a much smaller and more depressing version of its former self.

      s/not/now. Sort of changes the meaning a bit.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by roguetrick ( 1147853 )

      they have no idea what it takes to make money on the Internet

      Compared to who, twitter? Also, the WSJ subscription service seems to actually be working and paying off from what I've heard. This success makes it hard to dismiss News Corp.'s ability to turn a profit off the net. I feel dirty defending them, however, so let me end this by saying Rupert Murdoch is an asshole.

      • Wasn't WSJ a pay online service before Murdoch aqquired them? So he finally bought 1 that worked, doesn't mean at all that they understand how to make a profit off the net, just that they have to cash to buy others who might.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Threni ( 635302 )

        I think Murdoch hopes that all the other companies will see the extra money he makes from charging, and copy him so that 1) he can be seen as the person who understands how to make a lot of money selling stuff on the internet and 2) the others copy him and charge so that advertisers don't abandon him and instead flock to the free sites.

        If he gets another people paying then perhaps he can do away with advertising altogether and use that as something to attack the others on ("no vested interests to satisfy").

      • People make money from what they read in WSJ. It is more then just informational news, it is money making informational news. It is why they can charge for it. A lot of the information can't be found in other sources.

        Detailed stories about how a company is doing = worth paying for.
        Detailed stores about the latest hoax or car chase = not worth paying for.

        You hear that other newspapers wanting to charge for information? If it will not make a person money, or is easily accessed from other sources, people will

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      FaceBook will be next, then whoever is next, etc. :P I got tired of switching social networks.

  • ...after dial-up began to become irrelevant. "Hey, look! Bells AND whistles! You don't want that nasty DSL stuff...it sounds like a STD!" Same thing.

  • none of that will matter (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @01:47AM (#29854525) Journal
    if the page still takes a minute to load, and when it does, it's as ugly as home-made sin.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by EdIII ( 1114411 ) *

      it's as ugly as home-made sin

      Not sure where that saying originated from, but I strongly disagree.

      Home-made Sin is a very beautiful thing.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by EdIII ( 1114411 ) *

      Wow. I think I may have said something that could possibly be taken out of context in my previous reply. Having been unaware of the originations and meaning of that particular southern saying, which I just recently became educated about... I would like to retract my statement.

      You see I thought you were referring to Sin you make at home.. when you know.. nobody else is around. Just yourself.

      Umm yeah..... I think I am going to look up sayings before I reply to posts now....

    • Not to confuse this discussion with facts, but about two years ago MySpace introduced MySpace 2.0, which uses a lot of CSS and allows MySpace pages to be quite attractive. I actually find my MySpace page more attractive than my Facebook page, but I have a thing for earth tones.
  • I use Zembly to create apps on Facebook. If they join Zembly, or make a framework that is easy for developers I give it a go. I haven't been to MySpace in months.

  • user-friendliness needed too (Score:3, Informative)

    by MoFoQ ( 584566 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @02:01AM (#29854551)

    one of the biggest gripes I have with MySpace aside from the spam and difficulties in managing (or lack thereof) messages is the inability to keep myself logged in like Facebook and Twitter.

  • Yes, make it more like Facebook (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AnotherUsername ( 966110 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @02:17AM (#29854599)
    Yes, make it like Facebook, put applications in it whose main purpose is to data mine, while using a game-like interface to make the people who use it happy while they freely give out theirs and their friends' information. Yes, it is true. On Facebook, even if you don't use an application, if you don't specifically say don't use my information, your friends using the application will enable your information to be used.

    Personally, I think the whole mini-application craze the web is going through is getting old. I do have Facebook, and I am so sick and tired of everyone wanting me to install an 'app' so they can level up or whatever. No, I will not give my information up so that you can get another fucking flower in your garden. I will not give my identity to a faceless corporation so that your mafia gang will get more powerful. I will not let some company use my life to earn more money for themselves just so I can see the results for some compatibility test you took and thought everyone on your friends list should take, just so you can see how compatible your are with all your friends. Guess what, if they are actually your friends, you already should have a basic understanding of your compatibility(true compatibility, not which cartoon character are you compatibility) with them.

    I don't want to enhance my sex life, nor am I looking for hot singles on the web in my area. I don't need viagra, and I don't have wrinkles that need hiding. I will not change my status every time I eat a meal, and I will not put pictures of what I wore today. I will not comply with this state of mind that says I have to be open with my life, that I must post everything I do to my Twitter account(which I refuse to make) and that I must make blog posts about Britney Spears and my dog. If I want someone to know what I am doing, and I feel they will care, I will call them or meet them in person and carry on a conversation with them until we each feel that what we have to say is finished. I will not live my life through Facebook.

    Stay out of my life, Mark Zuckerberg. May you lose your billions as quickly as you made them.

    • I will not comply with this state of mind that says I have to be open with my life, that I must post everything I do to my Twitter account(which I refuse to make) and that I must make blog posts about Britney Spears and my dog. If I want someone to know what I am doing, and I feel they will care, I will call them or meet them in person and carry on a conversation with them until we each feel that what we have to say is finished. I will not live my life through Facebook.

      Yes, why do on facebook that which you just as easily do on slashdot? Your facebook status ranting about how you don't need to broadcast on facebook can't be modded up.

      • There's a like option, its kinda like being modded up. You can't be modded down in Facebook though because you can only dislike things you already liked.

        • Makes sense when you think about it.

        • There's a like option, its kinda like being modded up. You can't be modded down in Facebook though because you can only dislike things you already liked.

          I think that's called "the happy place."

          I'm just sayin'. :>

    • You bring up a good point on not wanting the apps to have your data, but if you wanted it private then don't put it up at all. As of right now there really is no middle ground on accessibility or your info once its up there. I personally prefer to have a relevant ad if I am going to have any ads at all and if they aren't using my data for nefarious means then its fine. If I don't want some third party knowing something but I want my friends to know it I tell then to their face or in a more private mode of c

    • Re:Yes, make it more like Facebook (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Sarten-X ( 1102295 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @05:13AM (#29855025) Homepage

      I'm not so concerned about privacy, but I agree:

      I have basically quit using Facebook, because it got too annoying to spend thirty seconds daily clicking all the buttons to reject the little mini-games. I'm not impressed that they want to duplicate this idiocy.

      • This is a feature of who your friends are. I played a whole bunch of fb games for a while, but I only sent invites to friends I knew played games; I'd seen it on their profile, or they had sent me a games request in the past. When I got tired of a game I blocked the application, which means I no longer saw any messages about or from it anywhere regardless of what my friends might do. If you got flurries of unwanted game invitations, it sounds like your friends are a bunch of assholes.

        P.S. Birds of a feather

    • MrCrassic likes this.

  • Myspace is still vaguely relevant to my life because small bands always have a myspace page. Other than that, I never travel to myspace links. And since the local dump of a live house closed down last year, I haven't even done that.

    Does Myspace have any actual relevance to anyone here? Or has it just become yet another fossilizing internet community like friendster or orkut?

    • myspace = place to check out small bands.
      They are not a social networking site any more and never will be, if they want to get anywhere they should concentrate on the music aspect of myspace, before the kids figure out that last.fm/band_name is cooler than myspace.com/band_name. I mean i hope they don't but thats what they should do if they want to be relevant,

    • Well, one of my ex-girlfriends strongly OPPOSED getting a Facebook account in favor of keeping her MySpace one. I had one that I used, very shamefully, to find women in my area way before I met her. (Yes, I'm aware of how stupid that was.) Thus, I kept it to be linked up to her.

      I closed it just a week or two ago. Served no purpose.

  • Seen this before (Score:5, Interesting)

    by loudmax ( 243935 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @02:57AM (#29854755) Homepage

    I worked for America Online when Jonathan Miller came on as CEO. It was pretty encouraging to have someone who seemed clueful about the internet making decisions for a change. There was a big push to get the company thinking in terms of Web 2.0. During one of the company all-hands in 2006 or 2007 or so he even brought in Tim O'Reilly for an interview. For a company whose culture was just getting around to realizing that the AOL dial-up client was a dead-end product, this was a big change. Eventually Jonathan Miller was pushed out from AOL and a former NBC executive was brought in, and the company went back to trying to understand the internet in terms of television.

    As it was with AOL, I suspect MySpace's reawakening is too late. There isn't any likelihood MySpace is going to challenge Facebook or Twitter, but there may still be some value left. MySpace was popular among kids at one point, maybe they can make something of that. Based on what I saw at AOL, Miller has good a chance of salvaging MySpace as anyone. The biggest danger that I can see is that the company is ultimately owned by Rupert Murdoch who isn't exactly a friend to progress.

  • Since Myspace can't seem to even manage bug fixing I have big doubts over their ability to do anything.

  • More power to MYSPACE, although I hope Murdock realizes the endgame.

  • ask why (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Saturday October 24, 2009 @07:51AM (#29855573) Homepage Journal

    Frankly, I never understood why MySpace got anywhere at all. I've yet to see a single page on it where I don't think about slapping the author with a lawsuit for emotional damages.

    It is but-ugly, unfriendly and loud (both visually and with all the crappy background music). In short, it's the hip-hop of the web. Uh wait. I think I just answered my question.

    • Unfriendly is right, I've had some peoples profiles that would crash my firefox hard every time. Full page transparency's also doesn't agree with the linux version of firefox. Now I do block everything under the sun on facebook, but at least they enforce the page style and I don't have to look at glitter gif's. Now if there were only a way to eliminate peoples application's within their stream from poping up on my friends stream.

      • Now if there were only a way to eliminate peoples application's within their stream from poping up on my friends stream.

        Hover mouse over offending entry, click on "Hide".

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by meyekul ( 1204876 )
      ... its Geocities 2.0!

    • Again, not to confuse this discussion with facts, but MySpace 2.0 is quite attractive and has a nice Web 2.0 CSS look to it. The problem is that users have to opt-in to MySpace 2.0, and a lot of users still have pages with a MySpace 1.0 (tables, no CSS, Netscape 4 compatible, dot-com era website design) look to it.

    • MySpace may suck, but please don't pigeon-hole hip-hop into the same generalization. Just like any other genre there's plenty of crap and plenty of good stuff that has nothing to do with being loud, unfriendly, or unintelligent; generalizations just reflect badly on the poster.

  • It's just painful (Score:2, Insightful)

    by quibus ( 652993 )

    In my humble opinion, MySpace is just too painful to be true:

    1) it tells me to install Flash, while I have it installed and working fine on other sites (using even proprietary Flash 10 on my Debian amd64 box)
    2) it doesn't have a single way to give feedback to the administrators of MySpace (e.g. for issue 1)
    3) it's a pain to the eyes to see most MySpace pages. Things are messed up, bad color schemes, hardly any well-thought about layout.

    Who needs MySpace?

    Unfortunately, many music composers seem to like it..

  • Wait, you mean to say that being the first-to-market, creating a new "space," acquiring mind-share, and all that other business-type-crap ISN'T a sure-fire magical path to success? Things like quality, usability, and continuous innovation actually matter? Who knew!

      -- 77IM, world-view shattered, let's schedule a meeting to discuss a new paradigm

  • The real problems I've found with MySpace every time I tried going back to it are:

    • It's mostly beridden with emo teenagers with nothing to offer and sexually frustrated adult stalkers looking for them.
    • The "spaces" of said teenagers are akin to their messy, horribly disorganized rooms; full of useless CRAP. Videos, songs, pictures, pictures, pictures, GAMES and, ironically, very, very little text.
    • If you thought Facebook had serious downtime, wait until you get a MySpace account. You'll understand what "downti
  • Playgrounds for the kids.
  • A Girl Like You.
    One of my favourite songs, and recently they shut it down. [slashdot.org]
    Burn in hell, wankers.
  • Even with the damn checkbox "I don't want to receive messages from bands" checked, you still get band spam. Myspace started out moderately fun, then became way too bloated, slow and flashy. Facebook is starting to turn out similarly, started out lean and mean and people fled there from myspace...now it's starting to get way too bloated, slow and flashy (but still nowhere near as bad as Myspace). History will repeat itself again once the new MyBook.com (or whatever it's called) comes along that is fast, l

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