MySpace to release major site redesign

Updated at 9:47 p.m. PDT with more details.

News Corp.'s MySpace is set to release a major redesign next week, company representatives said late Thursday evening. The site doesn't look that different; it's still clearly MySpace. But a number of features have been revamped to improve user experience: namely, the homepage, navigation tools, profile editor, search features, and the MySpaceTV player.

A formal release is set to go out on Monday, and the first new features will show up on the site on Wednesday.

The redesign effort has been under way for more than six months, with the goals of appealing to a broader demographic and letting users interact with the site more (i.e. keeping them around), and has involved in-home studies for testing purposes.

The relaunch of the homepage proper has been kept somewhat under wraps, likely because a "major" advertiser is set to take over the site when it debuts. But MySpace has been liberal with the details of most of the other new improvements. They're not particularly revolutionary, but should still do a thing or two to combat user experience complaints on the social network.

The MySpace profile editing tool, for example, has been modified so that HTML expertise is less of a prerequisite. A sidebar lets users browse through themes and alter them with a color palette, rather than hard-coding changes.

The new MySpace profile editor. Note the sidebar to the right.

(Credit: MySpace)

The improved MySpaceTV player, with improved navigation.

(Credit: MySpace)

The MySpaceTV player, which technically competes with YouTube, has been improved to support high-definition video and improved full-screen mode as part of the Flash 9 release. The embeddable player now has internal search as well as a way to view the top MySpace videos; it's still playing catch-up with the likes of YouTube, but it's still a big improvement.

One of the most heavily altered sections of the new MySpace is search; now, MySpace members will navigate through a set of tabs to search personal profiles, music profiles, the entire MySpace site, videos on MySpaceTV, or the Web as a whole. The site has also worked with the Lucene open-source search engine project.

Doing a music search on the new MySpace

(Credit: MySpace)

MySpace's chief rival, Facebook, is also set to unveil a redesigned profile page in the near future; developers on its application platform are already testing it out. MySpace's redesign does not appear to alter the experience for developers who are building on its OpenSocial-compatible platform.

MySpace additionally has a data portability project, "Data Availability," on the way.

[turoa76]

I've never understood MySpace or FaceBook. They are an utter mess designwise and I can't understand what I'm looking at. As a gen Xer am I too old for this stuff?

[sparksvalley]

I agree. It always looks like a big, jumbled mess - and tacky at that. The only reason I would ever go there would be to download free music. It's like the ghetto of the Internet, and I don't really understand why it exists.

[sadchild]

as a member of a band, it is easily the best resource for finding new fans and staying in touch with them. add up the exposure of all other exposure sites we are on (garageband, purevolume, isound, reverbnation, etc etc) and combined they are less effective than myspace.

if people leave their profiles alone, i find it easy to use. but some people "pimp" their profiles to such an extent they become almost unusable. especially for me because i use firefox.

if you like hard rock (godsmack, disturbed, tool, etc) - http://www.myspace.com/asimplecomplex

[Zaunto]

As a musician, it works for me but I agree with that the "profile pimping" of some people's profiles is poorly designed and badly done. Some of the people who claim to be web designers should stick to their day job and leave web design to artists with skills. Hopefully the site re-design won't be utter crapola!

[bleu_tropix]

i use both...although i'm more biased toward myspace. just used facebook while i was in college. profiles are only "ghetto" if the owner wants it to be. the good thing about myspace is the fact that you can customize everything about your page. granted there are some really busy, really horribly designed pages--there are some very simplistic, sophisticated pages out there as well. it's all about who designs it. facebook on the other hand is simple, but there are way too many "apps" that i find to be absolutely ridiculous.

[chltmdwp2]

well atleast myspace is way better than facebook... facebook profile is limited

[Rod Roddy]

I agree with sparksvalley why do these sites exist?. There are a lot of useful websites on the internet like Wikipedia, Ebay, and Mapquest, to name a few but Myspace and Facebook are not one of those sites that offer anything worth while. But on the other hand, I'm also a Gen X'er--so what do I know right?.

[ianenos03]

Well, based on these screens, it doesn't look that much different. Frankly, the underlying code that powers MySpace is so terrible and renders the site so difficult to use that the look becomes largely irrelevant. But seriously, I barely notice a difference. Hopefully they have something better they've kept under wraps if they really intend to change (improve) the way the site works.

[evagro]

"ghetto of the Internet" - That is absolutely hiliarious and so very true! One thing that myspace has done that's a little better is warn people that if they click on something, they're leaving myspace. Apparently most myspacers aren't the brightest stars in the sky and click on just about anything, leading to hacks and phishers. It's sort of a pain, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

[MyToons]

Wow...what "pioneers"

MyToons.com, the home of everything animated, has had all of these features for a while now. The site looks much cooler, and it actually does have a focus and a purpose. And...MyToons beat both MySpace and You Tube to market with HD. HD Animation on Mytoons is really amazing. The color and clarity are awesome!

If you would like to see this stuff done right, look to the technological pioneers at MyToons.com. They are technologists - not web or media weenies - and it shows. They create all of their own technology, and can make their Ruby on Rails site do anything they want, any time they want - with no coroporate hangups.

Check it out!
www.mytoons.comc