Gadgets Mobiles

As Google takes on the social networking world with Buzz, and Facebook and Twitter bring out location-sharing ala Foursquare, does anybody remember the social networking site that started it all? MySpace has had a tough year — with employee cuts and CEO resignations — but the company’s new co-presidents are seeking to turn the site around with a new look, a new mantra (“Discover and be discovered”), and believers. Co-Presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones announced their plans to revamp the former social media giant — plans that include a brand-new version of the site that will be implemented over the next few months. According to Reuters , Hirschhorn wants the site to grow from 100 million users to 200 or 300 million users (Facebook boasts over 400 million active users, according to its website). Hirschhorn did not give an expected timeframe for said growth.

MySpace has had a tough year so far – Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta resigned in February 2010 (reportedly, after numerous clashes with News Corp’s head of digital media — and former AOL CEO — Jon Miller), just ten months after former MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe stepped down. Jones said on Monday that the company is at the point where they need “believers.” The new site will focus on multimedia — all things music and movies, and will enable users to share their playlists with others. New user home pages were released last month and are a lot less cluttered than before (though personal pages still let people post messages with HTML and multimedia — something that the very streamlined Facebook has never allowed). Other improvements include updates to high-profile celebrity pages, such as Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie, so the pages have more information and are easier to navigate; improvements to the gaming channel via a partnership with Playdom; and synced Twitter and MySpace services…..