Anybody remember their MySpace profile? You know, the one with the putrid green and magenta background adorned with glittery inspirational quotes and hundreds of animated GIFs that would take ages to load even on today’s computers? Yeah, we only wish we could forget.
It’s was especially hard to forget this week when MySpace launched a two-minute Vimeo trailer (interestingly not released on their own, failed video sharing service) showing off “The New MySpace.” If anything, you’ve got to appreciate the irony of MySpace looking us up and calling us like the high school ex that can’t take a hint.
“But I’ve changed!” they say. And unlike this once significant other, MySpace has changed a lot, as this two minute video seeks to show us. The background song, “Heartbeat” by JJAMZ, sets the mood. It’s like the headliner track on this awkward make-up mixtape from the once proud social network.
The trailer follows one David Croft, your average social network user, as he signs in and uses all the new features and such. We learn he is an aspiring DJ (much like yours truly!) and has a more than considerable obsession with Justin Timberlake, (who just so happens to be a  substantial MySpace shareholder).
The second half of the trailer features Timberlake’s experience with the site. This is important since, even in it’s decline, MySpace’s biggest strength remains its  allowing artists to connect with their fans.
We are whisked through MySpace’s new world looking at all the sleek new interface changes. However, it’s easy to see where MySpace got its inspiration for all of this: other, more successful social networks.
To give you an idea of how it looks, imagine if you were viewing your Twitter feed and Instagram photos on Pinterest while your Facebook timeline’s cover photo loomed on the side. At the bottom of the screen is a status bar much like the one that tops Facebook, but laced with MySpace’s own brand of Spotify that you can listen to while going through the site. Noticing a pattern here?
For many people reading this column, MySpace was our first social media anything. But since then, we (including MySpace’s poster-boy, “Tom”) have matured, and moved on to more sophisticated social networks and blogging sites like many of the ones mentioned in the above comparisons.
MySpace’s new look shows that they too have matured. But with little in the way of truly new and original features, choosing instead to copy what other networks already do, it seems unlikely that many people, including myself, will have the incentive to go back.
