MySpace Launches New Games Experience, Tools

March 15th, 2010

MySpace revamped the Games section of its site to make it easier for users to discover and share games, and also revealed new application and analytics tools for developers on the MySpace platform.

The new MySpace Games Gallery is designed to make it easier for users to stay up-to-date with games through notifications, as well as discover new games through personalized game recommendations, popular game charts, and their friends’s streams. They can also now rate games, which will affect search results and recommendations.

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MySpace co-founder DeWolfe moves into social gaming with MindJolt acquisition

March 4th, 2010

MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe has re-emerged almost a year after leaving the chief executive post at the social network. With backing from Austin Ventures, DeWolfe’s new company Platform G is buying a social gaming startup called MindJolt.

It sounds like DeWolfe is basically taking over MindJolt — the press release says he’s the company’s new CEO, while his former MySpace colleagues Colin Digiaro and Aber Whitcomb are moving in as chief operating officer and chief technology officer, respectively. San Francisco-based MintJolt already reports 20 million monthly active users for its games on Facebook, its own web site, and other social networks. The team says it wants to bring in more revenue through brand partnerships and virtual good sales, bring MintJolt to new web sites and smartphones, and work more closely with game developers.

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After Numerous Shake-Ups, is MySpace Dying?

February 24th, 2010

It’s almost hard to believe, but MySpace used to be the most popular social networking site in the world. After internal shake-ups and faltering popularity, the site seems, now more than ever, to be headed straight for the pavement, face-first. Its latest attempt at reinvention, called “Discover and be Discovered,” might be MySpace’s last-ditch shot at recapturing the public’s wavering attention.

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Good News for Bing: Google Includes MySpace Updates in Real-Time Results

February 17th, 2010

I see search gains in Bing’s future:

In December, Google announced plans to implement the MySpace Real-Time Search API, which would push publicly available updates from our users to Google in real-time. The implementation is now LIVE on Google and we couldn’t be more excited to be the first social networking platform to light up real-time integration with Google.

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The Only Chance For MySpace Is To Be Free Of News Corp.

February 11th, 2010

MySpace, once the King of the Internet, lost its second CEO yesterday in less than a year. The response from press has, rightfully, been bleak.

Owen Van Natta, who was celebrated as the savior of MySpace when he was hired, was apparently fired over something as simple as trying to control his executive team. His Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn has been telling friends for months that he’d soon be leaving MySpace. We wrote that he was on his way out last week. Hirschhorn’s comment the next day to us was “I was sleeping and just woke up to see [TechCrunch] unfortunately in the middle of someone’s game.”

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MySpace CEO is out after less than a year

February 11th, 2010

MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta is stepping down less than one year after assuming the job, parent company News Corp. announced late on Wednesday.

Van Natta’s resignation is effective immediately. He will be replaced by Mike Jones, chief operating officer, and Jason Hirschhorn, chief product officer, who are being promoted to serve as co-presidents, News Corp. said in a statement.

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Bogus MySpace profile: Sydney man guilty of raping aspiring model

January 29th, 2010

A Sydney man has been found guilty of raping an aspiring lingerie model after promising to help her break into the industry.

Paul Rajendran used a bogus MySpace profile, under the pseudonym James Carter, to arrange a meeting with the woman in Sydney’s CBD in early March last year.

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Data doesn’t lie: “MySpace angles” are the best for hookups

January 21st, 2010

It’s 2010 and online dating has become so ubiquitous that it’s not only socially acceptable, it’s practically the go-to when people decide it’s time to meet someone new. One advantage to it all being on the Internet, though, is that we can discover what works—do people really respond to the things they claim are important to them? When it comes to profile pictures, it seems that everything most thinking adults assumed would be true is false—those awful “kissy face” pictures, the MySpace angles, phone-pics-in-the-mirror, and pics that don’t even show your face are apparently quite effective in generating interest in the opposite sex.

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Fake MySpace account lead to assault

January 20th, 2010

A man raped an aspiring lingerie model after setting up a fake social networking profile and promising to help her break into the industry, a court has heard.

Paul Rajendran used a bogus MySpace profile, using the pseudonym ‘James Carter’ to arrange a meeting with the 23-year-old woman in early March 2009.

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MySpace Hires Sean Percival To Further Socialize Their Content

January 14th, 2010

MySpace is obviously a social network, but in terms of being talked about these days on the social web it has lost a lot of steam in recent years. To help with that, they’re bringing in Sean Percival to be the service’s new Director of Content Socialization.

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