• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 17, 2009

MySpace has relaunched its mobile site, aiming to offer users a more complete and user-friendly experience on handheld devices. The upgraded site seeks to more closely replicate the look and feel of MySpace on the desktop Internet.

The new interface, for example, has been optimized for devices with screen sizes that are 176 pixels wide or larger to better accommodate smartphone screens. It also features the familiar "MySpace blue" color scheme and includes the ability to set up email photo upload. The new MySpace Mobile also promises to expand the current base of 20 million users worldwide by offering it in 13 languages and providing localization features for 29 global markets.

MySpace is also extending its presence via handsets, developing specialized applications for both Palm's webOS and Nokia's S60 platform running on the Symbian operating system. In a related development, MySpace said it will join the nonprofit Symbian Foundation to help build socially relevant context for developers using the Symbian mobile operating system.

Through these initiatives, MySpace it will be the first social network with applications on all smartphone platforms active in mobile social networking including iPhone, Google Android, Sidekick, Nokia, Palm and BlackBerry.

As on the desktop Web, MySpace is also battling with rival Facebook for dominance on mobile devices. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Facebook is working with Nokia to integrate its social network into an array of the handset manufacturer's phones. Nokia is the world's biggest mobile phone maker.

Facebook said in January that more than 20 million members are actively using the social network through mobile devices, and that mobile users were, on average, 50% more active than the general Facebook population.

MySpace anticipates that in the next few years, more than half of its users will log on from mobile devices. Driving that trend is strong international growth. In the last six months, MySpace Mobile has grown more than 80% and 60% in Europe and Asia, respectively, compared to 50% in the U.S. MySpace expects the growing popularity of smartphones to fuel wider use of its social network on the go.

Neither MySpace or Facebook, however, are generating significant revenue from mobile yet. More details may follow when MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe presents the opening keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Thursday.