• The Wrap, Wednesday, April 29, 2009 11 AM

Will MySpace's management restructuring work? More pointedly, "with no buzz factor, low scores for 'user trust' in online surveys and a reputation as a hangout for disaffected teenagers, is MySpace still viable as a broad-based, come-one-come-all social network?" asks The Wrap's Maria Russo.

Several bloggers are already writing dirges for the News Corp. site. "The more cynical among us are already comparing MySpace to soon-to-disappear GeoCities," VentureBeat's Eric Eldon said last week, following the news that Yahoo would scrap GeoCities, which it bought for around $3 billion in 1999. The appointment of former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta as CEO was met by further doubt: "Like an '80s rock band, MySpace's time has come and gone," said GigaOm's Om Malik. "Folks, what we are seeing is an end of general purpose, broad social networking." Added Eldon, MySpace "has the feel of a fun party that's almost over."

Indeed, MySpace's traffic is stalling while Facebook continues to grow like a weed, particularly overseas. According to the latest figures from comScore, Facebook had an estimated 294.7 million unique visitors worldwide in March, while MySpace had 125.7 million. Stalling traffic may be part of the reason DeWolfe lost his job: "many in the industry felt that DeWolfe, considered a favorite of CEO Rupert Murdoch, let rival Facebook take the lead on innovation and technology," says Russo.

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