MySpace has broken out its search by verticals: people, music, videos, games and so forth. In a blog post on the change, the company uses the example of a search for “Mobsters.” Before the update, only eight unordered results were returned, with the last being the content most searchers would be interested in.
Now the search box has auto-complete, and there are 21 results, headed up by the game Mobsters.
A change in search doesn’t seem particularly important at first. But it does highlight the ongoing adaptation of MySpace’s strategy. The network is now just as much a content portal as a social network; effective discovery mechanisms are vital if it’s to succeed.
That difference could mean allow a developer to pursue a different strategy on MySpace than Facebook, as well. While Facebook developers remain focused on virality, MySpace offers a chance of success based on content — assuming, of course, that users will actually go looking for a farming or mafia game through the network’s own discovery mechanisms.
Source: Inside Social Games
Monday, August 23, 2010