Myspace is back. It even has a pre-launch page where you can put your email address. In case you need a desktop-focused social network for sharing cool things you like that isn’t already called Pinterest, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. You probably don’t, though.
In an earnest, all-caps tweet from newly minted social networking entrepreneur and onetime social network-themed movie star Justin Timberlake, Myspace unveiled its new demo video Monday.
THIS IS MYSPACE vimeo.com/myspace/the-ne… #NEWMYSPACE
— Justin Timberlake(@jtimberlake) September 24, 2012
The new Myspace prominently features Twitter and Facebook connect buttons, so it’s not going to try to compete on identity. Rather, it’s a more fully featured media-sharing site, retaining its focus on music with a built-in player, and it also seems to offer some basic “insights” to users about how people are interacting with posts.
In other words, it looks like a fancier Tumblr-Pinterest combo with close ties to the music business. It probably makes more sense to social media marketers than it will to anyone else. And the most mind-blowing part is that this design is clearly built for the desktop Web, a place the most compelling social software is already leaving behind.
It’s hard to comprehend why anybody is spending money on this – not to mention Justin Timberlake. Even Facebook – the last great desktop software company, as Tim Carmody likes to say – is going all in to become a mobile-focused company. It should be immediately clear to anyone investing in tech that mobile is where people spend their time and attention today. To launch a heavy desktop Web service right now seems totally tone-deaf.