InCas_ of Emergency

So today I was on Google+ and saw that MySpace was one of the trending topics on the public news feed. I was like, "Huh?" I usually don't like to check the trending topics on Google+ because it refreshes very quickly, but I just had to check. As far as I knew, MySpace was dead in the water, so if it was trending, it had to be something interesting going on with it, unless it was some nostalgia-related Internet meme. But sure enough, it turns out that MySpace is trying to start over with a complete redesign...and I mean complete. And I must agree...the interface looks awesome. As one commenter to the article put it: "That awkward moment when Myspace looks better than Facebook…"
I would love to check it out, so I requested an email invite for when the redesigned site is ready. At the same time, I'm a bit torn. Around that time that I deleted my MySpace account, I had amassed a good number of links to music pages, that is, the profiles of bands and other musical artists that I liked. I must admit, I was a bit sad to be losing those pages and considered keeping my account and just keeping the music pages. So if they can maintain the easy ability to keep track of my favorite bands with this more modern update, MySpace has the potential to be awesome. Yet, I did delete my account in the first place because I wanted to cut down on the number of social networks I was registered for. Will I want to deal with yet another social network? And even if the site ends up being awesome, a large part of a social network's success is the number of people using it because the more people on a site, the more activity goes on and therefore, the more desirable it is to be on it. Take Google+ for example. There was so much hype surrounding it. I thought it had the potential to be a Facebook killer or at least become a viable alternative to Facebook but in the end, not many of my friends switched over to Google+. Many simply did not want to go through the trouble of switching to another social network. The few that did get on Google+ were disappointed at the lack of activity so they stopped checking it out. While some people have been able to find a lot of activity on Google+, for me, sometimes days go by before I see an update on my friend feed. I'm often the only one who will comment, let alone press the "+1" button. The same could very well happen with MySpace. However, while MySpace may probably never be Facebook, perhaps it might yet fill a niche in the world of social networks. Facebook to this day has not been able to match MySpace in the presence of music-related pages and the way those pages really allow you to sample a band's music. MySpace was/has been a great way for local and mostly unknown bands to make their presence known. So I am (very) cautiously optimistic...