Facebook redesigns; MySpace loses execs

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 5 (UPI) -- Fast-growing social-networking site Facebook Inc. unveiled a redesign while struggling News Corp. rival MySpace lost three executives, the U.S. companies said.

Facebook's redesign includes changes to its 2 1/2-year-old "news feed," which appears on every user's home page, highlighting status updates, photos, upcoming events, birthdays and other information.

The changes are intended to make it more appealing to users and advertisers, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post.

They include replacing a member's home page "status" box with a box asking, "What's on your mind?"

This makes Facebook resemble social networking and micro-blogging service Twitter Inc., Forrester Research Inc. senior analyst Jeremiah Owyang told USA Today.

Twitter lets users send and read other users' updates.

The MySpace losses of Chief Operating Officer Amit Kapur, along with an engineering senior vice president and a product strategy senior vice president, have sparked concerns about the site's future, especially after last week's departure of the News Corp. executive in charge of the social-networking site, USA Today said.

MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe had no immediate comment but told employees in a memo 2009 would "be a big year for our business."

MySpace is No. 2, with 130 million monthly active users worldwide, compared with Facebook's 175 million, although MySpace unique monthly U.S. users are ahead, 76 million to 55 million, researcher ComScore Inc. said.

A sagging economy has also cut into advertising sales, forcing MySpace to lay off a handful of its 1,600 workers last month, USA Today observed.