MySpace arguably was the first social network giant.  The site launched a year before Facebook and took off much faster, becoming the top social network in the U.S. in 2006.  For a couple years, MySpace was among the online world's hottest topics and that was music to the ears of Rupert Murdoch, whose added the site to his News Corp empire in 2005, acquiring it for $580M USD.

The last couple years, though, haven't been pretty for the site.  Facebook, which was relatively unknown as of a few years ago, continued to aggressively grow and last January became the world's largest social network, leaving MySpace eating dust.  Meanwhile, MySpace struggled with how to leverage its still substantial user base into income.

Last year Murdoch made some cuts, replacing MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe with Owen Van Natta, former CEO of Facebook.  Now, as the company's struggles continue, Murdoch has again tried to wipe the slate clean, replacing Van Natta with two co-presidents, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn.

Little is certain for the once prized property.  While the site is secretive about its users numbers and their level of activity, it's estimated to have far less than Facebook's roughly 400 million users, and worse yet its users are estimated to be less active than Facebook's.

MySpace is still sitting on a lucrative $300M USD advertising contract with Google.  However, that contract expires this year and observers says that the company will be unlikely to renew the deal and will have to accept a lower figure.  In its quarterly earnings, News Corp reported that MySpace's advertising and search revenue was down and that it was taking longer than expected to reach its targets.

Still, the site's new presidents are trying to stay optimistic.  States News Corp Digital Media CEO Jon Miller, "Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work. However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts."

MySpace does still have some key strengths.  Notably its music offerings are much more refined than Facebook's.  And millions of users still rely on it as their primary social network.

One thing's clear, though -- MySpace's fate rests on outsiders who may be less than familiar with the company.  Jones, Hirschhorn, and Van Natta were all brought onboard the site in April 2009 by News Corp.  That much fresh blood can be a very good thing for a struggling firm -- or a very bad one.