MySpace Cuts Nearly 500 Employees - Click here http://bit.ly/gvx3xc for full article

With Facebook's utter dominance of the social networking scene, people have wondered whether MySpace could thrive or even continue. Those paying close attention to MySpace have read of its decreasing revenues, which come exclusively from advertising. Traffic also has been down considerably, and the company laid off a large number of workers about 18 months ago.

But, it seemed that MySpace was confident of its own future when news came out recently that it had renewed its deal with Google for both search and advertising, a deal which dates back to 2006. Coupled with its recent addition of a mobile site and apps, and its exciting new look, the news made it appear that MySpace was moving forward.

Now comes a report from PaidContent that MySpace has cut almost 50 percent of its staff. Five hundred employees now find themselves out of work.

News Corp. Digital Media originally paid $580 million for MySpace in 2005 when it bought Intermix Media, MySpace's parent company. Earlier this week, News Corp. put MySpace up for sale after reporting a quarterly loss of $156 million. There has been no news of any interested parties. Previous sales of dot-coms in trouble have come at a loss, at times up to 99 percent.

MySpace has faced some public relations problems over the years. Cyberbullying was talked about often in the news last year, and as a site that still boasts 30 million unique monthly visitors, MySpace was often mentioned. As those who grew up posting their own photos to MySpace and other social networking sites enter adulthood, there also has been talk about how people may have regrets about making their personal lives so public.

It has been alleged by an atheist group and MoveOn.org that MySpace discriminates against them. And, MySpace and other social networking sites have been in the news after parties publicized on the sites, sometimes without the host's knowledge, resulted in violence or property damage.

MySpace users' security also has been frequently compromised from spyware, phishing and spam, though MySpace is hardly the only site of its kind to suffer these woes.