由于近期Facebook对其用户进入应用程序及开发商接触游戏用户的措施进行了调整——许多小型社交网站开始想方设法宣传自己的游戏。其中MySpace选择升级其网站的搜索功能。

MySpace扩展了搜索的项目模块：如人物、音乐、视频、游戏等等。在一个已更新的博客上，以搜索“Mobster”为例：未更新前，只能搜索出8个无序的结果，且大部分都不是搜索者所感兴趣的,而更新后，搜索框能实现自动补全，并得出21个标题为Mobster游戏的结果。

myspacemobsters

或许在一开始搜索功能的改变并不十分重要，但这体现了MySpace在战略上的调整。网络目前好比社交网络的内容门户网站，而一个有效的发现机制则对迈向成功显得至关重要。

同时，该改变也意味着开发商可以在MySpace上采用与Facebook不同的战略。当Facebook的开发商仍注重于病毒式传播的同时，MySpace提供了一个以内容取胜的机会——如果用户真的运用该网站的发现机制搜索诸如牧场或Mafia等游戏。

As Facebook adjusts how users can access applications — and how developers can access users — smaller social networks are trying to find new ways to spread their games. For MySpace, the latest addition is improved search.

MySpace has broken out its search by verticals: people, music, videos, games and so forth. In a blog post on the change, the company uses the example of a search for “Mobsters.” Before the update, only eight unordered results were returned, with the last being the content most searchers would be interested in.

Now the search box has auto-complete, and there are 21 results, headed up by the game Mobsters.

A change in search doesn’t seem particularly important at first. But it does highlight the ongoing adaptation of MySpace’s strategy. The network is now just as much a content portal as a social network; effective discovery mechanisms are vital if it’s to succeed.

That difference could mean allow a developer to pursue a different strategy on MySpace than Facebook, as well. While Facebook developers remain focused on virality, MySpace offers a chance of success based on content — assuming, of course, that users will actually go looking for a farming or mafia game through the network’s own discovery mechanisms.(source:inside social games)