I can’t help but cringe when a site is said to “resemble a portal like Yahoo and AOL." Such is the way News Corp. exec, Peter Chernin, describes MySpace. From MySpace to YourSpace, New York Times.

 A portal-like “contemporary media platform” may make sense for Madison Avenue, but how long will this “contemporary portal” seem so, um, contemporary? I see users of MySpace aging 10 years in a matter of two.

The concept of creating a one-stop portal for the younger set is not indefensible: 13 to 17 year-olds spend 25 percent of time on their home page. This is less time than older users, but a decent chunk nonetheless. If a portal can persuade teens to make MySpace their start page on the Web, and the content from News Corp. is enough to keep them there, they’ll have maintain what is already a very nice ecosystem for online advertising.

But there is a general trend towards greater flexibility and eclecticism in online usage. Forty-six percent of broadband users in this age group (13-17) say they need to use many different sites, up 39 percent since 2006, while the percent saying they prefer to get everything they need from one site (30 percent) remains unchanged from last year. Search engines are the preferred type of start page for younger users, sites that inherently facilitate exploration of the wider Web. Teens are also at ease with multiple browser windows open at one time, multi-tasking on the Web as well as dueling entertainment and communication devices.

Okay true. But one could argue that convenience is never a bad thing. And a site that offers a little bit of everything (a la USA Today) is bound to appeal to a certain target audience. So they'll clean up the somewhat tawdry sides of MySpace, and - boom! - just what conservative advertisers – still fearful of the messy, uncontrollable Web – have been waiting for.

But there goes the brand, and with it, the target eyeballs. Hopefully Slingshot Labs, the newly-announced incubator created by the founders of MySpace, can provide new and cooler online destinations for MySpace refugees.