When I logged onto MySpace yesterday, I noticed a somewhat annoying pop-up at my Home dashboard.

Friend updates are here.

I am now able to view updates of up to 40 of my nearest and dearest, which include notifications when they update their profile, add new photos, music, video, or blogs.

A good idea in theory, but why has MySpace decided to limit the number of friend status updates available? It’s similar to the way that MySpace regulates how many “Top Friends” you can designate, although certain programs can work around that.

This profile update feature comes in addition to the “friend status updates” feature which appeared (quite quietly in my mind) a few months ago, similar to the status updates on Facebook.

It seems that MySpace has been struggling to catch up to the features that Facebook has. While at the same time, Facebook has opened itself up to more customization, and also some negative decisions.

The question of timing is an interesting one. While Facebook users are up 125%, MySpace is only up a paltry 19%. So, is MySpace trying to emulate Facebook in hopes of gaining more users? It’s especially good timing in the sense that Facebook has been under such fire about Beacon, showing that it can be the “bad” social networking site and invade user privacy on a whole other level. Not only is it annoying to have the newsfeed and friend updates (which caused its own controversy when it happened), but now there is the problem of advertising (ABC political ads for one), privacy while shopping online (Beacon) and I’m sure more to come.

Before, MySpace was considered the “unprofessional” social networking site, due to its customizable pages and often flashy and distracting look and feel. The ability to add music and video to your page made it different, but now Facebook allows that as well. MySpace in conjunction with MTV hosted a series of dialogues with political candidates, and now Facebook has turned to ABC for their partner.

Facebook was different because you could tag photos of yourself and others, but now MySpace allows that too. So why is MySpace continually upgrading to applications and functions that seem to mirror Facebook’s offerings, and why does it seem that Facebook continues to add applications that provide similar services to MySpace?

Maybe these questions and conflicts are just the growing pains that social networking sites have to feel in order to evolve. However, if both MySpace and Facebook continue to offer similar features and services, then the space for competition will be weakened to a question of personal preference.

If there is room for McDonald’s and Burger King, Target and Wal-Mart, then there is space for these sites to continue to go head to head in functionality and user benefits. A clear leader will perhaps be just a matter of opinion.