MySpace is celebrating its first year in Canada this week with a redesign initiative to improve communication between advertisers and audiences and give users additional features.

A year in the making, the redesign of the popular site includes a revamped splash page to offer advertisers a major opportunity to connect with MySpace viewers, which will be visible tomorrow. The next day, users will see the entire new look, featuring a larger percentage of the page allotted to brands.

Due to high demand for easier access to key communication tools, MySpace is launching new site navigation. It contains a drop-down menu with additional features such as karaoke, games and celebrity content. As well, a new profile editor will house a personalization option for users to keep up with recent profile enhancers. It will also offer users the option to customize pages using HTML coding.

The MySpace TV player is set to launch globally today and will include a new scrubber, time-stamps, volume memory and menu systems, all of which encourage users to share content. It will offer a flexible advertising platform with multiple formats (pre, post, ticker, companion banners) and advertising providers.

MySpace had almost 20 billion searches this year.