Thanks to MySpace, Rupert Murdoch has made a lot of new friends. Considering the wildly popular social networking site hosts a community of over 38 million users, it’s no wonder the old guy wanted in on the fun.

With an overflow of more than 60 profiles, the Rupert claiming to be “The Original Rupert Murdoch, bitches” advises users: “I am richer than all of you, so it would serve you well to be my friend.” And judging by the numerous comments asking him for money and even offering sex, people seem to realize that it couldn’t hurt to be friends with the new owner of their favorite Web site.

Earlier this summer, Murdoch, chair and CEO of News Corp., purchased MySpace’s parent company, Intermix Media, for $580 million. While some MySpace users have responded with hostility to Murdoch’s recent addition to his media empire, rumors have also been floating around that the site will change for the worse under its new ownership. Will the future of the hip MySpace community be jeopardized by the conservative values of Fox Interactive Media? What will this really mean for the future of MySpace?

For now, it seems, not much.

“I think most people will move on and still use MySpace because they depend on it so much,” Chook Le, a 21-year-old user from Berkeley, says. “Plus, I’m not very confident that our peers will care enough or even know who Rupert Murdoch is.”

Web traffic ratings at Alexa.com, a search engine that provides traffic rankings, show that MySpace activity from July to November has been rising. While some users have posted bulletins to boycott MySpace, not many seem to be participating. Instead, they’re adding Murdoch to their list of friends.

Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and continuing chief executive officer of MySpace, told the Associated Press nothing would change about the site under the News Corp. ownership.

“Everyone seems scared that MySpace is going to change,” Tom Anderson, co-founder of MySpace, wrote in an announcement addressing the issue. “I’m not leaving … and I’m not going to let things suck.

“We are not deleting any content or censoring people in any new way," Anderson wrote. "We are not exploiting anyone’s data or violating anyone’s privacy. MySpace has been my life for almost two years now … I won’t let it get jacked up.”

Murdoch’s outreach to a hip, young audience is unfamiliar territory for the owner of right-wing media outlets like Fox News. According to Nielsen//NetRatings which conducts Internet media and market research, general community Web sites like MySpace have had the greatest growth in year over year revenue at an estimated $33 million. Fox Interactive Media has begun to use MySpace as a focus group to test out and boost interest in new shows like "Kitchen Confidential," which recently previewed an episode on the site.

“I don’t see Murdoch making any changes on the site because he probably knows that would drive people away,” Philip Morganelli, a 24-year-old user from Berkeley, says.

Yet, the observant user might notice some subtle changes. Since Murdoch bought out MySpace, Mark Daley, 39-year-old leader of the "Rupert Murdoch Sucks Chimp Scat" group, began to notice a change in the content of ads on the site. The banner ads that used to poke fun at President Bush now say "Punch out Osama," He even saw an ad promoting Bush’s health care plan, which seems a little out of place on a site mostly occupied by users in their twenties.

Some worry that MySpace faces the possibility of access fees, monitoring and censorship. While these haven’t yet proven to be true, some users resent the acquisition and call Anderson a sell out. Users may have seen the illustrated image of Anderson (with that over-the-shoulder grin, of course) carrying two overflowing bags of money, accompanied by the quote, “See you emo fags later!”

“They're taking their time with mainstreaming it, and with [millions of] subscribers, a lot of people probably won't even notice,” Daley writes in an e-mail. “My guess is that within a year or less, almost anything unique or interesting will be long gone or drowned out.”

For now, people can only speculate as to what influence Murdoch will have on the future of MySpace. But the overflow of fake "Rupert" profiles has even gotten Karl Rove upset. “My fellow quadrajillionaire,” he says to Murdoch in a user comment, “I feel your pain as people try and make fakes of us, hoping to pass their pathetic copies of ourselves. There is even another Karl Rove on MySpace.” Poor guys.