MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson has lots of friends, but it's unlikely he'll be chummy with the folks at Yahoo and AOL after announcing that MySpace is trying to conquer the internet by reconfiguring itself as a web portal.

On June 18, the News Corp.-owned social network will undergo a design overhaul that removes features such as "cool new people" and instead focuses on smoother navigation, more content and an improved MySpace TV player, according to a BusinessWeek report.

"What we want to do is make MySpace the start page of the internet," Anderson said. "When we talk about competition… I think about Yahoo and Google."

MySpace has expanded its content greatly in recent months, adding political coverage and features like karaoke and a music store. Navigation to this content has long been MySpace’s Achilles heel, but the transition to a portal model will include a completely overhauled homepage, with new navigation and an improved search interface.

Industry insiders are predicting that MySpace’s strategy shift will mean trouble for existing portals. AOL has tried to expand its reach by purchasing British social network Bebo, while Yahoo has repeatedly tried -- and failed -- to create a Facebook or MySpace killer.

"Yahoo's bread and butter are at risk. Yahoo has been trying to come up with a way to participate in social media for several years, but consumer behavior is shifting people to social networks," Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk said.

Meanwhile, MySpace is hardly shunning the user profiles that made it the top social network in the U.S. An updated profile editor will make it easier for users with no knowledge of HTML or coding to create customized pages.