MySpace's big redesign was supposed to help the News Corp. property transition into a web portal, but it may also help prove that social networks are viable ad platforms.

According to The Washington Post, by clearing up its homepage with a better navigation, MySpace is essentially clearing out space for larger ads. When it relaunched on June 18, the homepage featured a full-page takeover promoting the Warner Bros. film "The Dark Knight," complete with animated flames and a trailer.

But will bigger ads translate to ad dollars? MySpace is the most heavily trafficked website in the U.S. and has 110 million users, but it still has problems making a profit. Michael Barrett, the man tasked with monetizing the social network, was dismissed in April after missing revenue projections by nearly 10 percent.

According to a recent study by the Consumer Internet Barometer, nearly one out of every four online users visits a social network, and about half of those users visit on a daily basis. But despite the numbers, ad sales at social networks are cooling off. Last month, eMarketer downgraded its predictions for ad spending at MySpace and its main rival, Facebook.

The majority of online advertising still goes to search engines, and some say that splashy ads still won’t be enough to turn social networks into ad platforms.

"Social networks are an important way to reach certain people and do a certain type of marketing. But they're not going to be the cash machine that Google has been," said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.