MySpace has unveiled plans to auction off its search function to Google, Yahoo or MSN in a bid to provide its popular youth-oriented network with search-based advertising.

The initiative was announced by MySpace chief operating officer Peter Chernin during a Deutsch Bank Media and Telecom conference broadcast over the web.

"We have just scratched the surface of how to monetise MySpace," he said. " Our instincts are that we cannot get into the search business in the same way."

MySpace was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for £315m, and the firm has been looking for ways to earn money from it ever since.

The social networking site claims 57 million users, mainly teenagers and young adults, and industry watchers estimate its UK audience at between two and four million.

Even though MySpace has become the second most popular site on the internet, according to comScore Networks, it trails its rivals in ad sales because of the types of ads it currently sells.

Almost 80 per cent of its ad revenues come from bulk sales of unused advertising space, and the remainder from display ads that cost seven to eight times more.

Chernin said that he expected that ratio to be flipped over time.