MySpace Launches Social News Site
MySpace is taking on the likes of Digg and Netscape with its own news sites, allowing its users to vote for stories they think should be on the front page or in its sections.
The MySpace News staff will select the articles for possible inclusion, and then turn it over to the user to select which stories are the most important. This is a different approach than MySpace's competitors, where the users both submit stories and vote their ranking.
25 main topics will be split into around 300 or so sub-categories. Although it wouldn't specify, MySpace parent News Corp. said it would draw from a much wider group of news sources than Google News. That site currently crawls about 4,500 sites.
While some may be concerned that the new offering may end up as a promotional tool for its own properties such as Sky News and Fox News Channel, News Corp. hopes to alleviate those concerns by pulling information from outside sources.
However, to keep publishers happy and prevent similar legal troubles as experienced by Google News, an opt-out option for publisher would be provided. But with MySpace such a large traffic draw, many publishers may decide to allow their content to be indexed.
A beta test of the service begins Thursday, and the company hopes it will help boost ad revenue. News Corp. is also banking on the idea that users would no longer have to leave the site's confines to get news and information.
Approximately 100 million unique visitors came across MySpace's pages in March, according to comScore Media Metrix.