Social networking behemoth MySpace.com is set to launch its own news service that will allow users to comment on and rate stories that they post on their personal pages.
MySpace’s news aggregator service is intended to keep users on the site instead of having them go to other places on the Web to get gossip, news and sports stories. The new venture, which could launch in the second quarter, could be a tough competitor to news aggregation and sharing site Digg.com.
MySpace’s new venture was first reported by media blogger Terry Heaton, who obtained internal company marketing materials on the plan. It’s unclear whether MySpace News will have stories posted only by its members or if the company will post selected stories from its media partners. MySpace, like The Post, is owned by News Corp.
Digg allows members to post stories they find from across the Web, which are then rated by other users. Traffic to the site has exploded in recent months and Digg’s founder Kevin Rose has become a minor Silicon Valley celebrity.
MySpace has over 100 million accounts and is consistently rated as one of the most visited sites on the Internet.
Because of the large number of users and its parent company’s root in newspapers any move into the news business is likely to be watched very closely by other traditional media players.
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