After Much Speculation, MySpace Launches News Site

Social network MySpace took a plunge into the news business with a new site where users define what qualifies as news, reports the Associated Press. MySpace News uses the same sort of community voting mechanisms that have made Digg, the relaunched Netscape and others so popular. News items are automatically grabbed by the site's spiders but then MySpace users decide what makes the front page of each of the 25 sections. Publishers who do not want their material indexed by the site can opt out of participation. The technology powering the site was developed by Newroo, which News Corp. bought in early 2006 and executives from that company are still with MySpace/News Corp. TechCrunch has screenshots from the site, which just launched in beta form yesterday.