In a move to try to keep its visitors on the site longer, MySpace (NWS-A) is launching a news service that searches the Web for stories and enables viewers to rate them.
As one article said, it "resembles a mix of Google Inc.'s Google News, which collects stories and arranges them based on thematic similarities and Digg.com, which displays stories suggested by its readers and displays them according to their popularity ranking." The service will be called MySpace News.
Another reason for the news site is to attract more advertisers, as major advertisers for the most part won't offer their messages on the site because of what it may end up appearing next to.
This will present them with a safer, more predictable place to offer their wares.
"Many advertisers have expressed interest in the service, which allows them to target the MySpace community in a more direct way," Brian Norgard, co-founder of Newroo, a company purchased by News Corp. last year, which created MySpace News' technology.
The service will serve up 25 main topics with another approximate 300 sub-categories.
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