MySpace launches user-organised news site

MySpace has launched a news service aimed at letting its millions of social networkers determine their own editorial agenda.

Launched today, MySpace News apes Google News by using a search algorithm to automatically aggregate stories from sources around the world, placing them in a plethora of niche categories and 25 overarching topics.

Like social news bookmarking websites Digg and Netscape, the news service allows users to vote stories up and down the news agenda. But unlike the one-million strong technology-focused site Digg, MySpace's debutante does not yet enable users to add their own stories to the system - a feature that was expected, according to previous early reports.

"It's a great marriage between technology and letting users pick and rate the stories," said MySpace president Tom Anderson, the familiar face befriended automatically by every new MySpace user, in a statement.

"We're putting it to the community to be the editorial engine driving our news service. MySpace News is designed to let users decide what's most relevant to them."

The launch of a news service was a logical step for the world's largest social networking site after parent News Corp bought aggregator service NewRoo last year and because the Rupert Murdoch-owned group is at core a news business.

The newcomer will be watched closely to see whether News Corp can re-introduce current affairs to an age group said to be rapidly turning away from news and toward social networking sites exclusively.

News Corp's News International has already experimented with newspaper user-generated content on the MySun platform, but there is not yet any sign of MySpace News integration.

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