March 9, 2007

It Looks Like MySpace Will Finally Do Something With Newroo

Michael Arrington

16 comments »

I read with interest that MySpace will be launching a news site in the coming months. Given the feature set (dynamically aggregating real-time news to create focused and topical news pages, and allowing users to rate and comment on every news item and even submit and write their own stories), this sounds like they’ve finally productized the technology from Newroo, the never-launched company that was acquired by Fox Interactive, MySpace’s parent company, in early 2006 for a rumored $7 million.

This could be something completely different, and I’ll wait for Fox’s PR comment on this tomorrow before speculating too much further. But whenever MySpace makes a move, it has to be taken seriously. They’re the largest site on the Internet and can make new products successful by pure brute force (they are now the no. 2 video sharing site after YouTube).

As a massive news generating machine, this will be yet another outlet for New Corp.’s (the ultimate parent company of MySpace) content, and I assume that it will get priority over other news sources. While that may be a good thing for News Corp., it may not be what MySpace users want or need. It seems to me that the best thing for MySpace and it’s community over the long run is to become an independent entity, spun off from the prying hands of News Corp. and Fox execs. Let MySpace make business decisions that are in the best interest of it’s community, not their corporate bosses.

Sphere It

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March 12th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

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Daniel Scocco (DBT)

March 9th, 2007 at 2:32 am

Well, not sure about the brute force part. Yahoo always had a giant mass behind its products and services, still many of them lost to smaller and more innovative competitors.
Hasan Jafri

March 9th, 2007 at 2:40 am

It’ll be really interesting to see how Newscorp content is fed to MySpace’s users. Will they alter and dress down their content for a younger, hipper demographic? You’d think they’d have to go out of the loop and get outside content to keep things fresh, but…..:-)
chickerino

March 9th, 2007 at 4:15 am

Dear God, please deliver us from Fox! … Oh no, on second thoughts, you’re probably on their side anyway!
Christopher Hogg

March 9th, 2007 at 4:58 am

The user base is enormous, so this could really work for New Corp. to flog its brand all over the Internet.

I am very curious to see how they want to approach this. If the unorganized yes exploding growth of Myspace is any indicator, this will be entirely unusable for the end user — unless you are part of the swarming mass that buzzes through the blaring music, hideous customizable layouts and animated GIFs.

USA Today did it recently, though, so anything is possible. Let’s just hope it’s designed and implemented by an 18-year-old, and not the corporate chaff at head office, though. At least then we know it will be usable.
Mark S

March 9th, 2007 at 5:26 am

I’m not sure I like the strategy. They are building this out to be all things to all people. Do MS users really go there to read the news? Sometimes expanding into everything dilutes your strength. LLBean…
Jarrod Morgan

March 9th, 2007 at 7:04 am

Fox bought myspace to use it, so there is no chance of them leaving myspace to grow on its own. The only reason a company like Fox would want a website like myspace is so they can use its giant user base as a built in audience for whatever they decide to push. There is zero chance that myspace gets left alone.
Del Sheppard

March 9th, 2007 at 8:07 am

If its true then it sounds like a nice feature for myspace users. You’re giving them too much credit to think there is some master plan to promote newscorp news content over all other news content. The newscorp news divisions (fox news, new york post etc…) are completely separate from the fox interactive division that owns myspace - so there is no incentive for myspace to even do this.
Berlin

March 9th, 2007 at 10:11 am

Bill O’Reilly’s new playground.
Brian Dixon

March 9th, 2007 at 10:12 am

Glad to see some Newroo news. Cheers to Mr. Gould’s and company…Very good people in that camp. Looking forward to more news.
Sam

March 9th, 2007 at 11:10 am

It already exists and is called http://www.wikio.com. I’m using it and it’s the largest news system available today I think with dozen of thousands of topics and sources… Interesting to compare the two services wn this one will be live!
Megan M

March 9th, 2007 at 11:19 am

Do you think Myspace will aquire anyone? Or in that case will Facebook either? Just a thought.
Josh

March 9th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

so…now its going to be myspace + pligg?
David Mackey

March 9th, 2007 at 10:15 pm

I think the biggest problem for MySpace right now is the (still) horrible interface design. Compare it to Xanga. Xanga, while less used, has a clean and feature filled interface. The only reason people use MySpace is because its where everyone else is at. But that will change if MySpace doesn’t pick up their game. People like myself use MySpace simply to connect with other individuals that don’t use other servives, but anyone who spends more than a little bit of time online will be using multiple services and MySpace will fade into the background.
al

March 14th, 2007 at 8:22 am

I think the biggest problem for MySpace right now is the (still) horrible interface design. Compare it to Xanga. Xanga, while less used, has a clean and feature filled interface. The only reason people use MySpace is because its where everyone else is at. But that will change if MySpace doesn’t pick up their game. People like myself use MySpace simply to connect with other individuals that don’t use other servives, but anyone who spends more than a little bit of time online will be using multiple services and MySpace will fade into the background.

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