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Breaking News: You're a Leo.

Screenshot of MySpace News

Behold, a screenshot of MySpace News beta.

The new service is receiving some minor press attention for it's new "Google + Digg" theory of news presentation/aggregation. If the above screenshot is any indication, today's teeny-bops are going to be ignorant as hell in the future.

Let's break it down:

  • First we see a story related to astrology as our top story. You've already lost my attention and trust. Nevertheless, we'll carry on ...

  • As sub-stories, Fark comes into play. Although popular among students, Fark's not at all a firm source of news. But at least it's closer than the Xanga-like rant above it.

  • Next up: Informational on Google Earth and other tech toys.

  • Only when we arrive at the third story (just below the crop of this screenshot) do we see actual news from a (uh, kind of ...) credible news organization: Nine troops dead in Iraq > From CBS News.

    • I don't use MySpace as much as I do Facebook, and this feature is certainly not going to help MySpace's case.

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    The headline you won't see at the top of MySpace News - although you should - is that MySpace and Photobucket are lovers once more.

    After locking digital horns weeks ago because of a nitty-gritty battle of advertising revenue most users a) didn't know about, or b) didn't care about, MySpace users' profiles were left sans videos and slide show served by the bucket.

    Then they started to care.

    Not only did a lot of younger users consider this an infringement upon free speech (hey - at least this generation is trying to argue that point, for once), but it also made users frustrated with the corporate politics governing their social lives.

    The scuffle is over, and all are better for the hardships spoken. Still, future cyber-standoffs could make a serious dent in site popularity, and more importantly: trust.

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