Amid all of today's talk about how the newly-released MySpace News is challenging the social news aggregation model popularized by Digg, Reddit and Netscape, it's rather surprising to see the site suffering such a pathetic launch.
Here are the news items in this afternoon's stack of "Top Stories," from the top down:
- U.S. Air Force Goes Solar (13 votes, average 4/5)
- The Countdown to Diamond and Pearl, Part 6 (story about a Pokemon game, 3 votes, average of 2/5)
- Six Disciplines to Expand Into Austin, San Antonio TX (press release from a business entreprenuership seminar preaching the ways of "business excellence", 2 votes, average 3/5)
- Donkey Testifies in Dallas Noise Complaint Trial (7 votes, average of 3/5)
- Big 12 Coaches Ticked Off About Kickoffs (4 votes, average of 3.5/5)
- Geldof, BBC plan "A-to-Z" of mankind Web site (5 votes, average of 3/5)
- Rachel McAdams (blog post about the actress, 2 votes, average of 4.5/5)
For now, MySpace users can't add stories, only vote on them. As we noted in a previous Wired News story, these items were actually pulled into MySpace News from "trusted sites" via RSS. After seeing the news items on the frontdoor, my question is "Wha?"
As they say, Rome (or Digg) wasn't built in a day, but as a product, MySpace News is what I would politely classify as "undercooked."
The site has no search, you have to browse items by category. Story ranking is counter-intuitive – are we looking at stories ranked by number of votes or average vote? The top story on the site has only 16 votes. Also, when you click through to a story, a MySpace News navigation bar remains at the top of the page (see my second screenshot below). A second click is required to load the linked article. This strikes me as a usability no-no, but maybe it's just a matter of preference.
Like many people, I anticipated MySpace News making a big splash upon release. But I would hardly call this an Earth-shaking launch. It seems as though MySpace should have spent another six weeks in development. Kevin Rose, have a cigar. You have nothing to worry about.
Full Disclosure: Wired Digital owns both Wired News and Reddit, a MySpace News competitor.
