MySpace news as cheery as a cemetary

Sometimes it’s easy to make predictions. Marshall Kirkpatrick and TechCrunch note today that MySpace news is pretty much dead. No one seems to be using the service, and no one seems to care about it, either.

Well, it’s not a surprise. MySpace News was done half-assedly, it brings nothing new to the table, and it’s definitely not a threat to any social content site, let alone Digg. The success of Digg and Reddit created quite a number of clones, some from big corporations like Dell, Microsoft or Yahoo!, but it’s not an easy ride to success. Social content sites need to have a perfect blend of simplicity, coolness, easy of use, and novelty, but all that combined still isn’t enough for instant success.

In other words, don’t spend money on a “Digg killer” if you don’t know what you’re doing.

9 Responses to “MySpace news as cheery as a cemetary”

  1. Ali Says:

    LMAO! Best title ever.

    I’ve actually gotten like three clicks to my site from myspace news. But yeah a cemetery is a good comparison.

  2. Stan Schroeder Says:

    It was obvious from the first second that it won’t work. There’s no user interaction, anything. Just a bunch of aggregated news. Well, I can get that elsewhere.

  3. MySpace News Brings Us Painful Screams of Silence ¦ Online Media Cultist Says:

    […] Stan Schroeder at Frantic Industries concludes: “MySpace News was done half-assedly, it brings nothing new to the table, and it’s definitely not a threat to any social content site.” […]

  4. Deep Jive Interests » MySpace News Not A Juggernaut? Its The Users, Silly. Says:

    […] MySpace News Not A Juggernaut? Its The Users, Silly. May 15th, 2007 at 6:07 pm Well, some observations from the ever-observant Marshall Kirkpatrick, filtering through Mike Arrington and a few others, that MySpace News is teh dead. Or, something close to it. Crickets chirping, the slow silent death of unusage and all that rot. […]

  5. Community is the hard part » mathewingram.com/work Says:

    […] Then there’s MySpace News, which some argue is a ghost town, and others say merely needs some work. And there’s Newsvine, which some argue isn’t as successful as it could be (and I would agree). And finally, there is the sad tale of how Derek Powazek and his wife were pushed out of the wonderful photo community/magazine they founded called JPG. What do all of these have in common? Community. I know that’s an overused word, but I think it is the key to the success or failure of virtually every online venture that tries to get “users” involved in some way. […]

  6. MySpace Challenges YouTube With MySpace TV Says:

    […] In the case of a), although a screwup is always possible, MySpace will probably be able to get it right. After all, it’s not that complicated, hence there are hundreds of video sharing sites around, many of them quite successful. But, every detail they screw up will cost them dearly, and the recent MySpace News debacle reminds that they are, indeed, capable of completely screwing up on all major points - features, design, and concept. […]

  7. Petites annonces Says:

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  8. myspace pics Says:

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