Treading social network seas

News Corp. has laid out plans for the MySpace social network and how they plan to compete against Facebook and the rest of the Internet.

In a move that targets the surging Facebook, Fox Interactive Media (FIM) announced plans to add news feeds to MySpace. Much like on the other network, news feeds will allow users to see what the status is of people in their network.

The functionality has already made baby steps in the last couple of months, in the form of status reports of friends on personal MySpace homepages.

MySpace will also let people create multiple profiles on the site. That permits users to have one for friends, one for work and so on. That may help meet the needs of people who find their existing MySpace profiles don't work in the corporate world, which is hoped to stop them from migrating to more professional social networks like LinkedIn — which News Corp. is rumored to purchase.

FIM is also looking to bring MySpace to mobile devices and has signed a deal with AT&T that brings the site to that carrier's customers. Discussions are ongoing with other carriers to expand the network's mobile reach.

News Corp. has also confirmed speculation that it would be launching its own ad network that will originate within MySpace but eventually expand to other Fox Interactive properties.

The network will consist solely of display ads and not venture into text or search ads so as not to bring it into conflict with Google, which serves search ads on MySpace currently.