MySpace launches voter registration campaign

Exhorting young voters to get to the polls has traditionally been a tough task for grassroots efforts like Rock the Vote. Now, just in time for this fall's U.S. midterm elections--with the entire House of Representatives, many senators and a handful of governors up for re-election--social-networking hub MySpace.com has launched its own pro-voting effort.

The site has partnered with nonpartisan organization "Declare Yourself" to launch a MySpace group that members can join to track down resources and register to vote in either standard or absentee form. This move might raise a few eyebrows: The News Corp.-owned MySpace has gained notoriety for a young teenage user base that would presumably be too young to vote, but the company claims that 80 percent of its members are actually 18 or older.

College-oriented social-networking site Facebook, which recently in the hopes of becoming a more potent rival to MySpace, has taken its own path toward greater political awareness among its youthful audience. Facebook members can now for candidates in the '06 elections as well as issues they support.