News Corporation's MySpace will launch Impact Channel at http://impact.myspace.com to provide a place on the Internet for people worldwide to rally around political candidates or cherished causes.

The channel will begin with a focus on contenders vying to win the 2008 US presidential election.

A preview of the Impact Channel main page revealed photo links to profile pages of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney.

The website also featured video clips in which presidential candidates and other politicians, including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, discussed issues or developments involved in the race.

Visitors to the website are provided easy ways to copy candidates' virtual election banners or badges to personal MySpace pages and to become part of online fundraising networks for campaigns.

"As the country's most trafficked Website, MySpace will play a powerful role in the upcoming election," said MySpace chief executive Chris DeWolfe.

"Our digital candidate banners will be the yard signs of the 21st Century and our political viral videos and vlogs (video logs) are the campaign ads of the future."

Approximately 90 million people used MySpace in February, according to figures released by Internet market research firm comScore.

MySpace said the launch of Impact Channel is the first phase of a plan to use the power of online social networking to generate enthusiasm for, and involved in, politics and civic issues.

"It is, in many respects, a revolutionary step in the way political candidates are engaging with voters," MySpace vice president Jeff Berman told AFP.

"Users are looking for more ways to interact with candidates for office and people doing good in the world. For candidates and do-gooders, this is a home for their profiles and their communities."

While the Impact Channel was launching with a focus on the US presidential election, it will be expanded to be used globally for political contests of all kinds as well as by non-profit organizations, Berman said.

"It is a brand new way of engaging the community and empowering them to make a difference," Berman said.

"It works just as well for the president of the United States as it does for president of the student council and as well for Habitat for Humanity as it does for the Burrito Project."

After word of Burrito Project, a small charity group that helps feed the homeless in Los Angeles, spread on MySpace it inspired the start of a kindred organization called Falafel Project in Damascus, Syria, according to Berman.

"This is a way to reach a global audience and make an impact around the world," Berman said of the new MySpace channel.

"We are thrilled that people who want to make a difference in the world are using MySpace to do so."

Inspiration for Impact Channel came from "an enormous" number of users seeking ways "to do good," according to MySpace.

"The idea that we could help redemocratize politics in the 21st Century; how could we not be excited about that?" Berman asked rhetorically.

The Impact Channel was modeled after MySpace music and video channels at which artists create virtual storefronts to promote and sell their works.

The Impact Channel will enable visitors to learn about the candidates, experience the political process online and offline, and uncover issues and organizations, MySpace said.

"MySpace will be a powerful force in the next election," said Julie Barko Germany, deputy director of the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

"MySpace users will have direct access to candidates and be able to serve as digital storefronts for their campaigns, taking netroots politics to the next level. It's part of a trend that's revolutionizing the way politicians and the public interact."

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.