Starting this fall, the Huffington Post will roll out new sections in books, technology and sports as the site continues to evolve from its origins as a political news aggregator. "More than half of our traffic comes from people who are not interested in politics," founder Arianna Huffington told The Wrap.

In the past couple of years, HuffPo has become more well-rounded by adding portals for such topics as entertainment and style. The "Internet newspaper" has also gone niche with the launch of city-specific sites for New York and Chicago, with Denver and LA to follow shortly.

Leading the way on another Internet news trend, last week HuffPo announced a partnership with Facebook to give readers "Social News." Using the platform Facebook Connect, the new HuffPo service tracks the content users view on the site and lets users know what stories their friends have read and commented on.

If "Social News" proves successful, will other media outlets follow? CNET points out The New York Times already offers a similar service through its site called TimesPeople, launched last September, although the network has much less of a link to Facebook.

Much traffic to newspaper websites already comes from clicking on links to specific articles rather than through the homepage, which theoretically includes recommendations from friends. Perhaps a social networking link could be one way for publications to appeal to a younger audience and drive more traffic to their sites.

Source: The Wrap, CNET