MySpace Bridges Out to eBay, Twitter, Photobucket, Yahoo!

MySpace has just announced a "Data Availability" initiative that will, in effect, link your MySpace account to your account at Yahoo!, Twitter, eBay and Photobucket.

MySpace users will soon ("within the next several weeks" says MySpace) be able to export their profile, photos, favorites, videos, etc. directly to their spaces on eBay, Twitter, Yahoo! and Photobucket. When a change is made to your MySpace profile, the changes will automatically be replicated at those other sites.

This graphic shows how MySpace data will show up on a Twitter account. View image

MySpace says it will soon unveil a new, central spot at its site where MySpacers can control how and what content is distributed to their accounts on Twitter, Yahoo! etc. MySpace says it is offering prospective partner sites a set of open, standardized client-side controls that allows MySpace data to be embedded at those sites.

The move addresses the widespread complaint among social networkers that their data is scattered around the Web and increasingly difficult to maintain. It also addresses the wider problem that the social networking community isn't really very social, in fact it's become a series of large, unconnected walled gardens.

"Today MySpace is no longer operating as an autonomous island on the internet," said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe in today's conference call. "It's now a significantly more social experience." DeWolfe says he hopes your MySpace profile will become your main Web address, from which you can control your online identity Web-wide.

MySpace's announcement today is certainly a step in the right direction, but it does nothing for people like me who maintain MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. I still must maintain my various social networking accounts on those sites separately.

A direct data sharing agreement between MySpace and Facebook is almost too fraught with financial implications/conflicts to consider in one sitting. Don't hold your breath on that one, but don't be surprised if MySpace forms data-sharing agreements with smaller, more niche-oriented social networking sites like Twitter.

My only question is this: Twitter needs a buyer, not a partner. Why didn't MySpace just buy Twitter outright?

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