MySpace introduces ‘data availability’

MySpace
MySpace initiates the 'data availability' project

It’s always been difficult for the online social butterfly to keep abreast of updating their numerous web profiles. MySpace knows this and that is one of the reasons why the world’s biggest social-networking site, MySpace, has unlocked the data on its site for others to use.

Share and share alike

The ‘data availability’ project means that uploaded photos, friends’ lists and information can now be synched between websites. So, if you update MySpace, the other automatically updates too.

So far it's Yahoo-owned companies that have signed up to the deal, namely Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter.

Altogether that makes an impressive 150 million internet users and according to the BBC, this is 85 per cent of the total

US

internet market. Any site that wants to sign up, however, can.

One notable absentee in all of this is Facebook. Speaking recently to the BBC, MySpace’s COO Amit Kapur had this to say about the site’s absence: “This project is open to any site out there that wants to work with us. We are happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with our effort.”

Data gatherers

MySpace is the first website of its type to implement this type of data availability. By being the first they now put themselves at the forefront of data gathering; meaning the websites that sign on to the project will get their info from MySpace and not the other way around, something that will be no doubt vital to the website in the future.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.