Better late than never: MySpace finally enables data sharing

One of the main reasons that people drag out for not joining new social networks is that they hate having to fill out entirely new profiles by adding all the same info that they've entered a thousand times before. Because there are few easy ways to share data between networks, users feel the need to pick and choose which ones they want to be a part of. As a result, MySpace, long the top dog in the social networking pack, has been suffering a bit over the last few years for its complete lack of integration with... pretty much anything else. Until now, that is. MySpace has announced a new Data Availability initiative that will finally let the site play nice with newer social networks and allow users to share info across the web.

"The walls around the garden are coming down—the implementation of Data Availability injects a new layer of social activity and creates a more dynamic Internet," MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said in a statement. "We, alongside our Data Availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide."

Those launch partners include Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter, with more possibly on the way. MySpace plans to introduce a centralized location within its own site that will allow users to manage how their data is shared. Theoretically, a user will be able to say that she wants photos to be posted simultaneously to MySpace and Photobucket (instead of having to go to each site separately and upload the same photo twice), or that an updated status message will save both to MySpace and Twitter. MySpace profile details will be able to be imported into Yahoo's universal profile for use with its IM program or even Yahoo Mail, too.

MySpace praises itself heavily by calling the move "ground-breaking" and "the first time that a social web site has enabled its community to dynamically share public profile information with other sites." It may be the first time these tools are available directly from the company that runs the network, but other sites (such as Facebook) have been sharing information across the web for some time now, thanks largely to the widgets and applications created by their communities. For example, there are a number of Facebook apps that allow users to import their updates to Twitter into their Facebook profiles, or cross-post their Facebook status updates to Twitter. Users can also pull in a dynamic feed of their Flickr photos to Facebook, display updates made to other social networking sites, show songs they've recently purchased on iTunes, and more. Clearly, MySpace has taken a hint from Facebook in launching its Data Availability project, but has decided to take all the credit for the idea.

Speaking of which, Facebook (the second largest social network on the web) is noticeably missing from the list of launch partners. This may be because Facebook is MySpace's largest competitor, but MySpace claims that it is open to working with the company. "We're happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with us on this project. That goes for any other site out there as well," DeWolfe said during a conference call yesterday, according to the New York Times.

Too bad Facebook application developers have already beaten MySpace to the punch—there are (at least) three apps that allow Facebook users to import their MySpace profiles into Facebook, and a large smattering of others that grab info dynamically from MySpace so that it is shared across both sites. Still, loyal MySpace users will likely welcome the site's efforts to be social with other networks, even if it remains several steps behind Facebook in the breadth of sites and services it can share with.