RSSMySpace Opens Site Up to Developers
By Ed Oswald | Published October 18, 2007, 12:16 PM
MySpace plans to open up its platform in the coming months, following similar moves by competitor Facebook in an effort to continue growing the site's user base.
Whereas current methods already allow developers to build separate applications that can then be placed on profile pages via HTML code, the new offering allows tighter integration with MySpace and its various features.
By allowing developers a little more freedom, it should result in more complex services. For example, an application that changes how a profile's photos display could be built, or other functions could be tied into MySpace's user authentication scheme.
Going above and beyond Facebook's open API, MySpace said that developers also will be able to control the advertising on pages they create. This will create a new revenue stream for those who work to extend MySpace's functionality, and in turn help spur new development.
MySpace acknowledges that opening the site to outside developers may pose a security risk. As a way of ensuring this does not occur, the company has set up a live test area where two million of its users can opt in to test the new applications ahead of their general release.
With Facebook hot on its heels, ensuring that it is staying on par with its competitor is a very high priority for MySpace. Facebook has surged to a strong second place behind MySpace and is growing at a rate four times that of its rival.
Much of the growth in Facebook can be explained through the opening up of its site beyond college students, and allowing developers more control over their applications that appear there.
Facebook has about 47 million users, less than half of MySpace's estimated 110 million.
I hate Facebook now and try to stay off it I am so sick of all the punchs Arrrrrrs and superpokes people send me. It is anouying as heck. I like it better without all the addins.
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|The MySpace interface is so horrible that I doubt if this is going to improve it all.
It's hard to imagine a more unpleasant way of getting information about anything or anyone from something that seems to be so popular.
It's an indication of how poor most people's computer experience is. Flashing things, huge image files, automatically launching audio files, really, really, bad and hard to read graphics = Dude your website rocks!!!
The only developers I'd like to see there would be small nerdy guys with an electronic wrecking ball.
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|Yeah, it may have a so-called horrible interface and it may not be the best way to obtain information, but one must keep in mind that Myspace is most popular with kids who have limited if not no experience with HTML. How are they supposed to know better than to put one Youtube video after another after another after another?
The fact of the matter is, people can say all the negative things they want about Myspace but that won't change the fact that it is becoming a force to be reckoned with. Myspace is also continually changing and this article is an example of how it is changing.
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|I hope it's changing for the better. So how about teaching kids html skills in school, instead of how to hate their parents, the government and our entire western way of life? (Thank you Al Gore.)
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|oh shut up.
"The fact of the matter is, people can say all the negative things they want about Myspace but that won't change the fact that it is becoming a force to be reckoned with. "
you actually wasted the energy to type that? they can't even conform to standards, and they're going to release developer tools? the blind leading the blind. it's the landfill of the internet and there is no shortage of trash to fill it.
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|"
the gf: changing but not getting any better
the gf: woo hoo!
the gf: that's like adding glitter to dog s***
the gf: it's still dog s*** no matter how you try to dress it up
"
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|woo hoo!
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|I agree with you about Myspace. I'm a software developer and I love it when an interface is clean and designed with all the proper software design principles in mind. But development time is money and things have to be weighed like, get the stinking thing to work in a reasonable amount of time or take a great deal more time and money to make a pretty interface that only techies and developers will see. And yes there is something to say about a good interface. It makes the software easier to maintain and easier to extend. But we don't know what constraints were on the dev team at the time so we shouldn't make assumptions that we could have done better.
Does anyone know how to request beta testing of the API? I would like to give it a go.
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|"MySpace acknowledges that opening the site to outside developers may pose a security risk. As a way of ensuring this does not occur, the company has set up a live test area where two million of its users can opt in to test the new applications ahead of their general release."
Which the hackers won't use, and will wait for it to be deployed first.
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|they're going to have an epic fail on this one. if it's one thing they're horrible over everything else, it's been security.
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