Breaking: MySpace “Data Availability” Goes Live

Posted by Nick O'Neill on June 26th, 2008 11:33 AM

Today, MySpace released the details of their new “Data Availability” initiative and announced that the APIs will go live later today. This is a huge announcement and it appears that MySpace has been working overtime to release the documentation of their new initiative prior to Facebook’s expected launch next month. This announcement comes earlier than many expected.

With this launch, users will be able to make their basic profile, photos and friend networks available to all third-party sites that support the new standard. As described on the MySpace data availability page, the new service uses the OAuth standard for authenticating third-party sites. MySpace will be releasing a video tutorial later today which helps developers begin creating applications.

MySpace will also be providing developers with libraries of simple client side controls so websites with minimal technical expertise will be able to easily leverage MySpace content and data. MySpace is now the first step to open up their public APIs and move toward making the web a more social space. While some have argued that this step creates a larger walled garden, I firmly believe that this is a great step in the right direction.

For those concerned about privacy, users will be provided with a central control panel in MySpace which “allows users to manage how their content and data is made available to third party sites they have chosen to engage with to ensure user content and data stays secure and private.” Additionally, “information will be served dynamically from the MySpace data store to ensure both the most up to date content and this allows users to give and revoke permissions easily and instantaneously.”