MySpace,
in the spirit of Twitter and other open development sites, announced on
Wednesday that it would be releasing a suite of APIs as a means of
opening up the massive amounts of data available through MySpace.The Status and Mood Commenting API allows for easy synchronization of streams between MySpace and third-party Web sites so that users' updates fluidly transfer to other sites and fluidly transfer comments from that site back to the MySpace stream. The Open Search API gives third-party sites access to an advanced search tool for finding public profiles. The Photo Upload API and other APIs make sharing content between MySpace and third-party sites even easier.
One of the APIs, the Real-Time Stream API, is already in use by Google, GroovyCorp, and OneRiot, meaning that each of those sites present MySpace user activity in real-time streams. Google just this week launched real-time search.
"As we continue looking for new ways to socialize the growing array of rich, scalable content on MySpace, we want to also inspire the developer community to continue generating innovative applications that make it easier to socialize content on and off our site," says MySpace COO Mike Jones.
According to MySpace, every day users share over 35 million pieces of content--status updates, music, photos, videos, apps, etc.
Opening up this huge collection of data through a suite of APIs will certainly be a boon for third-party sites, but it will also help MySpace extend its sphere-of-influence. When Google announced that it would be streaming real-time data in search results, both Twitter and Google benefit from Twitter's open API.
To spark innovation and motivation to use these new APIs MySpace has set up a contest for developers: the most creative use of MySpace API will win the developer a $50,000 cash prize.
