MySpace to Unveil Integration With Sites Around the Web, Using Open Standards

MySpace will announce in the next few weeks a major new feature being
added to its MySpaceID product that will allow third-party websites to
write updates into the MySpace activity feed just like Facebook
Connect, but will also incorporate open semantic microformat code in
order to comprehend what those updates are about and make more
sophisticated update highlighting and recommendation decisions.

It's a major move being worked on with both the Activity Streams and
Open Social communities - it could push the rest of the web, outside
of Facebook, in a direction that supports radical app innovation
through the creation of a level playing field of readable data. And it
could make MySpace a lot better, too.

"We don't want to do anything without semantics, to be honest," Monica
Keller, group architect for activity streams at MySpace, told us by
phone today. "We can't afford to show a user content on their home
page that they aren't going to like." At a time when MySpace is in
serious trouble and trying to regroup, a home run by Keller and crew
could make MySpace more relevant to people again and impact the rest
of the web in positive ways radically unlike the impact of Facebook's
proprietary software.

The updates will be marked up for the types of activities they
represent with standardized microformat code, beginning with the
events format hCal and soon to include the book, movie or other review
format hReview. Those little bits of code that will be added could
have big consequences.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/myspace_to_bet_its_future_on_open_standards.php

Looks like a step forward for myspace and the social web.  MySpace
already use some limited RDFa, and it seems clear they want to be more
interoperable and more semantic.

Received on Tuesday, 4 August 2009 10:06:40 UTC