MyGoogleSpace take on Microfacebooksoft
Social networking site Myspace has released its own version of single sign-on functionality, after a week of mid-profile announcements last week from various social networks.
Myspace Open Platform is part of a select range of services from the teen favourite that includes the Myspace Application Platform, MyspaceID, and Post To Myspace.
Myspace has also announced several partners that will be participating in the MyspaceID scheme – previously known as “Data Availability”. Vodafone and Netvibes are currently developing MyspaceID implementations. A number of other companies are already involved in the project including, AOL, Flixster, Flock, Eventful and Yoono.
One of the most significant factors is that Myspace is supporting Google Friend Connect as a component of MyspaceID. Built on open standards, Myspace supports OpenSocial, OAuth and OpenID.
The competition is not sitting idly by however, and Facebook and Google unveiled their new initiatives last week.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group said in an interview with TechNewsWorld that, “Single sign-on is important because it promotes loyalty to a site but the goal is to be first out of the gate with something like this - if you are using another system already, it is not likely you are going to switch.”
Hyun-Yeul Lee, is the assistant professor of communication at Boston University, and she says that the initiatives, Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect ad MyspaceID allows users to hold a metaphorical “passport [that allows users] to connect or navigate with other partner sites,” she said.
She spoke about new kid on the block, Power.com: “Power.com, on the other hand, is a reverse strategy - an aggregator. It is a place where all your social sites are available in one place, and you can use your various login’s to get all those sites connected and available to you in one place,” she explained.
The main difference between the platforms however is that MyspaceID is built using an open developer-minded standard, and Facebook Connect uses proprietary methods.
Rick Turoczy, blogged about the platforms claiming that the open nature of Myspace, and that fact its partnered with Google, will give Facebook some serious competition.
“In stark contrast to the proprietary nature of Facebook Connect - MySpace had chosen to rely on the Open Stack, using OpenSocial, OAuth, and OpenID to build its service,” he wrote. The launch of MySpaceID “has helped Open Standards take another step forward, as well.”
“The mix of MySpaceID and Google Friend Connect enables MySpaceID partners to deliver even more social functionality, without a great deal of development time,” he said.
He believes MySpace’s have taken the initiative and have fired “a very real shot across Facebook’s bow,” he says. “And continues to set the stage for the tag-team match between the more proprietary Facebook-Microsoft and the more open MySpace-Google.
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