*UPDATE 03/03/08*

A year and a half after I posted this, it looks like there is now a MySpace API. I have been proven wrong, and am ecstatic about it. Go check it out, build an app, whatever, just enjoy that the barriers are coming down!

*END UPDATE*

Ok, wait a sec, let’s rewind a bit. Is there a Myspace API? No. Will there ever be? Probably not. But that doesn’t stop the speculation, and on the coat tails of the Facebook API, it would seem likely, but Myspace isn’t smart enough to do something like that.

Yesterday, Facebook released their API. It came with a bunch of fanfare, a ton of votes on digg, and the bet that by the end of the day there would be a Google Maps mashup. Was it all worth it, and did someone come through with the map? Yes, and it’s actually kinda neat.

But what does all this really mean?

Well, it means a lot for the Facebook crowd, it means that their data is no longer set up in a walled garden, and is be somewhat mine-able for other purposes, making Facebook just THAT MUCH more usable. I am still and always have been a huge fan of Facebook. They do everything right, it seems. Profiles are pretty good, all the vital information is there…they don’t crash, they have a mobile interface (via Facebook Mobile), and now they are giving power back to the people. This is really where social networking needs to go, but what happens when the world’s largest social network doesn’t care?

Myspace sure as hell isn’t going to release an API. I don’t really get where people are coming from with this. It’s all a bunch of speculation, rumors and tons of wishing. All that wishing isn’t going to be worth it either because Myspace just plain, flat out, doesn’t care. They’re boasting 100 million people now (even though we know that the number is way less than even 50% of that because of spam pages, deleted accounts and multiple profiles). With 100 million people (and growing), why do they need to improve a thing? If it were me, I would have spent that 580 million to move Myspace away from ColdFusion so it wouldn’t crash so damned often. I would have also invested in a few designers to make the site function better, and actually make sense!

What happened when Tagworld came out? Well…a whole lot of nothing, other than the fact that in addition to someone’s Myspace profile, they may or may not have started up a new profile at Tagworld. Tagworld brought us some things that Myspace didn’t have. Well actually, not a lot…it was pretty much an exact copy of Myspace, it just added a bunch of “Web 2.0” stuff that turned out to be crap anyways. But it did show one thing, a minimal amount of innovation. It showed that someone out there is starting to understand that a bunch of page reloading isn’t that necessary, and just the smallest implementation of things like AJAX and some design improvements can help out a website and concept immensely. But did Myspace see how innovation really could have helped them? Fuck no. They didn’t give a shit. They just kept on doing what they were doing and making more and more marketing deals, not improving on their site.

The site gets worse by the day and it doesn’t look to be improving any time soon. What would Myspace gain by releasing an API? The world would have a shitload of mine-able data available. We already know that by the demise of a few harmless startups earlier this year that they don’t want this happening, though. Marc seems to think that Myspace will release an API. He even pulls Pete into the statement by saying “Pete Cashmore is calling for MySpace APIs.” Sorry Marc, but no, Pete isn’t calling for Myspace APIs. In fact, he’s even saying they probably won’t ever do it, judging by their track record. Pete hit right on the dot when he said that Myspace would be a much better place if they released an API, but we all know that they don’t care much for innovation, or giving back to their users.

If Myspace released an API, all the data that Myspace has on it would suddenly become so much more valuable. Market research could easily be done, most likely “friend” generators would become a lot more advanced and last but not least *gasp* their information would be open and able to be used on OTHER social networks. Because of that reason, we’ll never see a Myspace API. They’re all about keeping their people within their own environment, and don’t want others to play their game.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, that’s what I always say…but then again, Myspace is way past broken, and probably won’t ever get fixed. There’s so much that they could to improve their service, but most likely, none of it will ever happen. The Myspace API definitely won’t ever happen, and if it does, I’ll retract my previous statement and permanently change my Myspace name to “I’m an idiot”.

Way to go Facebook. You’ve really proven yourself this time! My company’s Facebook mashup should be coming out mid-November, it’s called socialthing! …then again it’s not really much of a mashup…but we’ll definitely be using the Facebook API!

Later Kids,
Matt

[tags]myspace api, myspace, facebook, facebook api, marc canter, pete cashmore, tagworld, api, development, web 2.0, google maps, mashup[/tags]