MySpace’s increasingly valuable platform to get latest version of OpenSocial, other improvements
Social network MySpace’s developer platform hasn’t gotten all that much attention from the press in comparison to the platform of its rival, Facebook. But I’ve been hearing increasingly good things about it from developers themselves, both in terms of application usage and monetization. The top applications, for example, have millions of users — like Facebook (see screenshot).
So, as part of our effort to give MySpace the attention it increasingly deserves for its technical innovations, here are the latest changes it’s making to its platform in the company’s own words (with more details on the company blog):
OpenSocial .8 Support: We continue our support for Open Standards by releasing the latest version of OpenSocial support.
New Permission Model: We are simplifying our permission model to allow users to control whether or not applications can read their Basic Info on the canvas page without having to install or “add” the application
Upload Photos: A new upload API will allow apps a programmatic interface to add photos directly to a users albums.
Publish Activities: We are continuing to give users fine grain control of the types of activities they subscribe to and what friends they receive activities from. This will include the ability of users to opt-in or opt-out of application activities. Additionally, users have the ability block specific applications. Applications will have to specifically request the permission to publish activities on behalf of the user, this will not be a default permission by virtue of adding the application. This has the double effect of enhancing the user experience and ensuring the user is not granting permission without knowing it, as the prompt will be in context of the actual activity taken on the app.
Easier Developer Workflow: Enhanced internationalization support and simplification of the App editor.
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About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.
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