MySpace Opens Its Network: Is MySpace Pulling A Verizon?

After all the buzz about Facebook last year and it's trailblazing efforts to change the tone of the Social Networking industry, other Social Networks would be remiss to not follow suit. By releasing their API, Facebook literally changed what it means to be a Social Network, and in doing so garnered itself not only good press, but many new users and, perhaps most importantly, a better market value (which could help them allot considering Microsoft may be looking to buy them now that the Yahoo! deal has gone south). So it may not be too surprising that Social Network giant and market leader MySpace has been making efforts to match Facebook pound-for-pound, and even one-up them in some respects.

We've heard allot of really interesting things from MySpace lately. Within the past few months, the company has launched a Music Service, opened it's API to App developers, and even sprung a online Karaoke service (don't tell anyone, but that's my new guilty pleasure). Now, we have word that MySpace is launching a new partnership with Yahoo!, Twitter, Photobucket and eBay to incorporate "data portability" into their services, and combined with their support of the Open Social Initiative, it seems that this company is really making a strong effort to open its doors when it's traditionally been a closed door environment. This data portability essentially means that you can link your accounts together to share information and not have to repost pictures on all your sites or update your status to MySpace and Twitter, etc.

This openness seems highly reminiscent of the more recent moves on Verizon's part to open it's network. Although two completely different industries, I think the concept is the same. In the past, most companies followed a standard secretive approach to the market: you never knew what was going on inside their doors and the best way to own a market was to trap consumers inside your walls. Openness is a new concept for highly competitive industries though. So what's driving this? Has the consumer base changed so much that we no longer accept closed-door approaches to business? In this age of blogs and wikis, are we demanding more accessibility now more than ever? I would tend to say yes, but then there are always the exceptions, companies like Apple that still have a stranglehold on their business model. But even when talking about Apple, they seem to be dipping their toes in the waters of openness with the upcoming launch of the consumer end of the SDK for their iPhone.

It looks to me that we are entering a new and exciting age in the world of consumerism, and I for one am very excited about it. I have always believed that I should be able to interact with a company on my terms, and have tried to support companies that support that kind of interaction. Until recently, that's been hard to do, but I suppose I'm not the only one that felt that way as more and more companies bend to that trend. I look forward to the day that all companies wise up to this new force in the market place, and gladly support the efforts of companies like Facebook, MySpace and Verizon. Obviously, my hope is that these companies live up to their own hype, and only time can truly judge their actions, but for now, I'm glad to see the effort.