MySpace Enables Two-Way Twitter Sync

MySpace Sept. 21 unveiled MySpace Sync, an opt-in tool that lets users post their status updates to popular microblog service Twitter and vice versa.

In beta and rolling out to users over the coming weeks, MySpace Sync will allow any U.S. user to make any update created on MySpace appear on their Twitter pages. Conversely, any tweet posted to Twitter will appear within their MySpace status and mood feed. The tool uses OAuth, a popular protocol that safely allows limited data to be shared across different Web sites. Check out the sync process and how it looks here.

"At MySpace, we believe in open content distribution and want to help users socialize around content in many different places," wrote MySpace senior product manager Sharon Nguyen in a blog post. "Your status update is a quick way to tell friends what you're up to, or in to. Our new sync functionality is part of an ongoing effort to make it simple for people to share their status beyond MySpace and allow friends and followers to interact with that content Web-wide."

Nguyen said MySpace created the tool because users, content creators, and celebrities told MySpace they want a simple way to share MySpace content across different Web services. However, Sync is clearly a competitive stab at leading social network Facebook, whose 300 million worldwide users dwarfs MySpace's 130 million users.

Facebook in August began letting its Facebook Pages members post Facebook content to Twitter. However, the company hasn't opened that capability to general population users, or enabled any user to pull Twitter content into Facebook. This one-sided street is a source of consternation to users who want total data portability across Web sites.

Google, for example, recently unveiled its Data Liberation Front, an effort to enable data portability of Google content with other Web services. MySpace started its Data Availability effort in May 2008 to pave the way for data portability.  

Meanwhile, MySpace Sync will enable users to choose to syndicate their status from MySpace to Twitter and vice versa, or simply one way or the other. The tool will note updates originating from MySpace on Twitter and vice versa.

When updates post to Twitter, readers will see a link back to MySpace that they may click to comment. The tool also works for users on Web-enabled devices such as smartphones, and will be adapted to enable two-way sync for other Web services in the future.

Read more about this on TechMeme here.