We’ve been waiting all day to find out what the big MySpace/Facebook announcement might be. We had our suspicions… total surrender, white flags, mourning songs… but it appears we were wrong.
Though not entirely admitting defeat to Facebook, MySpace, or My_____, as they prefer to be called these days, has officially announced the integration of the Facebook Connect Lite service in the MySpace platform.
So what does this mean? Using Facebook Connect, MySpace will now allow users to sign up and log in to their accounts using their Facebook credentials. MySpace will in turn import each user’s likes and interests to create a customized profile and remove the barrier to entry of account creation for users.
Additionally, while MySpace users have had the ability to push their MySpace updates for about a year now, Facebook statuses will now also be imported into MySpace. Presumably, importing Facebook statuses will give users incentive to login to view their social stream on MySpace.
Unfortunately, there’s still one major flaw in MySpace’s logic… why log in to MySpace to see your social stream, when you could simply log in to Facebook? We’re guessing the hope is that MySpace users will log in in order to engage with the entertainment properties MySpace believes it will be able to offer. Unfortunately, we have not yet seen any truly captivating MySpace entertainment offerings.
Here’s a sample of the new and improved MySpace/Facebook mashup, featuring Likes, Badges based on accomplishments (à la FourSquare), and recommendations based on my personal interests, as reported by Facebook:
To fulfill their mission to become a revenue-generating social entertainment center, MySpace will also be using Facebook Like data to better target entertainment ads served to MySpace users.
It’s important to note that users left MySpace for a reason. With an excess of spam, a clunky design, and rampant security concerns, is connecting Facebook users without addressing the reasons people left in the first place really going to help?
What do you think of this bold move by MySpace? Do you think Facebook integration could save them from losing any more of their dwindling user base?
For the inside scoop from MySpace, check out the video: Facebook Mashup with MySpace.
