MySpaceID: Ubiquity Everywhere Gets Another Participant

Word: ubiquity
Pronunciation: \yü-ˈbi-kwə-tē\
Definition: presence everywhere or in many places especially simultaneously

With all of the ways to interconnect between — and now, among — social networking platforms — I’m calling this new openness “ubiquity everywhere” (with a nod of the hat to Yogi Berra).

Another step has been made in that direction, with the “massively improved” (according to this article at Mashable) MySpaceID service from — you guessed it — MySpace. MySpaceID is designed to be a Facebook Connect killer. Not sure if it’ll do that, especially considering Facebook’s skyrocketing popularity and MySpace’s rapid descent to Earth. But hey, it’s worth a try, right?

According to Mashable, the much-improved MySpaceID:

MySpaceID will now pull in a member’s full profile to support streaming of user activities from MySpace to any site on the Web, it now integrates with OAuth and OpenID, and developers can get access to new MySpaceID SDKs. Also big news is that MySpace has partnered with Yahoo support MySpaceID login on Yahoo’s home page.

This new spec is important because it brings with it support for both the open-source OpenID and Yahoo, which still scores more visitors than Facebook (as of today, at least). As the article says:

The new seamless authentication process is also beneficial for both users and partners since MySpaceID now integrates with both OpenID and OAuth. Members can login securely to third-party sites without sharing their MySpace credentials, and developers can build a two-click process to make the transition from website viewer to member a simple no-brainer, all the while dramatically increasing user engagement on their site.

MySpaceID’s newest grandiose supporter is none other than Yahoo, still one of the most highly trafficked sites on the Web though arguably a competitor in the social networking space. The partnership, however, just makes sense since the audience types certainly overlap, and is a smart business move on the part of both companies who are each desperately searching for more online relevancy.

It’ll be interesting to see if MySpaceID’s open approach will help it in its battle against Facebook, which takes a “walled-off” subdivision tack with its Facebook Connect product.