MySpace Announces Facebook Integration

MySpace made an inevitable announcement, it is now integrating several Facebook features and enabling users to either login with their Facebook credentials or link their two accounts. With what MySpace calls Mashup with Facebook users will then get linked to the stuff they already like based on their Facebook interests.

“We are thrilled to further our collaboration with Facebook through Mashup with Facebook. This new feature is a great illustration of our strategy around social entertainment and enabling the real-time stream," Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace, said.

"The stream is one of our most popular features on Myspace, and it is now delivering an even richer entertainment experience of relevant content for our users to enjoy,” he added.

The new feature is available to visitors regardless if they are MySpace users or not. If they are new to MySpace, connecting with Facebook will create a new profile based on their existing one.

Otherwise, data from Facebook, likes, friends, pages and so on, will be merged into their MySpace accounts. All of their likes will then be linked to content available on MySpace.

This fits in nicely with MySpace's new strategy of focusing on content rather than social networking. The site seems determined to follow this strategy.

The amount of content already available as well as the number of people still visiting MySpace may be enough to turn things around, but it's still too early to tell if the site can be saved.

Still, the move carries a deeper symbolism. While the fact that Facebook won the 'social networking war' has been clear for everyone for at least a year and a half, the move marks MySpace's official capitulation.

Facebook dominates the space, with over 500 million users, and continues to grow. Meanwhile, MySpace is losing traffic though it still has several tens of millions of monthly visitors.