MySpace to Launch Video Filtering System
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NEW YORK -- The popular online hangout MySpace said Monday it will experiment with a video-filtering system designed to block clips containing copyright materials.
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In an effort to curb use of the site by sex offenders, MySpace plans to introduce technology that would identify and block those attempting to use its social networking service.
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MySpace on Wednesday said it signed an  agreement with BBC Worldwide to bring short video clips from  programs such as "Doctor Who" and "Top Gear" to its online  community.
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Top global social networking site  MySpace.com plans on Monday to unveil a campaign to educate  parents, schools and teenagers about Internet safety as it  moves to protect many of its young users.
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A company founded by the ex-chairman  of social network MySpace plans to announce on Tuesday it has  purchased online video site ExpertVillage.com to bolster its  archive of "how-to" information on the Internet.
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MySpace will launch its application development platform next week.
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Veoh Networks Inc. is launching a Web video syndication service Tuesday that uses peer-to-peer technology to distribute DVD-quality video and publish it on the Web's most popular sites, including MySpace and YouTube.
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(InfoWorld) - MySpace.com is launching a new music download service that emphasizes music from independent artists, the latest in a string of services announced in recent weeks that hope to topple iTunes from its crown. Some of the services, such as one backed by Universal Music Group, are even offering music for free, backed by advertising services. But analysts say they'll have trouble toppling Apple Computer's iTunes, which has staked out a solid position in what's becoming a crowded music download market. "Ultimately it's a volume business, and the market isn't large enough to sustain 20 different services," said Jonathan Arber, research analyst for OvumÂ in London. The service from MySpace.com, which is in beta today, lets users sell their own songs through their personalized MySpace home pages. The company has partnered with Snocap, a companyÂ founded by NapsterÂ founder Shawn Fanning, for some of the technology behind the service. MySpace's large user base, which it says is more than 70 million, may be key for the new offering, as it jostles with several other technology and media companies that have allied to secure a piece of the music download market. Last week, Samsung ElectronicsÂ said it would start a subscription service later this year withÂ partner MusicNet. The online store will have 2 million licensed songs from major record labels and 40,000 independent ones. Also last week, a new company,Â SpiralFrog, said it will offer free music downloadsÂ backed by Universal Music Group's catalog, with the service supported by advertising. It's due to launch in beta by the end of this year. While MySpace's service hasn't been formally announced, a marketing executive at the company began touting it on her MySpace Web page on Monday, offering tracks from a group called The Format for $0.79 each. (http://www.myspace.com/danidudeck) The service will let users embed songs in their personalized pages that other users can then purchase, wrote Dani Dudeck, MySpace director of communications. To buy songs, a user needs an account from eBay's PayPal money transfer service and a U.S. billing address. Artists will be able to set the price of their tracks, with MySpace and Snocap keeping a small service fee, according to a story Monday in Business Week magazine. The service could appeal to aspiring musicians, allowing them to skirt business arrangements with music labels and pitch their songs directly to MySpace's users. It's unclear, however, whether the major labels will embrace it. They may be wary of posting tracks on MySpace because the songs will be in an MP3 format without Digital Rights Management (DRM), which restricts how they can be copied and played, Arber said. The means the tracks could potentially be downloaded from MySpace and then uploaded to illegal file-sharing networks. At the same time, he said, the opportunity to set variable pricing for songs offered on MySpace could be more attractive for the major record labels, who have bristled over Apple's insistence on uniform pricing. Individual tracks in the U.S. retail for $0.99 each. Apple has so far retained its lead in music downloads. iPod users can purchase compatible songs from the iTunes Music Store and eMusic.com, but most other services offer songs in incompatible file formats. It's led other companies to try other approaches, such as subscription and ad-supported services, both those each present their own difficulties. Napster and Yahoo have subscription services where users have access to thousands of tracks as long as they continue to pay monthly fees. But the subscription model generally hasn't been that successful, Arber said. Ad-supported services, such as Universal's arrangement announced last week with SpiralFrog, could face competition from more experienced Internet companies. "There are already existing companies that are much better at targeting advertisers on the Web," Arber said.
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MySpace will open the doors of its developer Web site on Tuesday and make available there the necessary&#160;tools to build applications for the world&#39;s most popular social-networking site.Developers will have about one month to familiarize themselves with the development tools and create and test applications before MySpace begins letting its members install them early in March.&quot;Developers will be able to build applications, but they&#39;ll be in the sandbox environment where consumers won&#39;t be able to see them,&quot; said Kyle Brinkman, vice president and general manager of Platform for MySpace.With the opening of the developer Web site, MySpace gets closer to&#160;catching up to its main rival, Facebook, which opened its platform to external developers in May.For Facebook, despite some bumps along the way, opening its platform has been overwhelmingly positive. More than 14,000 applications have been created for the site, which in turn has increased its attractiveness to current and potential members.MySpace isn&#39;t alone in following Facebook&#39;s lead, as most major social-networking site operators have decided to open their platforms to external developers as well.In addition to the individual developer platforms,&#160;Google unveiled in November its OpenSocial project, which aims to provide a set of common APIs (application programming interfaces) for social-networking operators to adopt, so that applications built with those APIs will work across multiple sites.To make sure that the applications are safe to use, MySpace will test all of them before making them available to its members, Brinkman said.Developers will be able to generate revenue from their applications by placing advertising on their applications&#39; &quot;canvas&quot; pages, where members manage the applications they install. Developers will get to keep 100 percent of the advertising revenue generated on canvas pages, Brinkman said.Developers can choose to run ads from third-party ad providers as long as the ads conform to MySpace policies, such as not containing pornographic content. Moreover, MySpace will let developers run ads from two new ad services that it is beta testing and that it plans to launch at a later date called HyperTargeting and SelfServe, Brinkman said.In addition to the canvas page, applications will also be featured on their own profile pages, where developers will be able to explain in detail what each application does and how it works. Moreover, there will be a gallery where the applications will be listed. Of course, the applications will also appear on the profiles of members who install them and on members&#39; MySpace home pages.MySpace will make available three types of APIs to developers: Google&#39;s OpenSocial APIs with MySpace extensions for building applications in JavaScript and HTML; ActionScript to build Flash applications; and Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs for applications that require server-to-server connections.Applications will be able to make use of data on MySpace profiles, but they will be governed by existing privacy controls that apply to members.The MySpace Developer Platform site will also include documentation, sample code and discussion forums.Also on Tuesday, MySpace will launch a blog geared toward developers , where MySpace staffers will post relevant information and news about the program.&#160;
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Blog: MySpace has quietly licensed a new series of original programming from Hollywood duo Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, according to a source.
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MySpace takes personal profile-advertising matchmaking program for a walk.
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A Microsoft Corp. spin-off on Tuesday  said it will take on Internet social networks MySpace.com and  Facebook.com, touting tools users can buy to craft  better-looking Web pages.
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The commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday is expected to announce that it will make some of its content available on MySpace.
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MySpace, the wildly popular online  teen hangout, said on Friday it will make its first move into  the digital music business by selling songs from nearly 3  million unsigned bands.
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MySpaceTV, the video wing of the online community network, late on Sunday unveiled its first original Web series to give its users a television-like experience with the interactive benefits of the Internet.
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The popular online hangout MySpace said Tuesday it will develop technologies to help block convicted sex offenders, the site's latest attempt to address complaints about sexual predators and other dangers to teens.
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MySpace on Tuesday opened its popular social-networking platform to software developers, echoing a move credited with helping Facebook gain ground on its market-leading rival.