MySpace Opens Applications Gallery

MySpace opened its platform for developers last month; now, it's letting developers offer their programs to real live MySpace users.

After announcing last October it was going to compete with the Facebooks and Bebos of the world and open its platform to developers, social networking giant MySpace finally threw open its doors last month, launching a platform that to enable developers to build applications and widgets for MySpace user. Now, MySpace is ready to let developers offer their applications to users, launching the MySpace Application Gallery where users can pick up widgets and applications for their MySpace profiles, and developers can share their work both with users and other programmers.

MySpace claims that since its launch last month, more than 5,000 developers have been creating applications in a closed-off MySpace sandbox, which isn’t available to users. With the Application Gallery, real MySpace users will be able to browse available applications and install them on their profiles. Applications will have their own profile pages—just like MySpace users—and most will feature a single-click installation process.

MySpace is still the dominant force in social networking sites, still accounting for about three quarters of U.S. traffic to social networking sites. However, the service is facing increased competition from Facebook and other sites, and some reports have the average amount of time MySpace users spend on the site declining. MySpace hopes that by enabling profile-based applications and increased amounts of interactivity, it will be able to increase the average amount of time users spend on the site…and, thereby, the number of advertisements they view.