MySpace has somewhat fallen behind both Facebook and Twitter of late both in terms of growth and innovation. However, MySpace has just beaten Facebook to the punch by introducing two-way synchronization with Twitter, allowing updates on both social networks appear on the other. Could this be the start of a fightback?

I dabbled with MySpace back in the days when Twitter hadn’t even been thought of and Facebook was still meant only for U.S. college kids. But after making friends with Tom and pimping out my profile, I got bored very quickly and gave up on it. I now use Facebook and Twitter, although my Twitter use is patchy to say the least.

I would say I’m typical for my age group (30-35) with MySpace now used primarily by youngsters and those celebrities and bands who built up too large a following on MySpace to give up on it without a fight.

MySpace has been in decline for a while now, with Facebook trumping it on users and Twitter trumping it on growth and buzz. Possibly influenced by this shift, MySpace is now reaching out to other networks, with Twitter the latest (following on from Windows Live and AIM Lifestream) to be embraced.

Facebook users have, for a long time now, been able to sync their Twitter accounts to their Facebook profiles, meaning all tweets will show up on their Facebook news feed. But MySpace has gone one step further, allowing two-way syncing, with MySpace updates going to Twitter as well as the other way around. The process is simple and managed by OAuth.

In its announcement of the Twitter sync, MySpace insists that it will “be adding other networks soon.” For someone who has long argued for one central place to update, which then filters out to all networks, this type of integration is good. But the only way it would tempt me back to MySpace is if Facebook was one of the networks on the list.

Regardless, this should be good for MySpace, particularly with its young demographic. But the real winner is Twitter, which is quickly becoming the standard for status updates. The odds are that Facebook will now match this in a matter of days or weeks.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 5:07 am under Internet, Opinion, Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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