MySpace kicked off its developer program by providing API’s and development tools to tens of thousands of developers, with some unique diistinctions, and restrictions, that it hopes will result in high quality apps.
Tom Foremski at ZDNet thinks the submission process for Myspace applications is going to be a huge bottleneck.
All applications have to be vetted to make sure they don’t break strict privacy and decency standards. “Each time an application is changed, it has to go back through the vetting process,� said Mr Brinkman. I asked how long this process would take? “It will depend upon each application.�
This is a potentially huge bottleneck in the development process that could strand thousands of applications from reaching launch date. And it will seriously affect the quality of MySpace applications because developers will be discouraged from making improvements because they will have to go through the vetting process again, and again. It will extend the time to market for their apps. Diligent developers tweaking their apps to improve the quality will be penalized. This encourages a quick-and-dirty app strategy.
I have to say that I agree with Tom. I predict Myspace will change the application vetting process sooner rather than later.
The Myspace Developer Platform has everything you need to learn, test and build Myspace applications. Myspace supports OpenSocial as well.
I’ve built simple Facebook applications, time to do the same thing at Myspace to see which is the better development environment.
The Homebrew MySpace API is the precursor to the official API.