MySpace in an unprecedented move favoring its users enabled them to share their profile data, photos and other information with third party sites. The roll-out was announced for sites such as Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and Photobucket.

An excerpt from BBC

The move also offers MySpace the opportunity to extend its reach outside its core members. Recently it has been losing some traction with traffic falling 16% in April from a year ago. Nevertheless the online intelligence company Hitwise says the site accounted for nearly 74% of US visits to social networks.

Under "data availability" MySpace profiles are synched with partnering sites like Yahoo and Twitter. Users who make a change to their MySpace page will find that the accounts linked in will also be altered. The data is dynamic, which means it can be updated constantly.

The move is being seen as a way for MySpace to gain attention compared to its rival FaceBook which has been more aggressive on the technology front. Pioneering the first social networking programming platform, FaceBook set a precedent that Google seeks to catch-up with using its Open Social Initiative.

The end result is good news for users. The recognition that closed garden approach will not lead to mass adoption is a warning for other data holding sites to open up.