Where's the MySpace support??
 

We were promised since the launch of the N97 to get a MySpace widget or app of some sort. I'm a musician and producer, and still use MySpace as my primary online presence. We've seen plenty Facebook apps and widgets, but nothing for the original major social network. It's most shocking since Nokia claims to wish to be a media company alongside its services strategy, positions the Nseries as its media friendly consumer device brand, and yet they ignore the number two online destination for streaming video, maybe the leading provider of music artist information and music streams, a large portion of the photo storage market, and easily one of the top sites for social presence and status updates.

Can someone bring some MySpace goodness to the N900? Or maybe a console type app that supports Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook at once, like Tweetdeck does? Something to keep track of status updates, messages, comments, activities, photos and videos, browse users, and maybe music streams and uploads?

I think MySpace brings alot to the table that Facebook lacks, but gets less attention because of Facebook's deal with Apple and the iPhone. Its getting old seeing everyone pretend Facebook has the market cornered, while we at MySpace get ignored. Let's give the artists some love for once.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Chris, to be honest i did not know myspace still had an audience.

I do think it will be nice to see tight plugin integration to contacts with Myspace/Facebook and others that messaging built into them as a core feature, and publish APIs for them. I am ok with widgets, but I dont want an app per se. The tight integration is game changing and we should expand upon it.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I couldn’t agree more. A myspace widget is really needed.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Chris, are you looking for twitter integration into the contact conversation threading like SMS etceteras?

I'm not a MySpace user so forgive the daft question but does that also have postings to your page that you would want to keep track of in a similar manner?

If these two are as you meant then I would suspect the Telepathy library would be the best place to get such an extension and then it should just integrate in the same manner. Maybe post a brainstorm for the functionality and I'm sure it should be fairly simple to integrate. I'm also assuming you'd be happy to help test the MySpace integration? From a developer perspective though I would suggest a seperate post for each source though to enable at least one to be picked up.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I don’t know if they have an audience. They for sure have some use, that’s something that I can’t say from twitter. In terms of musical diffusion myspace his a medium of great significance and not an idiotic dysfunctional hype like facebook and twitter.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Myspace is pretty much a dead service at this point.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

That's what I thought, but if there is an audience for it, why not ? The more options there are for Maemo 5 the better.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

If people are looking at creating widgets for the lesser known social networking, can I put in a good word for Tumblr? ;)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I'm not saying "don't make one for Myspace". I'm saying the fact that Myspace isn't really used anymore is the reason why there aren't already some made for Myspace.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

MySpace might not be the popular kid at the moment, but its user base, and its attention to indie musicians and producers still remains standard fare for use in the field.

A MySpace widget would need to do some, but not all of the following:
- view/search+add friends
- view/post latest status updates
- search friends
- post images/music
- stream music from friend's pages
- integrate with Contacts app on device

Such a widget would benefit MySpace users (and pretty much any other social network user that'd use this functionality)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Without meaning to blow smoke on the app idea - what about integrating these into the relevant points on the OS?
Adding friends - contacts with their entries as for any other IM point so onlienn shown in same way etc and start chat in same way.
Latest posts - widget on screen for that.
post images/music - use the Share functionality, maybe from the widget.

If this makes sense then does the OP fancy putting it out in a brainstorm then post a link for people to vote and get things started?

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Any quotes/URLs for that?
/me just curious...

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I read alot of internal and official press materials, as well as talk to some of the engineers and project managers at Nokia, so it may have been a verbal, video, or written thing. I believe it was at the Mobile World Congress where Nokia demoed the widgets they were working on, and mentioned one being for MySpace. But it was definitely fact, because I'm a musician, and for content creators and artists, MySpace is unmatched.

For everyone that thinks MySpace is irrelevant, check the facts first. Facebook grew past MySpace because of the tight integration and support in the iPhone. People that had never used the internet, much less a social network, had easy access, marketing, and peer influence to join Facebook. The iPhone's lack of Flash meant media streaming was a nonfactor, and the creative community suffered. (Try chasing your stray audience to Facebook, and see how well you can share media by comparison. NIght and day.)

Facebook may have surpassed MySpace globally, but in the US, usership is nearly neck and neck. They barely passed MySpace in the US in March. So for Americans, it is very relevant. And for musicians, its how we maintain our independence from major labels and still manage a profit. It is probably the biggest marketing tool for a working musician.

Today, MySpace is still the second largest social network, and honestly, one of the only profitable of the major ones. It is the number two destination for online video after YouTube. It is number three behind AOL and Yahoo Music for music streams, streaming more than Sony, Rhapsody, and Pandora combined. Of all social networks, it is the leader in media streaming, streaming 105% more media plays than the next in line, Facebook.

An app would balance the playing field for the two social networks, which obviously are complementary since they serve 2 purposes. One is for relating through conversation, video, and through music and media, and the other is based on family and society through common interests. Both allow status updates to be synced with Twitter, both allow online photo storage and video hosting, but only MySpace allows custom playlists, video streams, and free music streams. As an artist, we need this platform to remain viable, and an app on Maemo would really help in that regard. Make it in Qt and pack it for Symbian, and it might just be a mass market hit...

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/...gets_and_k.php
What I could find. I think it was a video I saw, but Rafe mentions it there.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

myspace was the first social network i used and it is the most common one in my circle of friends so i would appreciate an app for that. (:D)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Myspace as a social network is not that big, but as band promotion platform it's very big. The frist thing I do when I find out about a new band is to listen to them via myspace. Particularly good for extreme music with small followings. Dunno if I need a widget, but I'm sure musicians and promoters would find one very useful.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I thought only 13 year old girls with really big Twilight pictures used MySpace...

Learn something everyday :D

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

n900 has pixelpipe plugin for picture/video uploads which supports myspace.

http://blog.pixelpipe.com/2009/10/17...ith-pixelpipe/

I guess the other tool to use myspace with is the browser. With flash support you can use the myspace music player and all the tacky bells and whistles flashing typically on myspace pages.

I have no idea if better support is on the way.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

No, sorry... Facebook exploded because people were abandoning Myspace They were tired of ******ed profile pages and autoplaying music players. iPhone might account for a few hundred thousand, if that. We're talking about a flood of millions upon millions here... far more than the iPhone's sold in its lifetime. Saying the iphone is the reason for it is completely delusional.

Fact: Everyone's abandoning Myspace like the plague. Yes, it's a better delivery platform for bands but only because Facebook simply doesn't do it yet. In about six months, I fully expect Myspace to try to transform itself over into a music-oriented site at some point... but killing off Myspace would be the best thing for these bands anyways as the Myspace player rarely even works properly.

Of my peak of 200 friends on Myspace, all but 13 have deleted their accounts. I think that pretty much says it all about Myspace. Dead.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Fact: Everyone's abandoning Myspace like the plague. Yes, it's a better delivery platform for bands but only because Facebook simply doesn't do it yet. In about six months, I fully expect Myspace to try to transform itself over into a music-oriented site at some point... but killing off Myspace would be the best thing for these bands anyways as the Myspace player rarely even works properly.

Of my peak of 200 friends on Myspace, all but 13 have deleted their accounts. I think that pretty much says it all about Myspace. Dead.[/QUOTE]

Usually when someone says "fact" they produce that fact with a quote from a reputable source with a link. You speaking about your 13 friends doesn't impress me. You and your friends are who? Jesus and the 12 apostles? In addition, that doesn't constitute "abandoning Myspace like the plague". As mentioned by previous users, Facebook does have a larger online community, almost double to be exact. However, the audience that still uses Myspace uses that site on average 100 minutes more a month than Facebook users. Myspace is a site for artists pure and simple. If you are a band, musician, producer or even a visual artist, Myspace is the place to get your work out to the masses. Even if you aren't an artist, Myspace allows those who want more than a bland white background with a touch of blue to personalize their pages.

Oh, I also have both accounts (Myspace and Facebook) however do use Facebook much more often. Like mentioned earlier, when I feel like finding a new band no one knows about, I log into my Myspace account to check out what is new, fresh and hot. When I want to check on my friends to see who has went from "In a relationship" to "Single" or is "really excited they didn't miss the season finale of House" I go on Facebook.

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2...tats-for-2009/

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Thanks, you pretty much made my point for me. When Facebook starts allowing artists to upload and play songs directly from their fan pages, why would you then bother with Myspace? You wouldn't.

I don't need to give you a link... just look at Myspace these days. And I don't care if I impress you. :)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

http://www.facebook.com/escapehatch

(look middle left)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I am looking at Myspace these days and I read and don't go on my own self inflated opinion (hint hint) Myspace has it's core users. I would even venture Zerojay you are white and above the age of 28? I say that because Myspace is still very popular among minorities and people under the age of 25. So you and your friends may have left it behind and think it's dead, however it still has it's loyal fan base that won't be leaving anytime soon. THAT link I'm still looking for, read the article in the online NY Times section.

And why this visceral reaction to Myspace anyway? One social networking site isn't all that different than the next. They all allow us to re-connect with people we didn't like in the first place and read really mundane info about their boring lives.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Myspace is garbage... it's a "who-can-have-the-most-glitter-art-and-nickelback-songs" contest. Any *real* information somebody might want to share is tucked away neatly in an obscure blogs box. It's all filler. Facebook is almost entirely pure content.

Content > filler (but I didn't need to tell you that).

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Exactly why I never liked it. I only joined because a girl wanted me to as she had a page.

Anyway, if this is something missing from other phones, why not bring it to the N900 ? Won't it be great to have the media/artistic types jumping on the N900 and ditching their iPhones?

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Ideally it would be a downloadable widget/app that can integrate into the device. Entirely optional. While I may not bother getting it, christexaport and others will, so what's the problem ?

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

The big point here is that most of the people here developing are probably going to be over the age of 28... the ones that have long since abandoned Myspace, so just don't hold your breath for integration because most of the people won't bother wasting their time with it at this point.

The N900 is being marketed towards the people who are at the cutting edge of social networking. If Myspace was still relevant in this space, which they aren't, you would bet that Nokia would have widgets preinstalled just like they do for Facebook. (No, I wouldn't exactly call Facebook "cutting edge" social networking either, but...)

The closest thing that we'll see is integration of MySpaceIM which Haze already supports. (I believe it's not integrated into the packages on the N900 yet because it's not quite stable.)

Again, I'm not against having it integrated or any other social site for that matter. I'm just telling you why it's very unlikely to end up happening. Call it a self-inflated opinion if it makes you feel any better.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Nope, not a smoky response at all.

Some of this is already doable, much of the rest would seem more like a mix of plug-in functionality to contacts, and then the preferences within the contact's widget to make it happen.

If the API is nice, then it wouldn't be a far-fetched idea to see this across other social networks. I think that Mark Hendrickberg(sp?)'s microfeed backend supports some of this too, so it would be something that's not too far from something that could be done.

Whether or not there's enough of a market for it *here* with current developers is one thing; there are enough users that it could be a nice feather in the cap for Maemo and Nokia's music-oriented operations. For that alone, it might be worth persuing for those developers so inclined.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Even if Myspace is visually speaking nowadays to many people what private webpages were in the 90es, it does have its users (me too, though maybe every 2 weeks only while I use facebook daily).
So complaining about how the Myspace webpages look there is not really... constructive, but we all know that. ;-)

People don't realize that MySpace isn't Facebook. Its a place for performance artists and musicians and their fans. Some people use it like Facebook too, but that isn't its focus. Media streaming and sharing are the focus. And while they are big globally, in the US, Facebook is only marginally bigger than MySpace, and as someone else pointed out, MySpace is popular with minorities and the counterculture. You guys act like Facebook is the only game in town, but the numbers are surprisingly closer than you think. Look for yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rking_websites

I only asked for myself. I and my business associates use MySpace as part of our independent music promotion strategy, and with resounding success. I've used it since the beginning, as have many of my friends, and we prefer the more customizable interface and media streaming options. And MySpace is so irrelevant, Tweetdeck decided to add MySpace support, covering the three most popular social networks.

If you have no interest in MySpace or a MySpace widget, you're in luck! It will hopefully be an optional install. And if you don't want it, don't use it. But there's no need to crowd this thread with your disdain for the app or the service. It makes it hard for the developers to read through the thread and find the ideas that users will want.

It seems like everytime a user makes a request for a feature or an application, a smear campaign and opposition party ensue. This is counterproductive, and borderline hostile. Is that the type of community we're building? The world isn't just about Facebook. There's Orkut, Beebo, MySpace, Twitter, Adult Friend Finders, and many others. They all serve an audience, and all of them may or not include you. But the N900 is an international device. Don't always think from the perspective of you and your friends. There are billions more out there with different tastes and choices, and they all deserve attention.

I use MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Ovi, and Twitter. Along with other social networks, too. There's not just one platform, one party, one social network. Sad that the nonconformist Linux community wouldn't espouse the idea of access, choice, and options.

And no one mentions MySpace's media licensing deals, that ensure it will be the top spot for media.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Me too. I don't see the changes, but don't know why he had a reason to do it at all. Didn't curse or threaten anyone.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Everything looks identical. I don't get it...

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=40...=facebook.com&

http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=m...eekly_img&sa=N

http://grapher.compete.com/myspace.c...com_uv_310.png

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...k-bebo-twitter

Just sayin'. I'm 22 for the record, and I haven't accessed or used myspace for around 2.5 years now.

Back to the topic, if someone wants to make this, all the power to them, but as a developer myself, I have no incentive to.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Sorry about that, Chris. I assure you I didn't touch a character of your text. I tried out the "Merge posts" feature on a string of back-to-back posts by you is all.

Occasionally, when one person posts a uninterrupted string of posts like that, it leads to grumbling from others. I thought I might have found a nice way of cleaning up ahead of complaints and tried it out. It...didn't work out so well, obviously.

So, my apologies again for attaching that "edited by" to the bottom of your post. It wasn't my intention, I assure you.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Getting back on topic (and leaving aside the fun features of vBulletin) I can't see the reason not to create a myspace widget. The only difficulty I see is whether one of the people who cares is also one of the people willing/able to do it. A certain other phone has 1 million apps (or whatever) but 95% of them are so 'niche market' as to be useless. If only a small percentage of people want MySpace, well is that more or less than some of the other apps under development?

Arguments about how popular Myspace is compared with other platforms, whether it's a niche market for musicians or whatever seem irrelevent, other than whether it's 'worth it'. We have a few people here saying they'd use it. So far no-one stepping up to create it. (and no, I'm useless, sadly.)

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Well thanks for the vote of confidence!

Seems to me that the OP would similar support and integration for MySpace as that found for Facebook. @OP: Can you confirm or clarify this please?

If I have understood things correctly and OP has an idea of what they want then the correct place for this now is Brainstorm. I can see no useful discussion of ideas on here for functionality or features.

I personally have no interest in any of the social network sites but I see no reason for the hostility: If you don't want to use it then don't, no one is forcing you.

Unless a Brainstorm with sensible proposal and clear use cases appears then I can't see any reason to expend development time on this or any other project.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Thanks. ;)

I think my point was that I'm not against it. I never saw the reason for the 'I don't use it so we shouldn't have it' approach. That's partly because I've spent my life working with hardware (and software) capable of dozens of functions I don't use... but I'm quite happy enjoying the skill other people have in using them. My current devices have GPS - I use a map (and the compass in my head). They have voice-dial and speed dial - I use the contacts list. And so on. It doesn't have to be something everyone uses.

If even a small number of people want a myspace widget, in my book it would rate lightyears above a fart app, or one to blow out candles.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

I don't think there's been any "I don't use it so we shouldn't have it", or at least, not very much of that *openly*. If you're referring to my post at least, it was merely providing a personal view (at the end) along with some hard numbers that had been requested earlier.

It's great if people want it, really. I just think that there's going to be some difficulty finding someone who wants to devote effort to it.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

Those over 28 year olds may want to publish to their MySpace page to their target audience of under 28s... what's wrong with that?

It would be great for Nokia/Maemo5 if you always see musicians and stars carrying around N900s just because they can do things like this. With the recent voice recorder as well, they could even record impromptu messages and even songs and post them directly from the phone.

Re: Where's the MySpace support??
 

If there are 50 million active MySpace users, why not? It could prove attractive to hardcore MySpacers who may then get a Maem05 device, and who knows? Some of them may even be developers too.