The MySpace Developer Platform is beginning to be rolled out now. It’s currently in a limited beta that they’re calling a “sandbox phase.” Developers are limited during this sandbox phase to only three installs of their app. If you’re interested in learning more there’s tons of information available at the developer site.

The MySpace Developer Platform relies on OpenSocial to operate. OpenSocial, for those of you that don’t know, is basically Google’s common API that lets people run applications across a variety of social networks at the same time. So using OpenSocial I could write an application that runs on MySpace, Orkut, etc. while my application on the Facebook Platform is limited to Facebook only.

I’m Not Sure I Care

When the Facebook Platform launched I was sort of interested in the ramifications and even started looking for resources to help me build an app. In the end, I just couldn’t find myself all that motivated.

A quick run through the Facebook Apps listed at my site Web Auctions Daily reveals the junk and spam game that the Facebook App scene really is. Everyone and their brother is pumping out tiny little applications with no user base and selling them to the first person who’ll throw a handful of cash at them. That’s just not something I want to spend time to get involved with.

So how are the MySpace/OpenSocial applications going to be any different? They probably aren’t. If anything things might be even worse on this platform because it’s more widespread.

Monetizing a MySpace Application also seems like an uphill battle because their demographic seems to be even younger than Facebook’s. And the only way to get money out of a younger audience like that is probably with spammy trickery. Again, not something I want to get into.

So I’m going to take a pass on building any social network applications for now and continue to focus on my little pet projects instead.