So, I have spent quite a lot of wasted hours over the last couple of days playing with Bebo, and I can see a lot of people do too. And same with My Space (not me personally, but other people). If your interested, my Bebo page is at http://www.bebo.com/tiernano. Anyway, one thing that a lot of people are wondering about is “the Developer Story” for these sites.

Ok, so Bebo has an API for widgets/gadgets/or what ever they call them, but dev’s want a proper API, so you can get data out and put data in, programmatically. you could have a Windows or Mac app that sits on your desktop, watching the API for updates. if someone befriends you, click a button, get their profile, and if you want them as a friend, click accept. or deny or what ever. Send messages to friends, uploading photos and videos, etc, would be very easy. but it wont happen.

Why? Money. for every page view on the site, Bebo and MySpace show you ads (stupid ones at that. who the hell wants a “talking” smiley? or a “Glittery” version of your name?) and they make a lot of money from these (somebody on MySpace or Bebo does want them…)

So, if an open API was released, Bebo and MySpace would loose this money. I could see them charging for the API, if they did ever make one, but, its going to cost Dev’s, and probably quite a lot. Say 10c per 1000 requests, or more.

I don’t exactly have anywhere I want to bring this post further. Its just a quick random post, with an idea I had. Sorry.</p>