The data will include any activity or information that is attached to an account. That includes blog posts, location, photos, reviews, and status updates–among others. InfoChimps, an Austin Texas company that collects and sells structured data, is selling the data.

Of course, MySpace is perfectly within its rights to work with Infochimps, because it legally owns the data and the server logs. Users wave their right to privacy in exchange for free Web hosting and access to its social features. “Free” comes at a cost. Here’s snippet of what “they” know about you.

This is exactly the type of scenario that Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center warned of at a seminar about privacy in cloud computing last month. Except I wouldn’t have imagined that MySpace would be one of the really aggressive purveyors of personal data.

In his talk, Moglen advocated for the development of peer-to-peer social networks where users retain ownership of their data. His suggestion is looking more appealing (and prophetic) now that one of the biggest names in social networking has sold out its users’ privacy.

[NOTE: The original version of this story stated that MySpace was selling data; in fact, Infochimps is the seller, through a revenue-sharing agreement with MySpace. MySpace has released the following statement:

MySpace is not selling user data to Infochimps. MySpace provides developers, including companies such as Infochimps, with free access to publicly available real-time data (such as status updates, music, photos, videos) using our Real Time Stream feed. We have identified the need for third-party developers who can’t handle the size of our full feed to still have access to the data in a different format.  For this reason Infochimps is offering developers a pre-packaged version of our Real Time Stream, as a value-added service.

More information is available at Infochimps' blog.]

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It’s not a replacement for Google search as we know it–in fact, it’ll be embedded within standard Google search results, in a scrolling window that updates automatically and lets you backtrack to see what you might have missed. You’ll also be able to view real-time results all by themselves, via a new “Latest” option in Google’s Search Options menu. That gets you a page that mashes up items from Twitter, news sites, blogs, and other sources–and Google announced today that it’s struck deals with Facebook and MySpace to bring public information from their users into Google Real-Time Search.

Here’s an image of real-time results, but a static picture can’t really do them justice, since they auto-update in a way that’s kind of hypnotic. So here’s a link to the current version of the results below.

Real-Time Search is going live today, but Google says it’ll take a couple of days to roll out. However, you can try it right now by going to the new version of Google Trends. Click on one of the Hot Topics on the left or enter your own search in the field below them, and you’ll get real-time results.

Google says that the relevance of these results are the key to them being useful. I haven’t played with the new feature enough to have a take on how good it is at pinpointing the good stuff–hey, the event is still going on as I write this–but it’s clear that the company’s right about relevance being vital. I sometimes think that if it were easier to find the best results on Twitter, about half the Twitter skeptics in the world would become fans. And with Google Real-Time Search pulling in results from Twitter and a bevy of other sources, an unranked, unfiltered list of snippets and links could be a nightmare.

I plan to spend more time the new features soon–but in the meantime, try ‘em out yourself and let us know your take. Here, try these queries:

Obama

Nook

Google Googles

Healthcare

EPA

And here’s Google’s official blog post on the new features.

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Facebook is apparently interested in MySpace’s content, which they suggest could be incorporated into Facebook through its Connect feature. Both sides have confirmed that talks are indeed ongoing, but haven’t really specified how far the talks may be.

One thing is working in Facebook’s favor: MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta is a Facebook alum. So I don’t think its a far stretch to say that Natta himself probably is leading MySpace into the willing arms of its now larger rival.

I’m not saying this was his plan all along — but when you’re getting to the point that MySpace is, everything should be on the table.

This isn’t the only partnership that MySpace is apparently working on. Next up, Microsoft. Kara Swisher reports that Redmond is looking at MySpace Music to beef up its music offering on MSN, another potentially lucrative move. With MSN Music struggling, teaming up with a market-leading service like MySpace’s just makes good business sense.

In the end, it looks like MySpace has just about given up on social networking from recent news that’s coming out of the company. I guess we’ll find out soon if that was a smart idea or not, no?

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If someone wants to find out what I’m up to on Facebook, they have to log in and search for me unless they know the random string of numbers that represents me. Whereas Twitter already has easy to remember user names that people can type into their browser (I’m twitter.com/dcworthington).

This is a welcome improvement, and it complements Facebook’s strategy of focusing more on its users’ stream of events. I’m equally happy that it still requires people to use their full names when they register for an account. That protection adds a measure of trust, which many be one of the reasons why I am not spammed on Facebook. I get spammed on Twitter, and now to a lesser extent, Myspace. Adding user names is that latest of many smart decisions Facebook has made to evolve itself.

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BlackBerry Curve outells the iPhone.

Two trends conspiring against Microsoft.

11.6″ EeePC on its way.

Navigon exits North American market.

“Houdini’s” a great phone name.

MySpace formulates its turnaround strategy.

Myst for iPhone: It’s humongous!

WiiMotion Plus on sale.

The White House gets social.

The world’s lamest cell phones.

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MySpace has a new boss.

New Windows 7 hits BitTorrent.

The ObamaBerry is almost ready.

Hollywood vs. ReadDVD: trial underway.

Google Toolbar knows your location.

“Movie Cowboy?” Love that name!

Facebook users approve new policies.

T-Mobile sells one million G1s.

The economy hits the Apple Store.

Hands on with new Ubuntu.

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Unfortunately, the service had some serious usability issues, such as limits on playlist size and a slow music player, and the song selection wasn’t comprehensive. Courtney Holt, who stepped in to lead MySpace Music in January, three months after launch, is candid about the problems in his chat with Wired, calling the original service “plumbing and a playlist.” He covers similar ground as he did in a New York Times Bits interview from March, when the service started adding new features and improving the interface. Perhaps Holt is trying to get the word out that MySpace Music isn’t all bad anymore.

And for a free service, it could be worse. The ability to search for bands and build playlists directly from the results is nice, and I like the pop-out player. I’m wondering why playlist management is stunted — it can’t be done in real-time and new songs add themselves to the top of the list, rather than the bottom — but as a tool for discovering new music, it’s functional enough. Links to the Amazon MP3 download for each song are enticing, too.

Holt is also looking to “bring back the album,” as Wired puts it. Entire pages will be dedicated to individual albums, packed with bonus features and a forum for fans to discuss the music. With greater support for indie bands, MySpace Music is starting to look pretty robust.

If I were the record labels, I’d be looking to duplicate this service on other social networks. Design-wise, I’ve always found MySpace to be sloppy, and that’s keeping me away more than the content or the way it’s managed. Obviously adding streaming music to my network of choice (Facebook) can’t happen overnight, but I’d much rather get two dozen streaming track recommendations from friends than read 25 of their obscure personal details.

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Essentially, your MySpace ID would become your email@myspace.com. It’s not far-fetched to expect MySpace to integrate the e-mail functionality right in to the current messaging product, although I’d venture to guess they’d have to rejigger it a bit to make it work for non MySpace messages a bit better.

Is this smart for the social networking giant? You bet your bottom it is. MySpace is already trying hard to keep users on its pages longer, and nothing would do that more than e-mail. People check their e-mail several times a day — some several times an hour – and each time there is the opportunity to sell another ad impression.

MySpace is neither confirming nor denying the reports.

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The latest phase of that transition is an extension of its Yahoo Open Strategy (YOS) to some of its most popular Web properties, including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Toolbar, and across the company’s media Web sites.

Mostly notably, today Yahoo announced an upgrade to Yahoo Mail that serves up information that might be of interest to subscribers. The Mail site now resembles an e-mail inbox with elements of Facebook; applications and notifications surround e-mails. It keeps people in touch and looped in at a glance.

Yahoo is offering six initial Web services, including ones from third parties: Family Journal, Flixster Movies, Flickr, Photos by Xoopit, WordPress, and Yahoo Greetings. The company said in its blog that it is working to safeguard the sensitivity of users’ personal e-mail, and it will refine its application security model before opening the door to developers.

When I think of how much of my day is spent on Facebook (more than I care to admit), it makes perfect sense to follow that model. I usually have two separate browser windows open: one for Facebook and one for Gmail. Combining that functionality makes perfect sense–it’s just a shame that Yahoo had to be prodded to do it.

The Yahoo home page now has an applications sidebar that is open to third party developers, and the company has published a new theme API. Notifications about contacts’ activities across Yahoo Web properties is displayed when the user is logged in. Some notifications are pulled from Yahoo TV and Yahoo Music.

Yahoo announced its YOS strategy in October, and introduced its development platform, including Yahoo Application Platform (YAP), Yahoo Social Platform (YSP), and Yahoo Query Language (YQL), at that time. From the looks of what it has accomplished to date, Yahoo should manage to stop the hemorrhaging and retain many of its millions of users. It may even attract some new ones.

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Enter MySpace Music. Monday brought news that the company has secured three new major advertisers for the service: McDonald’s, Toyota, and State Farm Insurance. Advertising is expected to be a major component of the service, allowing it to offer services that other competitors can’t at no charge.

Like Rhapsody, the service will allow for free streaming of the full song, much like it does already in many cases. (Fortune says the service would pay a penny to the labels each time a song is streamed.) Users will then have the option to purchase the song free of digital rights management, as well as purchase ringtones and merchandise.

While some may accurately point out that this is not much different from what the site already is doing, MySpace Music appears to be an attempt to more prominently promote its music offerings — and position it as one of the go-to places on the Web for such content.
There are some differences however. For example, the site would now allow for users to post playlists to their site — which would allow for multiple songs to appear on a profile as opposed to a single track. When a user wishes to purchase a song, it would be sold through Amazon’s MP3 store.

Three out of the four major labels are already on board: EMI is the lone holdout, although it is reported that MySpace is currently in discussions to bring them on board.

So how does this truly compete with iTunes? What makes it different from other attempts is the fact that it already has several things going for it. First off, take MySpace’s massive user base: about 115 million unique visitors per month frequent its pages.

At the snap of a finger, any launched service by the social networking giant is going to have a tremendous reach. It can be argued quite convincingly that no one else started in such a favorable position.

Sony suffered from its unwillingness to part from proprietary formats, and Microsoft shuttered its own music store after its own PlaysForSure basically flopped in the market as people opted for Apple players. Even Yahoo, which boasts a similar reach to MySpace, was unable to break into the market — also bowing out.

MySpace Music would start with a huge advantage, considering a large portion of its users already frequent its artist pages. I’m probably out of the target demographic here for MySpace by a bit, but I will even admit I’m frequently on the music side of the site.

If just a portion of these users begin to use the site to download music, it could seriously pose a threat to Apple as social networking has proven to be a way to spread word quickly about just about anything.

Users love convenience, and if it is easy enough for a friend to send a friend a link to a certain song, and it’s competitively priced with iTunes, and on top of that it’s compatible with the iPod (and they stress this in the marketing), and MySpace is able to automatically import the songs into a users iTunes library as it is being reported, what reason does a user have to go to the iTunes Music Store?

Of course, MySpace is not going to challenge Apple overnight. But the power of social networking should be enough for those in Cupertino to take MySpace as a serious threat to their considerable dominance in digital music.

[A note from Harry: This is the first post on Technologizer by someone other than me. But it won't be the last--as the the site grows, a variety of contributors will pop up. Ed Oswald is senior writer for BetaNews, a site I've long enjoyed; I'm pleased to welcome him to Technologizer's...er, pages.]

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