Facebook Connect Matches MySpace's Data Availability Initiative

(MoneyWatch)  Facebook has countered News Corp.-owned MySpace's announcement of its data availability initiative yesterday with, well, an announcement today revealing the exact same thing for Facebook.

This newest product, pushing both social networks toward an increasingly homogeneous end, allows users to carry public profile info, photos, and friends to other websites, turning a MySpace or Facebook profile into a portable Internet identity.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington got the scoop on Facebook's service, called Facebook Connect, and revealed that social content news site Digg would be a partner when Connect rolls out in the coming weeks. MySpace already announced partnerships with several Internet giants: Yahoo!, eBay, Photobucket, and microblogging service Twitter.

But AllThingsD.com blogger John Paczkowski is skeptical that the services will bring in real revenue by themselves unless paired with an advertising deal, following News Corp.'s announcement that MySpace missed its revenue target of $1 billion by 10 percent. But the convenience alone should allow both social networks to grow and keep existing users, driving them to the services' main sites where revenue-generating ads await. And regarding MySpace's missed revenue target, SeekingAlpha's Ashkan Karbasfrooshan thinks News Corp.'s best quarter is yet to come, and an announcement like this certainly can't hurt.