Mashups will be a big thing in 2007, but many big sites still do not offer APIs. When an established player creates a “walled garden,” wanna-be operators find a way to plug in. Un-authorized mashups such as the one below have to be tolerated by the host application (as long as they remain mutualistic) because it encourages the ecosystem growing around their application. You can’t tear the ivy off the wall without taking the wall with it:
Slide took a big risk early in 2006 by giving users the ability to auto-insert slide shows into their MySpace pages and blasting bulletins out to all their friends. They did this by asking users to hand over their MySpace credentials, and doing all the hard work for them. This is a clear violation of MySpace’s terms of service, though, and most people, including Slide, expected to receive a cease and desist letter and/or get access turned off. But tat never happened, and Slide’s big bet has paid off. So far.
Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Rumor: Slide’s Venture Round Was $20 million
I love slide! I can easily showcase my pictures to my friends. Bad thing for me, i never really read Myspace’s TOS. 🙁 I just wish though that they can also develop a myspace mp3 player because I know they have the capacity to create one like what I see in some other sites.