As MySpace announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, it opened its platform for developers to build applications on top of the popular social networking site. MySpace will roll out its program in several stages to enable them to deal with problems which might arise one at a time.

MySpace worked along with Google to develop the API tools in order for the users to build and test applications for MySpace and it will let developers to create programs like those used by programmers on rival site Facebook, BBC News informs.

MySpace's applications will be developer friendly, which means MySpace will provide a control page for developers to essentially own, that in turn can contain advertisements whose revenues will belong 100 percent to developers.

“It’s absolutely something we are exploring, and we’d love to figure out how to roll that out in the near future,” Amit Kapur, MySpace’s chief operating officer, said to the press about this issue. “We feel that could be a real compelling offer to developers, and ultimately that may be a really great way to differentiate our platform from others on the Internet.”

Smaller rival Facebook launched its developer site in May 2007, and in the meantime MySpace was able to learn from the qualities and flaws of their design. A lot of applications developed for Facebook will also soon pop up on MySpace.

"How much that means direct competition with Facebook is a little undetermined," said Kyle Brinkman, general manager of MySpace's developer platform. "Fundamentally, we are providing a good experience for end members. That's what we care about."

Applications will have to be first reviewed by the company before showing up publicly. The applications will be tested both by humans and by automatic tools to ensure they are safe for users.

In 2005 MySpace was bought for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. MySpace joined in November Google's OpenSocial platform.