According to the Photobucket blog, all photobucket widgets are now being blocked by MySpace. We haven't heard yet why MySpace made this move. This could be an evil play to get Photobucket users to switch to MySpace. How loud can you say evil? MySpace might also suggest that Photobucket has a lot of copyright-violating images and video. In the meanwhile, if you edit your MySpace profile, then when you save, all your photobucket widgets will get removed.
If you hear the whys from MySpace, then please post them here.
http://blog.photobucket.com/blog/2007/04/breaking_news_p.html
Robert Scoble thinks its in MySpace's right to block Photobucket. He's correct. But pissing off users isn't a great strategy for a consumer Web 2.0 startup.
Snipperoo calls it Widget Wars. Of course, Snipperoo is in the business of widgets and I'm sure they feel targeted.
Om Malik reminds us that this isn't a first.
Jason Chervokas points out that Photobucket images remain unblocked. It's only the videos.
StartupSquad repeats my suggestion that this might be an attempt to resolve copyright issues. They seem to have tried to post multiple videos to MySpace. Those that were copyright violations did not work. Those that were not copyright violations did work.
Todd Watson points out that the About Us webpage for MySpace says that "you can share photos, journals and interests." Note the absense of videos.
Greg Sterling says that this Web 1.0 attitude means MySpace is not a "Web 2.0" company.
Duncan Riley wonders if Photobucket is "screwed, or just plain screwed over." That is, can they survive without MySpace traffic?
