The Data Portability wars just got a little more interesting. Power.com, the service that lets users aggregate their social networks into a single hub, is countersuing Facebook for restricting users’ ability to export and move their own data. The company is claiming that Facebook is unlawfully withholding the data that users own (as stated in Facebook’s own ToS), and is stifling competition by refusing to allow third party services like Power.com to access the data, among other things. This should be fun.

It’s been over six months since we last heard about these two duking it out, so here’s a quick refresher: Power.com launched last August, offering users the ability to import their latest updates and user information from Facebook, MySpace, and a number of other social networks. It did so by tapping into the social networks’ APIs when available, but also by scraping user data when they couldn’t access it through other means — a big no-no for most social networks, as we saw with the Scoble/Plaxo fiasco. It didn’t take long for Facebook to file suit against Power.com for scraping user data and storing user credentials (another violation of Facebook’s ToS). A week later we heard that the two parties might be close to a settlement, but apparently that didn’t work out — the suit is still pending.

Power.com CEO Steve Vachani likens the current situation with Facebook to one the cell phone carriers saw before they allowed for number portability. In the case of the cell phones, users were effectively locked into a certain carrier because they had spent so much time building up contacts and giving them their phone numbers, and it would be too much effort to switch to a new one. It’s an analogy that has been drawn since the data portability movement began, and while it may make sense, there’s no guarantee the courts will view phone numbers and a user’s social network data in the same light.

That said, Power.com is making some good points. The idea that users aren’t allowed to input their username and passwords into other services is particularly hypocritical, as that’s exactly what Facebook invites you to do to import contacts from services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

Facebook can point to its efforts with Facebook Connect, which lets you log in with your Facebook username at third party sites and import some select data from your profile, as evidence of its openness. But this isn’t true data portability, it’s just a new walled garden — third parties are generally only allowed to cache your data, which means that you’re still tethered to Facebook.

Of course, while we may not like the current situation, there may well not be anything illegal about it — that’s up to the courts to decide. We’ve all agreed to the Facebook Terms of Service, and there’s no question that Power.com breaks them. We’ll be following the upcoming case closely.

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It’s one thing when Internet companies like Facebook adopt OpenID, it’s another when a giant retailer like Sears Holdings Corporation embraces it. Sears has just announced that it will enable over 1 million monthly MySears and MyKmart visitors to use their Google, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or other accounts to log into the community websites, enabling them to write product reviews and share information about products and services without the need to create a separate account.

Customers will also get access to special offers and coupons in return for their participation in the community.

For the integration, Sears teamed up with Viewpoints Network, a social technology and media company that recently integrated JanRain’s RPX solution into their online community and identification platform.

The question is: is Sears – despite its claims of driving innovation in online retailing, which seems a bit over the top – merely a late adopter looking to try something new or is this a sign of OpenID maturing to a point where it can finally reach that tipping point where it really starts taking off with a mainstream audience?

In my recent interview with OpenID evangelist Chris Messina, he expressed the hope that integrations outside the technology industry – such as the U.S. government – would at some point occur more often, but he also acknowledged that the initiative struggles with branding and getting the word out there.

It’s integrations like these that could really help OpenID gain more traction, but the main question will always be if OpenID is just a solution looking for a problem, or if there’s a genuine need for a decentralized, universal login standard.

Despite the flood of criticism from technology pundits, the jury’s still out on that.

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Don’t expect big layoffs at MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media any time soon. In an email to all staff on Friday, Fox Interactive chief Peter Levinsohn says that 2009 will be an “even rockier economic climate” and takes steps to reduce costs. Chief among the changes – the end of the free lunch program for all employees (the French would riot over such an outrage).

Levinsohn also says he has avoided a hiring freeze. But if you are a contractor or temporary employee, watch your back and steal those office supplies now. Shortly after returning from the holidays you may find yourself being walked out of the building.

The memo also details the successes of FIM companies over the year (MySpace, IGN, Rotten Tomatoes, Photobucket, Fox Sports, etc.).

The full memo is below:

With the end of the calendar year approaching, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for making 2008 a year full of milestones and accomplishments for all of FIM’s businesses. In spite of a challenging economic environment, the last twelve months have produced some great results, none of which would have been possible without your dedication and hard work.

Unfortunately, 2009 is shaping up to be an even rockier economic climate, and while I am convinced we hold an incredibly unique position in the marketplace and have great potential for success going forward, we will be making some hard and necessary decisions about how we run our business in this environment. I’ll outline a few of those decisions below, but first I want to share some of the past year’s accomplishments:

· MySpace launched MySpace Music — a groundbreaking joint venture with major and independent music labels — and the MySpace Open Platform, which included the launches of the MySpace Developer Platform, MySpaceID, and Post-To MySpace.

· MySpace also continued its aggressive international expansion strategy — launching in seven new countries — and is now fully localized in 30 territories.

· FIM Audience Network was formed and launched self-serve ads on MySpace, a program which now has more than 15,000 participating advertisers.

· IGN launched a groundbreaking video initiative that includes more than a dozen of the Web’s most cutting-edge content creators.

· FOXSports.com produced more video content than any other sports site — including live content for the World Series, the Super Bowl and the BCS Championship Game. Scout.com continued its full product and management integration into FOXSports.com, enabling the two sites to deliver an even better experience to college and high school sports fans.

· Photobucket built out a world-class advertising team and released over 10 major new products, including group albums, themes and its API to the developer community.

· The new Digital Publishing Group launched its Web Content Management and Digital Asset Platform for FOX Television Stations and a number of third-party television station groups.

· Rotten Tomatoes completely redesigned its site and this week announced a deal with Current TV to co-produce “The Rotten Tomatoes Show”.

· GameSpy powered the online functionality for a number of the year’s top videogames, including Grand Theft Auto IV; Direct2Drive began selling games from EA for the first time ever, and featured some of the hottest titles of year from publishers like Ubisoft, Bethesda and Rockstar.

· AskMen continues to be the Web’s leading men’s lifestyle site and attracted more than 13 million unique users in October – an all-time high – while bringing on board a number of first-time FIM advertisers such as Porsche, Gucci and Calvin Klein.

· FIM Mobile distributed free, ad-supported mobile Web versions of every FIM site and is now a leader in ad-supported mobile Web, with a cumulative audience of 15M unique users per month.

While we’ve had some incredible success this past year, it’s impossible for us to ignore the larger economic environment and the challenges that are facing businesses all over the world. As a result, we are taking proactive steps to align our businesses practices with the economic realities that we will face in 2009. Some of these steps will be painful in the short term, but they are necessary to put our company in the best possible position to succeed now, and more importantly to emerge even stronger once the markets recover.

FIM’s success is the product of our incredibly talented people, and the retention of that talent is always our number one priority. We have approached this process with this priority at the forefront of our thinking.

We have taken several initial steps. First, have we have reprioritized our hiring needs for the remainder of the fiscal year. By doing so, we avoided instituting a hiring freeze and will continue to invest in our most promising opportunities. We have also taken a detailed look at our use of contract and temporary workers, and will be scaling back our use of those services in favor of internal resources wherever possible. Second, we will be closely monitoring, and cutting back on travel and expense budgets for the remainder of the fiscal year — please discuss any travel plans with your manager. And finally, we have made the decision to discontinue all meal subsidy programs currently being offered at FIM locations, effective January 1, 2009. Right now, it is imperative that we all work together to create savings and to maximize value – and these are all vital steps to this end.

Despite the challenging economic environment in which we will be operating, I am incredibly confident in our position within the marketplace. We have made a conscious effort over the last several years to build our business from the ground up in a manner that delivers maximum value at minimal cost not only to FIM, but to our advertisers and business partners. As a result, we are now in a great position to respond to the needs of the market at a time when our services are not only valuable to our partners, they are critical.

Thank you for your continued hard work and I look forward to seeing you all in 2009 as we work together to execute our plans and engage the challenges that lie ahead.

Happy Holidays,
Peter Levinsohn

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Earlier this afternoon MySpace scrubbed all traces of Project Playlist music widgets from the site, and users are unable to embed any further playlists. The scrub was the result of infringement notices from the major labels, all of which are in litigation with Project Playlist.

The labels, sources say, sent the same takedown notices to Facebook, which has 660,000 users with playlists from Project Playlist. But Facebook has refused to comply with those demands, our sources say.

Facebook for their part are refusing to comment, as is Project Playlist. But our music industry sources are calling Facebook’s refusal to comply “irresponsible” and saying that a lawsuit is inevitable if Facebook doesn’t remove the application and widgets.

It’s not clear Facebook is fully aware of what they’re stepping into (although the experience of Mark Zuckerberg’s friend Sean Parker, who is the founding President of Facebook and the cofounder of Napster, with labels should give them some indication). The labels aren’t screwing around, and their fury with Project Playlist, who they say have been stalling on a music licensing deal for months, is unchecked.

Expect users to give Facebook a big thumbs up for staring down the labels. My question is, how far is Facebook willing to go to protect Project Playlist? The potential litigation exposure is massive.

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It looks like embattled music service Project Playlist has someone other than Facebook in their corner. This morning, after remaining silent all weekend over the MySpace ban, they are announcing a much-needed agreement with Sony BMG to give users direct (and legal) access to that library.

Sony was never part of the litigation by the big labels that was filed on April 28, 2008, choosing instead to pursue negotiations. Warner Music, EMI and Universal, the three other big music labels, remain hostile to Project Playlist. And until all the labels have given the company a green light (and the litigation is settled), it’s unlikely MySpace will un-ban them.

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When UserVoice launched its hosted solution for companies looking to harness user feedback a little over 7 months ago, we wrote it could well be a replacement for e-mail when it comes to aggregating opinions, ideas and suggestions from user / customer bases. Now, UserVoice says its offering is solid enough for enterprise usage and is consequently dropping the beta tag.

Billing itself as an ‘online suggestion box that sorts itself’, UserVoice enables companies to embed widgets onto websites and applications to sollicit feedback from users in combination with a Digg-like voting feature. The idea behind that approach is that it’s easier and more scalable to crowdsource user opinions, ideas and suggestions than other ways of communication.

You can use the UserVoice service for free, but with a rather big limitation on features. More advanced packages are available starting from $289 per month, and there are also special packages for startups, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. If you want to take a look at alternatives, you might want to check out similar service providers such as CrowdSound, Suggestionbox and Get Satisfaction.

UserVoice has attracted customers from various sizes so far, including nice references like Sun Microsystems, Nokia and MySpace but also smaller web application providers like Blip.fm, 12seconds and Alert Thingy. According to the announcement, over 120 million widget impressions have already been served, with over 530,000 votes logged to date. Not bad for a startup that operates without outside financing apart from a small seed round from Nuvoiz raised back in 2007.

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Chances are you use at least two major social networks – 49 million people, for example, visited both MySpace and Facebook in October 2008 (Comscore, worldwide). Nearly 7 million people in the UK use both Bebo and Facebook. A lot of people maintain very different friend lists on LinkedIn than MySpace or Facebook. Etc. And when you add in niche social sites like YouTube, Flickr, etc., there’s even more overlap among users.

There has never been an effective way of aggregating and merging all the data and activity on these sites into a single user interface. A new venture backed Brazilian-based started called Power.com launches today, though, that aims to do just that. They’re calling what they do “social inter-networking” because it allows users to view and interact with all of their social networks at once. Data is aggregated, and the sites themselves, if accessed via the Power.com site, are marked up with added features in a way that Greasemonkey users are familiar with.

The service is unknown in the U.S. today, although it’s been live since August and boasts 5 million users already. Until today it supported just a few social networks, notably Orkut. Now, though, the service supports users from Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Hi5 and a number of niche networks like YouTube.

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It’s the season for top searches, and Ask.com just doesn’t know how to play the game. To compile these, big search engines take all the top search terms for the year and promptly throw the data out. They then compile a list of terms that they think properly reflects key trends that people are looking for, occasionally looking at the actual data for guidance. We saw Yahoo’s list earlier today.

Ask’s comes next. And it’s clear they are being way too honest. The top search is Dictionary followed by MySpace, Google, YouTube and Facebook.

These aren’t searches, they’re navigation queries. Ah well.

Here’s the complete list:

   1. Dictionary
   2. MySpace
   3. Google
   4. YouTube
   5. Facebook
   6. Coupons
   7. Cars
   8. Craigslist
   9. Online degrees
  10. Credit score
 

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