MySpace and HP have teamed up on a deal that will see HP printing technology used across multiple areas on MySpace, including all photo sections. You will be able to easily print pictures from not only people’s profile photos, but ones that are inserted into blog posts, comments, messages, etc.
The first stage of the partnership is anticipated to include an HP branded print button enabling MySpace users to preview and print photos directly from their MySpace profiles.
“The MySpace platform is home to approximately 4 billion images and our users, from teens to grandparents will now have an easier way to share their digital assets,” says MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. ” We’re excited to partner with HP, a leader in the printer market, to provide them with new tools to now print their photos directly from MySpace and share their memories offline as well.” I’m not sure what is so exciting about this feature, being how it’s not too hard to go to the URL of any posted photo and simply print it, but I suppose the added convenience of the print button isn’t a bad thing.
I don’t think I’m the only one unimpressed though. “It seems a little excessive – I can’t imagine wanting to print out anyone’s MySpace profile, and running promotions to print across the entire site isn’t very green either,” says Jason Kinkaid at TechCrunch. “I wonder if MySpace’s official Green site Our Planet will include the Print widget, too.” Mashable’s Leslie Poston brings up privacy as a concern as well:
In order for the technology to work, HP and MySpace will be “unlocking” user profile data to format for printing. What this means for users of MySpace with private profiles is that their friends will be able to print their profile photos once they are allowed to view their profile page. I’m not sure this will cause Facebook and Beacon level angst among users, but I’m thinking MySpace and HP might want to make this opt-in for those with private profiles before launch just in case.
Again, unless I’m missing something, I don’t see any difference than just printing from the image’s URL. I guess the main thing is that not everyone knows how to right click on an image, copy the link location, and paste it into the address bar and print it. Perhaps the new feature will let you size the image to the paper?
At some point the companies expect to provide the ability to create and print personalized merchandise with photos from MySpace. The new printing features will be rolled out on MySpace next month in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe.
