But not to worry, MySpace has a solution for that. It’s just one that lacks an obvious monetization strategy. It’s called Data Availability and it’s a way for MySpace members to share and sync profile data across partner sites–starting with Yahoo (YHOO), eBay (EBAY), Twitter and Photobucket. “The walls around the garden are coming down–the implementation of Data Availability injects a new layer of social activity and creates a more dynamic Internet,” enthused Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace, in a statement. “We, alongside our Data Availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide.”

That’s all well and good. But how about pioneering a new way to, you know, make money off that integration? Data portability is wonderfull and all. But so is revenue. And right now, MySpace’s Data Availability initiative doesn’t include any advertising deals.

In the past few weeks, TiVo has signed deals with online photo-sharing services Photobucket and Picasa and the music-and-video network Music Choice. It’s begun fulfilling its contracts with cable outfits Comcast and Cox. It’s entered the media-services market, partnering with NBC Universal to provide second-by-second ratings of programs and commercials, based on the TV-watching habits of subscribers to the company’s digital video recorders.

“We are very much a technology company,” TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told the New York Times. “At the same time, in the last year and a half, we’ve substantially moved in the direction of becoming a media company.” And that’s proven a prudent move for TiVo, where things are beginning to look up. Shares of the company hit a 52-week high of $8.53 Friday. Today they were trading at around $8.35.

Too bad for TiVo that days of the standalone digital video recorder are reportedly numbered. According to Yankee Group, the standalone DVR product category will cease to exist by 2010, “and its dissolution will result in the end of TiVo as we know it.”

A Department of Defense policy that went into effect today bans military access worldwide to MySpace, YouTube, Photobucket and eight other popular Web sites because of the strain they place on its network. “We’re not passing any judgment on these sites, we’re just saying you shouldn’t be accessing them at work,” Julie Ziegenhorn, spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, told Stars and Stripes. “This is a bandwidth- and network-management issue. We’ve got to have the networks open to do our mission. They have to be reliable, timely and secure.”

Of course. But this isn’t the first time the Defense Department has faced a bandwidth crunch. It was complaining about them back in 2003. You’d think that it might have spent the ensuing years assessing its bandwidth requirements and building out the capacity to meet it. Apparently not. It’s added just enough connectivity to support its own government-vetted YouTube channel, but not those services used by troops to keep in touch with family and friends.

It took a few weeks, but the two companies finally resolved their differences–and then began formalizing an already mutually beneficial relationship. According to the research firm Hitwise, Photobucket receives well over 50% of its upstream traffic from MySpace. It also accounts for 73% of MySpace’s photo-related traffic. That being the case, a deal between the two was an inevitability. Said Hitwise General Manager Bill Tancer, “There’s clearly a synergy between these two sites.”