Will MySpace Block Photobucket?

GigaOM ? MySpace Blocking Widgets? Om Malik is out with a post about MySpace blocking widgets and blogs a screen shot from Photobucket which reads:

“MySpace is preventing users from embedding new slideshows and videos. We have verified that nothing is wrong on our side. Please contact MySpace directly (their emphasis) with your questions and concerns. — The Photobucket Team.

Apparently this was a short lived “outage” and Om speculates that this might have been a test and a bit of saber rattling on the part of Fox Interactive Media.

I’ve got a MySpace account that I never use. I just can’t get into it, but there is no denying the popularity of the site. Putting a wall around their garden and charging tolls though would royally suck. It would be a step backwards for all of us and I hope that this is not where MySpace is headed.

Personally I’m surprised that Fox Interactive Media hasn’t just gone and bought Photobucket already. They do some unbelievably high percentage of their photo hosting on MySpace and it would just seem to make logical sense.

Update: Om has an update over on his blog that has Fox Interactive Media saying that they have no plans to block or charge for widgets on MySpace blog. They chalk the recent Photobucket snafu up a filter that they were working on for security reasons. From Om: “Update #2 at 12.35pm, Friday: A Fox Interactive spokesperson just emailed us this statement: “The toll booth rumor is categorically untrue. We have no plans, current or future, to charge people for widgets. We are working on a filter for security reasons – so there may have been a bug due to that…if so, it’s fixed now and working – no more quicktime worm or flash probs from here on out.””