• Forbes.com, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11 AM

Why did News Corp eventually let Photobucket back into MySpace's life? No one knows, but the fact that News Corp. put the stop on Photobucket videos and relented just a few days later is the significant move. And Photobucket just raised its value.

Why? Because the "win" proved that the photo and video storage site has become its own force. Once regarded as a kind of purgatory for image and video content, Photobucket is now its own destination, with 40 million users sending links pointing back to over 300,000 different sites. Indeed, Photobucket, like YouTube, has become a force so powerful that it can't be pushed around by MySpace.

Rupert Murdoch's social-networking behemoth has been slowly weeding out embedded media files from third parties like Revver and Buzznet. However, it would never dream of blocking YouTube videos, because it tried once and nearly incited a MySpace revolt. The same thing happened here with Photobucket: News Corp. claimed Photobucket videos contained "commercial content," which is almost universally untrue. Photobucket complained and so did MySpace users, and now its videos are once again usable on the social network. That kind of influence can only boost the valuation of a company looking for a buyer.

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