• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 14, 2008

Further exploring the latest trend in online content distribution, CondéNet has launched MySpace applications for its top properties, including Style.com, Epicurious.com, Wired.com and its teen girl-focused flip.com.

"The idea that users don't have to come to our sites to consume our content isn't new," said Chris Gonzalez, product manager of distributed content at CondéNet. "But, like widgets, social networking applications are dynamic and fully interactive."

Two weeks ago, Style.com was the first to debut its application, Fashion Flash, which offers bits and bites on fashion, shopping, beauty and celebrity style. In its first week, more than 1,200 users installed the tool--without any promotion or marketing, according to Gonzalez.

The Epicurious.com application, Recipe of the Day, will serve up a different food dish each day, drawing from a selection of some 25,000 professionally created and tested recipes.

The applications are the result of a Developer Platform, which MySpace launched in February, and which features documentation and API tools for developers to build and test applications. The platform was a direct response to the success that rival Facebook has had with its own open developer program.

Users can "friend" the applications and embed them on their profile pages. As a result, the applications can access users' publicly available profile information, including friends lists, interests, photo albums and video, as well as status and mood.

Notably, Gonzalez made a point to draw a distinction between flip.com and the other sites involved in the new application initiative.

In January, the stand-alone teen community had an audience of just 300,000 users after a year of operation. As a result, CondéNet decided to relaunch flip solely as an application, which users can attach to their social network pages of choice. The first to get the new flip application was Facebook.

"These are all sites that are successful on their own," Gonzalez said. "The case of flip is a little bit different."

To date, there are no plans to monetize these new content distribution channels, Gonzalez said.

"We do believe there is a future in distributed media," he said. "But this is still an area for experimentation."