PhotoBucket Back on MySpace (I Want To Know The Backstory)

A simple blog post on Photobucket tells us that the war is over – PhotoBucket videos are now allowed on MySpace again after a two week ban.

But the interesting part of this story is what I don’t know yet – who blinked first and why. I’ve asked Photobucket if they made any concessions to MySpace and got back a long but essentially content-free reply that boiled down to “we get along very well with MySpace.”

I anxiously await Photobucket’s April Comscore numbers to see how traffic to the site was affected. Early indications from Alexa suggest traffic actually trended up over the last couple of weeks, although the massive press the story received could have had an impact. Comscore numbers will be much more reliable. Regardless of traffic, Photobucket was probably anxious to put this behind them and avoid spooking any potential acquirors looking at the company.

MySpace may have their reasons for ending this, too. They certainly showed that they were willing to execute a larger partner, and widget companies will think thrice before trying to slip any ads into their products down the road (and for the record, its far from clear that Photobucket was doing this). MySpace made their point quite clearly. However, the negative press surrounding the incident was perhaps more than they anticipated. With their point made, allowing Photobucket back in had little downside.

Been hanging around any tipsy MySpace or Photobucket execs lately and hear something good? Let me know.