In a move of ninja swiftness, MySpace has acquired and subsequently shuttered iMeem in its entirety, even trashing the streaming/sharing music startup's API, which had heretofore supplied much-needed resources to a small but vibrant ecosystem of apps. The acquisition was announced just yesterday, and developers were given no warning that their creations would become useless digital paperweights overnight. Among the detrius of the deal is twt.fm , a popular Twitter music-sharing app created by web dev Lee Martin, who tipped us off to his plight today in a blog post . UPDATE: Users are also reporting problems with blip.fm, a popular music-streaming site that integrated results from iMeem. Sponsor Calling iMeem "one of the best API platforms," Martin, who works primarily in the music space, said that the startup was also "leagues ahead" of similar sites and services in terms of technology and openness. "They represented the music business of the future. Now they are a forced hyperlink to a... MySpace landing page making false promises and giving no guidance or help for the developer community they just destroyed. "Maybe MySpace will return my open streaming API platform... Until then, I'll be brushing the dust off my 1999 Dell computer and getting ready to program music websites like I did 10 years ago." If indeed MySpace doesn't give developers back their iMeem API, will another streaming music service step in to fill that void? Pandora CEO Tim Westergren revealed in a recent interview that because of licensing issues, Pandora is nowhere close to releasing an open API. Last.fm has an API that allows for web, desktop and mobile development - and it's ironic that Last might have the last API for music mashup developers. While we wait for comment from MySpace HQ, let us know in the comments what you think of this news, especially if you're a developer who has been using iMeem's API. Discuss

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MySpace Kills Streaming Music Apps Powered by iMeem's API

We've been keeping an eye on super-simple feed reader Lazyfeed for about six months now. Cofounder and CEO Ethan Gahng wrote us today to let us know about some exciting changes users will see tomorrow morning when the startup launches Lazyfeed Squared, the second version of the product. "In our previous version," he said, "users had to click on updated topics to see what's inside. That is not lazy. And it wasn't fun enough. With the new version, it's not just the topics that update - each topic has its own live updates which show the latest headlines along with images." Sponsor In days of yore , users would type in a tag or single-word search term, and LazyFeed would return videos, photos and blog posts tagged with that term. Users were then prompted to add that term as a topic, which essentially meant the search was saved. The UI looked like a typical feed reader: In September, the site announced support for both RSSCloud and PubSubHubBub protocols, making the product even quicker, in some cases as fast as an IM client. Lazyfeed Squared retains the real-time capabilities of the previous version, but it's a more passive experience, like watching television. "It delivers updates (updated content) of updates(updated topics)," said Gahng. "You don't even need to flick a finger to see what's up with your topics. You can just add stuff and watch live content flow in." Lazyfeed has also eliminated the need to sign up to use the service. "This will make it much easier to recommend Lazyfeed to your friends," said Gahng. "We think this will greatly make Lazyfeed more approachable for first-time users." Discuss

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Lazyfeed Gets Even Lazier: Users Get TV-Like Feed Reader

At this year's LeWeb conference, Pearltrees will launch the beta version of it's bookmarking and curation service. In this beta, Pearltrees will introduce some interesting features for Twitter users. Starting Wednesday, Pearltrees users will be able to connect their Twitter accounts to the service. Pearltrees will continuously scan your Twitter account and index every link you share on Twitter. Currently, shared links on Twitter are often quickly forgotten, but thanks to the new Pearltrees connection, you will be able to easily create an archive of all the links you have shared with your friends. Sponsor We got a chance to discuss Pearltrees and its upcoming launch with the company's CEO Patrice Lamothe in the startup's Paris offices today. According to Lamothe, the average Pearltrees user already spends about 12 minutes per day on the site. According to Lamothe, the company's mission it to give users the option to curate anything on the Web and make it easy to archive all the links and content you share online. You can find our in-depth review of PearlTrees here . Thanks to the new Twitter feature, which will put all of the links you share on Twitter into a drop box on Pearltrees, you can now easily create a complete archive of all the content you share. You still have to organize this content yourself, however. Pearltrees does not feature auto-tagging. Also Coming This Week: Real-Time Updates Starting on Wednesday, Pearltrees will not just allow you to import links from Twitter, but the service will also be able to send out alerts to your Twitter friends when you update your own pearls. In addition, the company will also introduce a new search feature and updates from other users you follow will be updated in real time. It's important to note that Pearltrees' focus is less on following other users. Instead, Lamothe stressed, the real value of the service is in following the content that others users create on the service. API Coming Soon Early next year, the company will introduce an API that will allow developers to access bookmarks and import and export data from other services. The details of this API are still in flux, but will likely allow developers to easily connect other social networks to the service as well. Discuss

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Pearltrees Beta Launches on Wednesday: Will Let You Archive the Links You Share on Twitter