SAN FRANCISCO -- MySpace announced Thursday it is opening the gates of its popular online community by letting users automatically transfer profile information to other social-networking websites.

MySpace said it will kick off a "data availability" project in coming weeks by letting members share profile information with Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter and that it is open to working with arch-rival Facebook.

"The walls around the garden are coming down," said MySpace chief executive Chris DeWolfe.

"We, alongside our data availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide."

Social-networking website devotees are renowned for devoting vast amounts of time and energy to customizing profile pages with pictures, videos, written musings, music, and links to blogs, websites and friends.

Instead of having to repeat such efforts at multiple websites, MySpace members will be able to select which personal details to transfer using mini-applications installed on partner websites.

MySpace will be the "engine" for the data, letting members synchronize updates across as many websites as they wish or remove information whenever they desire.

"The main thing MySpace gets out of this is we are able to promote more open and social Internet," DeWolfe said during a conference call with news reporters.

"We believe that the more open and the more social the Internet becomes the better it is for MySpace," DeWolfe said during a conference call with news reporters.

"We are happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with us on this project, as with any group that wants to work with us."