First it was the news that Facebook would become the killer of Gmail earlier this week, now Facebook are in the headlines again as they announce their new partnership with MySpace. It seems we can’t go more than a couple of days without mention of the online behemoth, let alone the hundred odd times we check it a day.

MySpace, who recently under went a radical overhaul of their user interface and branding, now allows users to connect their Facebook and MySpace profiles, in what is being labeled ‘Mash Up with Facebook.’ This new feature now allows users a whole new range of online sharing features, where they will be able to receive updates and follow their favorite unsigned, underground and established artists that MySpace is known for.

Despite being the foremost social network at one time, MySpace has seen a sharp decline in activity, seeing a fall in users of up to 49% in one year, if certain reports are to be believed. However, MySpace has shown it is far more resilient than it’s given credit for. With its new focus as a social network for music, (which it had long been labeled, but never full embraced until earlier this year) it can now benefit from Facebook and its 500 million users, as news feeds continue to play an increasingly big role as a source of website traffic.

This has great benefits for Facebook and their mission to learn everything about you, as it is now able to import even more user data into it’s highly targeted advertising model from the new mash ups and the eventual introduction of the ever present Like button. It’ll be interesting to see how this fits in the recently updated Fan Pages, but no doubt it’ll be in a way which increases user engagement and generates further advertising revenue.