Google launches OpenSocial in challenge to Facebook

[mandy]

Google and some of the Web’s leading social networks are teaming up to take on the new kid on the block — Facebook.

On Thursday, an alliance of companies led by Google plans to begin introducing a common set of standards to allow software developers to write programs for Google’s social network, Orkut, as well as others, including LinkedIn, hi5, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning.

The strategy is aimed at one-upping Facebook, which last spring opened its service to outside developers. Since then, more than 5,000 small programs have been built to run on the Facebook site, and some have been adopted by millions of the site’s users...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/techno....html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1193860983-UAg/11RZaOqTXTvbcafCeA&oref=slogin

more:

This could be a direct attack by Google (GOOG) on Facebook’s F8 platform — an attempt to combat a giant among social networks by bulking up potential competitors like its own Orkut or, more likely, by building a super-network composed of multiple competitors. That’s what it tastes like on first bite.

Perhaps Google’s longer-term strategy, though, is to weaken dedicated social networks like MySpace (NWS) and Facebook not by animating a Frankenstein-style competitor but by spreading social features everywhere, sucking out the social life in drips and drops. If every application and web site is social, Facebook becomes just another place to socialize online, not the one that rules them all...

full article: http://gigaom.com/2007/10/31/google-to-f...ial-blood/

still more:

What They’re Launching

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:

    * Profile Information (user data)
    * Friends Information (social graph)
    * Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

Hosts agree to accept the API calls and return appropriate data. Google won’t try to provide universal API coverage for special use cases, instead focusing on the most common uses.

full article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/30/det...cial-apps/

[mandy]

A related commentary:

I find last week's news that MySpace is bringing the chips and dips to Google's OpenSocial party a little chilling. I'm all for open standards and cross-platform compatibility. It would be nice to connect my button-down business colleagues on Linked In with my hang-loose pals on Friendster, even if it's only to throw a sheep at them.

But do not be fooled by the 'open' rhetoric. Pay no attention to the nice man in the Google polo shirt. This isn't about freedom, this is about data. Social networks are really just rich deep pools of personal information, and everybody wants to cast out a hook and reel you in. Marketers are salivating at the chance to sell you something based on that silly profile you filled out in a drunken haze one night on Bebo.com. If they can get at it simply by having you complete a stupid movie quiz or play a silly game, so much the better.

The problem: If they can get at this data, what's to stop the next dumb-as-a-fence-post affiliate spammer from doing the same? Nothing more than a few bland assurances that "we take your privacy very seriously" and "the security of your personal information is our top priority." We know how well those policies work in the real world...

full article: http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcring...ocial.html