|
The Internet's leading search company Google is rolling out a framework that will allow over 100 million people  to easily combine their online identities and profiles from social networking Web sites and seamlessly use the information at a limitless number of other Web sites, in a program to be released Thursday called Google OpenSocial. Google's new framework will also allow social networking applications to be developed for use on all Web sites that support the open initiative, helping programmers who have hitherto had to customize application code for each individual social networking site. Google's OpenSocial platform challenges leading social networking Web site rivals MySpace and Facebook. Facebook is the most quickly growing social networking Web site, and recently entered into a partnership with leading software maker Microsoft in a deal that valued Facebook at $15 billion and saw Microsoft buy a 1.6 percent interest in the company, as SearchEngineWorld recently reported. In May, Facebook became the first large social networking Web site to open up its service to outside developers, through an Application Programming Interface (API) which has since seen between 5,000 and 8,000 new small programs or "widgets" created for the site. What is OpenSocial? Google's innovative OpenSocial framework aims to do away with the notion that application developers need to customize their code for every social networking Web site, and seeks to end the burdensome practice of having to create separate profiles on each networking site a person visits, often containing the same repetitious personal information. As it stands today social networking widget developers need to learn specific programming for each site they would like to offer their application to, and the time it takes to become familiar with each new system takes away from time that could be spent writing new and potentially valuable code. To these developers Google's OpenSocial platform has the inherent advantage of being a "program-it-once" framework which could quickly spread their work throughout many social networking systems. A Widget Programmer's Dream? OpenSocial is a set of three APIs that will serve as the foundation for Google's standardized development tools to  create applications for social networking sites. As more specialized social networking Web sites go online to augment the large generalized communities such as News Corp.'s MySpace and Facebook, smaller social communities have found it difficult to offer the wide array of user applications available the larger sites provide, however Google's OpenSocial framework appears to offer all sites the ability to use the same applications, a potential advantage which may usher in a new breed of specialized sites sporting the same features as the top industry players. Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike, which developed a popular widget for sharing musical tastes on social networking sites, sees Google's OpenSocial as a positive step. "For months we've been approached by other Web sites that want us to build iLike widgets for them and we've been unable to build it for them," Partovi said recently in a Reuters article. "The benefit OpenSocial offers us is we can essentially ... syndicate what we do to other social networks," he concluded. Developers may find Google's OpenSocial format an appealing way to deliver their applications to new audiences at multiple social networking sites. If OpenSocial  succeeds in making social media applications transportable between sites, certain social networking sites may choose to enter into exclusive agreements with developers in an effort to create an application available only at their particular site. Some developers may not see an advantage to using a system with such a wide potential reach, for example in cases where a widget might not appeal to both the generally younger MySpace users and the largely professional businesspeople using LinkedIn. Google's director of product management Joe Kraus sees OpenSocial as a way for social networking users to easily move among various Web sites. "This is about making the Web more social; how do you have your friends go along with you to any site on the Web?", Kraus told Reuters. The OpenSocial distribution network will allow developers to use familiar JavaScript and HTML code, unlike the specialized code specific social networking sites require, such as Facebook's FBML markup language. Three types of data will be available to OpenSocial developers: - User profile information
- Social graph data about user's friends
- User network activity and news feed information
Over 100 Million Customers Affected Initially Google has signed on partners for OpenSocial which together have about 100 million customers, including the following social networking endeavors: The combined number of 100 million users is more than double which rival Facebook claims, and this could help get Google's OpenSocial platform off to a fast start. A number of developers have also partnered with Google to use the OpenSocial framework, including: - RockYou
- iLike, makers of a popular musical taste comparison widget
- Flixster
- Slide, a leading widget maker for both MySpace and Facebook
Part of Google's Diversification Google will not charge any fees to partners using the OpenSocial framework, according to Kraus, which will allow even small development firms and individual programmers to take advantage of the large reach the platform potentially offers. Facebook and MySpace Could Benefit MySpace has the most users of any social networking site, and has announced plans similar to those of Facebook, aiming to allow developers who create outside applications easier access to its content. Neither of the two leading social networking company's plans appear to operate with the degree of openness Google's OpenSocial framework, which may bode well for Google as it attempts to make a bigger impact in the field than it has so far with its own Orkut social networking site. At the same time Google is seeking to make OpenSocial the platform of choice for social networking developers, it is also trying to make its presence felt at MySpace, where it has a $900 million agreement to sell advertisements. Facebook is expected to reveal plans for its own online advertising network on in New York on November 6, which will bring it further into direct competition with Google.
Google's OpenSocial Framework Takes On MySpace and Facebook Google wants to make OpenSocial's three common APIs a true standard for social networking, and with the official announcement of the platform will come new choices for applications developers. Google has been planning its OpenSocial partnerships since before it lost the bid to become a stake holder in Facebook, which Microsoft won, according to Kraus, who said in a recent New York Times article, "Obviously, we would love for them [Facebook] to be part of it." OpenSocial is expected to be officially announced Thursday evening at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters. Worldwide more than 400 million people use social networking Web sites, Kraus said. "As the Web goes, Google goes. Social is the next frontier," he said in a recent Los Angeles Times article. Many will watch to see how industry developers latch onto OpenSocial and how if affects Google, which continues to do well financially with company stock topping $700 per share, making it the fifth biggest company in the U.S. Related Links:
| 
10:19 am on Oct. 31, 2007 (utc 0)