So Google has recently finally unveiled it’s plans for social networking OpenSocial. About time if you ask me… but what should be noted, that Google have once again gone and done something no one else has. Instead of creating a new Social Network (yet another one) with the hope that people will join it, leaving MySpace and Facebook… Google have instead decided to put together a solution which will ensure interconnectivity between different sites by sharing the same API’s across them all.
What this means to everyone is simply… users will be able to move from site to site, adding applications which work together (no longer proprietary to a site).
When Facebook opened it’s APIs to developers earlier this year, the impact was clear. People were hungry to create their own apps which run on the popular social networking site. Number of applications grew exponentially with both individuals as well as well known companies developing applications that run in Facebook. Well Google saw this and realized that it was only the beginning and in fact the next level would be to allow for sites to use the same APIs, greatly reducing developer resources needed.
Now some sites have decided not to join Google “at this time” such as WhyGoSolo and have stated the reasons behind that decision. While I agree that these reason do make sense, I think eventually APIs working together will end up the right answer. I compare this to the IM situation where we have 5-6 big IM players who continue not to work together (yes, I know MSN and Yahoo have joined to allow users to chat with each other).
I believe the having open APIs for all Web 2.0 services and sites should be the required norm, and by creating a common sandbox from which sites can develop APIs only makes sense. It’s better for the user, and ends up being better for the sites. This is just the beginning, OpenSocial has already attracted some very large players including Plaxo, LinkedIn, Friendster, and now MySpace… can Facebook be far behind? And what about the other types of services such as the Twitters, Jaiku (now owned by Google), and Pownce… I think we are in for an interesting time and this is what Web 2.0 is about… collaboration of data, development and ideas. Now the Internet is finally getting interesting. Game on.
