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Google Wants Social Networks to Play Nice Together

by Terrence O'Brien on April 1, 2008 at 09:23 AM

Google Wants Social Networkds to Play Nice
Everyone was Google to simply launch another social network in the coming days. Google's own services (YouTube, Google Maps) have added a host of new social networking features over the last year. Then there are it's traditional social networking holdings: DodgeBall, a pre-Twitter text message based social network, and Okurt, a Facebook-esque site that never caught on here in the US. Just tying all these services together would have made for a powerful social platform (with the help of the Google juggernaut of course). Instead Google has bucked expectations and tomorrow will officially announce OpenSocial, a service which may one day lead to the unification of Google services anyway.

OpenSocial is a set of API's for developers to build social networking applications and widgets around, similar to the the Facebook applications that sprung up in the wake of the site opening its own platform. The difference between OpenSocial and the Facebook API however is that Facebook apps will work only on Facebook. They use a special language that developers must learn and cannot be adopted for another web site. OpenSocial on the other hand is cross platform, meaning any web service that wants to can have OpenSocial applications running on it.

The unofficial list of partner sites and developers is impressive, even if it is missing social heavyweights Facebook and MySpace. Currently the list of host sites includes:
  • Hi5, a social network popular in Central America
  • LinkedIn, the professional networking site that lets middle-aged cubicle dwellers get down with the social networking fad, and make useful career connections in the process
  • Friendster, the granddaddy of MySpace and Facebook that fell out of favor mighty fast
  • Ning, which lets users, of limited technical background, create their own small scale social networks
  • Plaxo, originally an online contact management service that recently went through a major overhaul and added many social networking features
  • Okurt, It would be sort of strange if Google's own social network didn't take advantage of its own platform
Google Wants Social Networks to Play Nice Together
The list of developers is currently fairly small, but is sure to grow. Flikster, Rock You, Slide, and iLike who have created some of the most popular applications on Facebook have all signed up so far.

The question is whether Google and its partners can mount a real challenge to either MySpace or Facebook. In all likelihood this coalition won't be able to topple the twin Goliaths, but with any luck they can pressure them to join the OpenSocial platform. This will not only make developers' lives easier, but will give users more options and access to more powerful and more full-featured widgets for whatever social network they prefer.

From TechCrunch

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