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Apple and Facebook Tangle Over Ping

by Terrence O'Brien on September 3, 2010 at 10:45 AM

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The key to ensuring our computing future is a pleasant one is based on interoperability and cooperation between varying platforms and products. But, rather than come together (right now), it seems that companies are intent on further fragmenting our digital existence. Facebook is battling Google, Google is at war with Apple and everyone is throwing rocks at the throne of Microsoft. So you'd think that alliances, no matter how uneasy, would be something to cherish and preserve. Which makes Apple's foray in to the social networking sphere that much more perplexing.

With Facebook and Apple sharing a common foe in Google's social networking, browser-building empire, it makes little sense for the makers of the Mac to step on the toes of the enemy of its enemy (i.e. its friend). It would have been simpler, and probably more cost effective, for Apple to simply piggyback off of Facebook and build a music service on top of the existing social empire. Instead, it made Ping as a standalone service. Ping may not pose a direct challenge to Facbeook, but Jobs made no effort to hide his displeasure with the reigning social networking king, calling the company's terms "onerous" in discussions with reporters following Wednesday's press event.

Adding a layer of intrigue, Facebook decided to block Ping users from connecting with Facebook friends on Thursday. According to All Things D, Facebook shut down the access because Apple was hammering its find-your-friends API. While access to the find-your-friends service is generally open, sites that would send a large amount of traffic through the APT must sign a contract with Facebook guaranteeing it will protect user data and limit network impact. Apple apparently refused to sign such a deal, likely because of those "onerous" terms, but went ahead and used the API anyway. Facebook released a statement saying it was working with Apple to resolve the issue. Relations between the two companies might be chilly for a while, but we wouldn't expect this to escalate. Neither has anything to gain from going to war with each other, and Google would surely take advantage of such a situation if it were to arise.

Tags: itunes, itunes 10, Itunes10, ping, socialnetworking, top, web

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