While I’ve been a bit behind on my buzz tapping for the week, I have been paying some attention to Google’s OpenSocial technology, which appears to be an implementation of the web 2.0 middleware concept that I described a couple of a weeks ago.
This technology may solve the “eggs in one basket” problem for web 2.0 application/widget developers, thus adding some stability to that blooming industry via standardization.
While I’m not surprised that someone sat down and actually made an API to implement a common framework, I am surprised that it happened this quickly. All of the major players, including MySpace, are aboard the OpenSocial train with one major exception: Facebook.
There’s some speculation as to whether Google didn’t invite Facebook to participate in the OpenSocial Platform (as Facebook claims) or whether Facebook simply did not want to participate, believing that it can stand strong against Google and all of the other social networks.
My Take:
Can Facebook beat out Google? Depends on how heavily Microsoft supports them and if Facebook can continue its current growth trend. However, I think Facebook would be insane not to adopt the open API; if it becomes more lucrative and stable to use the OpenSocial API over the just the F8 platform, then developers who are looking to just get started with social network widget/application development are going to move right past Facebook. In addition, given that OpenSocial is supported by Google, a staple of online business an a company that’s not going to disappear anytime soon, it makes OpenSocial a safer bet over Facebook.
Lastly, the number of potential users one can reach via the OpenSocial network is significantly larger than the number one can reach via F8; Facebook has 48-50 million users, roughly, whereas MySpace, an OpenSocial member, has 110 million by itself; Orkut, LinkedIn, and others all contribute additional millions of users, making the potential reach of an OpenSocial application significantly larger than Facebook’s alone.
Bottom Line:
The only risk for Facebook in joining the OpenSocial platform is that it gives Google the ability to dictate the terms and standards; Facebook may lose some of its own flexibility and control over its own platform! However, I still think it would be in Facebook’s interest to go ahead and adopt the OpenSocial standard, simply because they are the odd man out right now, and despite all of the buzz given to them by hapless Web 2.0 hype blogs, they are in a vulnerable position by virtue of the fact that the social network market place is highly unstable. Moving to the OpenSocial platform can only help them increase their stability.
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Comments 5
Facebook’s main draw was its API. Microsoft just spent $240 million for nothing.
Posted 02 Nov 2007 at 10:57 pm ¶That’s the premium you pay when you follow the BUZZ and not the business. Then again, Microsoft is the world’s most profitable company for its size, so it can do what it wants with its capital. If I were an investor who’s counting on dividends though, I might be a tad pissed.
Posted 03 Nov 2007 at 2:51 am ¶Aaron you you picked this as a “Why the hell does this not exist?” weeks ago!! Nice.
Posted 03 Nov 2007 at 8:47 am ¶WHoops. I skipped to the “bottom line” and did not noticed your remarks on the “2.0 Middleware concept”….
Posted 03 Nov 2007 at 8:49 am ¶Cameron,
I have to admit, I felt pretty warm and fuzzy after I read about OpenSocial, knowing that I had “called for it.” Hopefully OpenSocial won’t be a disappointment. I just read on TechCrunch this morning that OpenSocial was hacked within 45 minutes of its first application’s launch.
Posted 03 Nov 2007 at 1:09 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
[...] In Mid-October I wrote about the idea of a “Web 2.0 Middleware,” a technology capable of eliminating the “platform dependency issue” for developers who are interested in developing applications to serve social networks. Within a couple of weeks of my first article Google announced OpenSocial, which, by the sound of it, is more or less the “middleware” that I was calli…. [...]
[...] solution was to form an alliance with all other networks not included in the F8 platform and launch the OpenSocial platform, pitting the might of Google against the buzz of [...]
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