Google Almost Announces OpenSocial

It seems details are leaking about Google's new OpenSocial application API.

It also looks like the launch date for Open Social will be on Thursday which is what was rumoured at the end of September.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn't sound like what I was hoping for. I was hoping that there would be Application Services, Data Services and Mashup-Services and that you could do it on your own site anywhere.

From what I can tell, the Application Services and the Data Services will be there, but the Mashup Services won't be. This is because the final point above - being able to host your services anywhere - doesn't seem to be allowed.

So far, it looks like the API is for Application Services to be embedded into the Data Services' own website. Limiting or what?

As you might be able to tell, I'm a little miffed about that since for me, the big adventure was to open up where you can host your applications/mashups and not just copy Facebook's walled-garden approach and embed all the applications within one site.

It looks like my initial look at OAuth will be the thing that now excites me most and I'm going to have to start reading a bit more about it. I feel that this can be used for what I would like to see in the real Open Social scene ...

... and what is that? ...

... that the Data is open (using proper Authentication of course), and not just that the Application API is open.

The fact that an Application API is open really just means it is a standard and nothing more than that.

Things have changed in this day and age. The application doesn't matter anymore because the web is the application. Not one site. Not a few sites, but the whole web.

And while we used to say Content is King, in reality these days Data is King, or even more specifically Social Data is King.

Over the next few days, I hope to learn a little more about Google's OpenSocial and I'm almost preying it isn't what I think it is now.

Labels: google, open-social, planet-geek, planet-catalyst, oauth, magnolia, social-graph

Inserted: 2007-11-02 10:00 (4 years, 3 months ago)

2 Comments

1. Jason

I'm just as excited by OpenAuth. The most boring part of a service (for me) is the account management. I don't want to convince someone to create a new account. I don't want to have to convince them to enter all their contacts into yet another web tool.

OpenAuth gives me a way to let them keep their data somewhere else, and let me have access to it. Awesomeness!

Inserted: 2007-11-02 10:33 (4 years, 3 months ago)

2. Jason

Hrm, not so impressed now. I was looking for more than they gave, and they missed the biggest social network that Google has! GMail! I've got a tonne of applications that would be a lot nicer if I could piggy-back on someone's already entered contact list.

Perhaps I missed something. :)

Inserted: 2007-11-05 11:42 (4 years, 3 months ago)