Entries from November 2007 ↓

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Today Google officially launched a new project called Open Social. There have been tons of stories about Open Social prior to today, but there is still a lot of confusion about what it is. Open Social is a set of open APIs that Google is releasing to web application developers to create web apps for social networks like, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, Beebo, etc. To date web app developers have had to recode their applications from one language to another for each of these social communities. Google’s Open Social is trying to make it easier for these developers to port their apps from one community to the next.

What Open Social Isn’t?

Many people think that Google’s Open Social is a new social media network. It is not. It is just a common set of APIs.

Why is everyone saying that Open Social is the Facebook Killer?

To be honest, I think these people are dreaming. Facebook is here to stay. However, Open Social is taking a huge swing at Facebook and it is hitting it right in a very vulnerable spot. Facebook is a closed network that is coded in its own programming language. If developers want to create an application to work on Facebook, they have to use Facebook’s own programming language. This makes it very difficult to port the Facebook application to another social network.

While this will certainly create some problems for Facebook, I don’t think that this it the killer app that brings Facebook down. But, only time will tell.

Why is Open Social good for us?

More web applications. That’s right. These open APIs will allow web application developers to develop a lot of cool new applications. I can’t wait to see what they bring us!!

If you are interested in learning more about Open Social, here are some more great articles.

• Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web
• Open Social - The Social Network For Companies Scared of Facebook
• Google Reputation Management Disaster With Open Social
• Google’s “Open Social”
• Open Social And Web 3.0
• Keeping Up With Google OpenSocial
• OpenSocial: Led by Google. Social Networks Band To Take on Facebook

Do you write about social media?  Well, if you do, don’t miss out on Vandelay’s Website Design’s group writing project.  Vandelay Website Design is trying to compile a list of great articles about social media.  I know I will be submitting some articles.

- Submissions will be accepted through Friday, November 9th.

- You can submit up to 3 posts per writer (if there are too many I may have to limit how many are published from each person).

- Submissions can be new posts or already existing posts.

- I’ll be categorizing them and publishing the collection a few days after the 9th.

- Posts can cover a specific social media site, a specific aspect of social media, or they can be general in nature.