opensocial

Few answers, debates at a very civil Web 2.0 panel

SAN FRANCISCO--Inside Facebook blogger Justin Smith had quite an opportunity on his hands. He was moderating a panel called "Comparing Social Platforms," featuring five representatives of some of the biggest players on the social Web: Dave Morin of Facebook, Allen Hurff of MySpace, Jessica Alter of Bebo, Patrick Chanezon of Google, and David Recordon of Six Apart. Smith had the chance to be a digital devil's advocate and get a lively debate going.

Why won't Facebook sign on to the OpenSocial standard that Google kick-started? Why hasn't MySpace's developer platform caught on as … Read more

OpenSocial apps now available to Orkut users in India

And now, the latest in social network developer platform announcements: Orkut, the community site owned by Google, has rolled out a directory of applications to its users in India and will continue to expand geographically over the next few weeks.

India, along with Brazil, is one of Orkut's main hubs of popularity; in Brazil, it faces many of the same issues that massive social networks like Facebook and MySpace do in the U.S. Despite having been developer in-house in Google's Mountain View, Calif.-based headquarters, the site has never really taken off stateside. Meanwhile, rival MySpace is currently launching an India-centric portal … Read more

Hi5 gives high-five to OpenSocial Foundation with developer platform launch

Social network Hi5, founded in the San Francisco Bay Area but most influential in Latin America, announced Monday that the application program interface (API) for its developer platform is now live. This means that, as with other social networks that have opened up their code, third-party developers can create applications for the site.

More than 7,700 developers and development companies have already signed on to create apps for Hi5, which has 80 million registered users. (Note that the 80 million refers to total user accounts, not necessarily active ones.)

Hi5's platform is compatible with the OpenSocial standard initiated by Google, … Read more

Facebook says no to OpenSocial, yes to taking your money

There was a strange moment this afternoon at the Snap Summit 2.0 in San Francisco. Dave Morin, Facebook's Senior Platform Manager was fielding some audience questions after spending the better part of an hour giving a very broad overview of Facebook's development efforts to a room full of mostly developers. For many, the event was the highlight of the day in a conference whose very promotional materials were made to emulate the look of a Facebook profile page.

An audience member in the back called Morin out on preaching openness despite the fact Facebook is one of … Read more

In spurning OpenSocial, Facebook loses face

Nearly every time proponents of open standards confront companies clinging to a proprietary view of technology, you know who's going to have the angels on their side. So I'm still scratching my head over Facebook's decision to reply to the new OpenSocial proposal with a raised middle finger.

On the surface, I suppose, Facebook might find the proposal easy to dismiss as yet more industry politics. But it's not every day that Google, Yahoo, and News Corp.'s MySpace decide to create a nonprofit foundation. In doing so, they are pledging to ensure that OpenSocial stays … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 688: I like your photos

I like that photo of you that you posted on Facebook. You know, the private one? Yeah. I saw it. It was pretty cool, although I'd never wear that T-shirt again if I were you. In other news, Netflix DVDs are coming late! The end of the world is nigh! Also, the DOJ approves the XM-Sirius merger and Sony BMG wants to get on your iPod in a decidedly nonrootkit way. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 688

Netflix glitch to delay deliveries http://www.news.com/newsblog/8301-10784_3-9902294-7.html

XM, Sirius move closer to improbable merger http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120638514923860085.html … Read more

Facebook ignores OpenSocial, embraces Windows Live Contacts API

Now that Yahoo has finally and officially signed on to the OpenSocial API bandwagon (see Techmeme), the company that Microsoft might buy has joined with MySpace.com and Google to create the OpenSocial Foundation. Facebook is still missing in action, considering whether joining the OpenSocial Foundation is in the best interests of its membership--or its own platform.

OpenSocial provides a useful piece of functionality, solving a developer problem by allowing applications developed with the APIs to run on different services without modification--write once, play many. A photo-sharing application could tap into the social graphs of Orkut, Bebo, MySpace, Ning, or … Read more

Yahoo, Google, MySpace form nonprofit OpenSocial Foundation

This post was expanded at 10:49 a.m. PDT to add comment from the OpenSocial Foundation conference call.

It's like the Justice League of social media: Google, Yahoo, and News Corp.'s MySpace.com announced on Tuesday that they have formed the OpenSocial Foundation, a nonprofit group to support the OpenSocial initiative that Google kick-started last year to promote a universal standard for developer applications on social-networking sites.

The OpenSocial Foundation is expected to be formed within 90 days, with more OpenSocial partners from across the Web on board in addition to the three responsible for the announcement.… Read more

eComm conference: The conversation is entering the mobile realm

I caught a few of the later sessions today at the Emerging Communications (eComm) conference in Mountain View, and the program was pretty good. The rigorously enforced commitment to micro-formats--a mix of five-minute lightning talks, 15-minute sessions, and 20-minute keynotes--worked out well: The presenters were forced to condense their thoughts to the core, and a wide range of viewpoints could be heard during the course of the day. Even the five-minute shorts were informative and sparked follow-up conversations.

For Luca Filigheddu from abbeynet, the five-minute limit was a natural fit for his topic, "Micro Video-Blogging and the Future of … Read more

Yahoo warming up to OpenSocial; Facebook staying cool

Google's OpenSocial APIs may be gaining a major new adherent this week. According to the New York Times, Yahoo is expected to join the group that includes MySpace, Plaxo, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut, LinkedIn, Six Apart, Oracle, salesforce.com and Ning, among others. In fact, Facebook is the only major social networking platform that has not joined the OpenSocial club.

OpenSocial allows applications to tap into the social graph, the network of friends and their feeds, of multiple social networks without code rewrites.

Speaking with CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival over the … Read more