OpenSocial Bandwagon
Published by Rodney Rumford November 2nd, 2007 in Facebook Applications, OpenSocial.
It seems everyone is super excited about the New OpenSocial Platform from Google. I will write more specific and detailed thoughts after I chew on this for a few days. My instincts tell me this is a good thing. Open could potentially be better from a technology perspective. But the bottom line is users could care less about open vs. closed. This is a geek argument.
Users want the best experience. Period.
Companies want brand exposure and they will embrace all platforms that provide an audience.
The fact that it is “open” has some potential value. What does open exactly mean? We still do not know exactly what that means.
While some are saying that Google has scored a big win; I think they have created buzz. Execution and adoption will be the keys here. Will developers build & embrace? Only time will tell.
You can watch the first Google Campfire video here. Google is ripping a page from the facebook developers garages (which have been a huge success).
Will facebook jump on the bandwagon with Myspace, Linked In, Hi5, Ning, Friendster, Bebo…? Possibly. More details coming soon
Technorati Tags: opensocial, facebook
Rodney,
This seems like a media blitz, or PR stunt, from a very worried Google. See my blog for important questions to ask about OpenSocial: http://www.ryanmerket.com/blog
Very interesting stuff here. I didn’t see monetization mentioned anywhere so that should be interesting to see how and if that comes into play. Also it was interesting to hear that MySpace doesn’t have their own API, yet announced that they will be using OpenSocial as that API. I think that alone will shift a lot of the skepticism that people had in Myspace rolling out their own API.
Ryan,
It is a media blitz. If they had no product we could call it a stunt. The real success will be measured in how users engage with whatever apps are leveraged through the platform. I think it is a step in the right direction. But Google is trying to be in the center of everyones world.
Watching the video was painful… I never saw true excitement and passion from the Google people in this video… that is very telling on a psychological level. Peoples true enthusiasm can rarely be controlled. Remember… they are going to make the web better.
Users quite frankly could care less about this whole discussion. The care about 1 thing: Does the application allow me to do things that I want easily. period.
As a side note: Just because they (Google) calls it an industry standard does not make it one. This is a very assumptive and ballsy position and statement to make.
Let’s be clear here. This is Google’s defined standard & not an internet or any governing bodies standard.
It may not be “official governed standard”, but its compelling that they are trying a more open and unified approach (even if the ulterior motives are to benefit Google) because in the end developers and users benefit.
As someone who has spent the last few weeks learning FBML to port our Restaurant Review website into a facebook app, I’m all for Googles direction. We are happy with our first Facebook app, came out, but there were definitely moments of frustration with the FBML platform. Considering I’ve also worked heavily with Googles other apis (Google Maps, Google Search, etc) I have to say I have more faith in Google building a better development platform for social then I do Facebook.
Obviously being able to port our apps to other social sites easily is a huge benefit and Im looking forward to it. Maybe Facebook will join in, maybe they won’t but either way being able to target Myspace, Orcut, Friendster, etc all in one shot will be nice.
Jeremy Almond
Co-Developer of Restaurant Wars
http://apps.facebook.com/restaurantwars
Jeremy.
I agree with the pain you have felt developing specifically for facbook with FBML.
Google’s API’s have been historically solid. But I would expect some growing pains similar to facebook as OpenSocial matures.
Being able to deliver to many social networks at with effectively 1 development cycle will be a huge draw and benefit. I concur with your sentiments 100%.
Rodney Rumford