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Bhopu / Tags /
Building Social API
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Posted On
Dec 15, 2007
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 Most of us must have become aware of companies these days making an attempt to craft some very remarkable offerings in the social Networking Space. Majority of businesses believe that social networking will infuse their practices with everything around. You take my example; I must have signed for more than 20 social networks and member of different Web 2.0 community groups. In the last few months I have been keeping track of the apparently never-ending flow of news and blog coverage about Google's new OpenSocial model for social networking applications. A lot of specialists have remarked this Google’s move, as a shot to corner Facebook. To me this is a captivating set of developments to watch since Google's own growing social networking platform, Orkut, was overshadowed by Facebook in terms of overall traffic back in September.
Google’s OpenSocial
This OpenSocial by Google is an effort to introduce more influential, invasive social capabilities for the web, enabling developers to build applications for users to enjoy regardless of the websites, social networks or web applications they use. OpenSocial is said to be the first time multiple social networks under one common API, to further make development and distribution easier and more efficient for developers. This platform offers a single park of APIs for developers to learn for their applications to run on any OpenSocial-enabled website, helping to speed innovation and introduce more social features across the Internet. Sites which have already stanched support to OpenSocial include Bebo, MySpace, orkut, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, mixi, Oracle, Ning, Plaxo, Tianji, XING, imeem, Six Apart, Viadeo and Salesforce.com, representing around 200m users. Developers such as iLike, RockYou, Slide, Flixster, FotoFlexer, Theikos and VirtualTourist have already built applications using the OpenSocial APIs.
Why did Google introduce OpenSocial?
As the most trafficked website in the country and the most popular social network in the world, MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web. Google realises that growing strategic relationship with MySpace and by joining forces can be an important initiative towards more success.
Google goal is to help shape the standards used between developers and social networks. Likely the move came from being shutout from Facebook. Not only did Google not get a piece of the social network, but Facebook uses a proprietary API that requires developers build apps specifically for it–sounds much like cell phone companies, doesn’t it?
As per reports from Techcrunch and NYT, initial social network partners signed on include Orkut, LinkedIn, Ning, Plaxo, Friendster, Saleforce, Hi5, Oracle. Application developers inlclude iLike, Flixterm Rock You, Slide. With Google's move to become the primary platform for social networking-based applications, however, Microsoft appears to have changed course. Late Thursday came news that MySpace would join Google's newly announced OpenSocial API platform, handing a huge win to the search giant. Bebo and others like Friendster are also joining Google.
Some essential things you should know about OpenSocial
As said by Don Hinchliffe here are few things you absolutely have to know about OpenSocial to have an outlook in relation to it:
OpenSocial only offers the lowest common denominator, not the full richness of each social networking platform
While application developers can create apps using the OpenSocial model and they will be able to run on dozens of different social networking sites, OpenSocial can't help you leverage the full capabilities of the site it runs on. Social networking site APIs aren't anywhere as complex as say, the Windows APIs, but we've seen this before with platforms such as Java, where the development model can't support the full capabilities of the underlying operating systems. Like Java, write once, test everywhere is the name of the game for OpenSocial and while economies in this model certainly exist, a single universal widget model tends to discourage product differentiation in favor of broad distribution. This means to get at the full richness of the underlying platform and create a competitive product, you have do custom coding for that site and you've just broken the reason to use a common application model.
OpenSocial is simple and straightforward but also capable of developing full-blown, rich Internet applications. 
And without server-side infrastructure. Developers can simply innovate with a few bits of markup and procedural code and drop it into the OpenSocial ecosystem and leverage the massive audiences and scalable infrastructure of OpenSocial compliant sites. OpenSocial even supports powerful interactive Web user interface models like Ajax explicitly. Like we saw last year, with the new productivity-oriented Web development platforms, this will change what's possible while also creating mountains and mountains of relatively useless, uninteresting apps amongst a few real gems. But a lot more wildflowers will bloom on the OpenSocial landscape and some will likely rise up and show us how useful these applications can be.
OpenSocial is from Google and excessive philanthropy should not be expected.
Google almost certainly thinks OpenSocial will ultimately be very good for Google, if not outright bad for a few others (probably Facebook). While the openness is encouraging, if OpenSocial is successful, Google has a plan to make that success work for it. Those plans may not always be to the benefit of everyone playing under the OpenSocial umbrella. User beware.
A new era in competency in social software is being ushered in by models like OpenSocial.
A lot more social applications are being created because of open social platforms have become so popular. But building successful social applications is a lot different prospect from building traditional business and consumer applications. Expect that many developers and software designers will fail to build applications successfully until we learn that a different focus and way of thinking is required. I've written before about the basic rules for building good social applications, but these are just the beginning. Understanding people is the key to building effective social networking applications, and that is often the hardest thing for us in an industry obsessed with connecting with each other via 1s and 0s.
My suggestions to Google
People don’t join social networks (Facebook or MySpace) to add apps to their profiles, and they’re not going to migrate elsewhere for the sake of a different API. No one is going to think, well, my friends are all on Facebook, but Orkut lets me help some third-rate startup monetize its assets by scattering random widgetjunk across my public profile… so it’s Orkut for me!
We have to agree no matter how "open" or "social," these apps will try to be, I just don’t see them being a selling point for prospective members. However, Google and Facebook should keep in mind that current members may really enjoy these options—and creating passionate users is just as important as converting new ones.
Google has fixed a meta-platform strategy, don't turn around -- Microsoft style -- and take advantage of their inside knowledge and control of the Open Social architecture to crush competitors.
Some Related Articles:
Essential Things about Google OpenSocial
Google OpenSocial Launch
Google launched Open API
Google to Out Open Facebook
Expectations from Google OpenSocial
Thanks Google for OpenSocial
Google Open Answer to Facebook
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