Open Social

November 1, 2007 2:03 PM

Open Social API, coming soon (according to techcrunch) Google will be launching it's Open Social API, designed to allow inter operation between social networks. Social networks like orkut, linkedin, friendster, sixapart (livejournal and vox) and myspace will likely be using the technology. It's supposed to be announced today (at this URL, no less)
posted by delmoi (25 comments total)

If GOOG stock breaks $1000, I think I'll kill myself.
posted by phaedon at 2:15 PM on November 1, 2007

The requested URL /apis/opensocial was not found on this server
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:20 PM on November 1, 2007

OMG U NO BE MYY FRND
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:20 PM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

and myspace will likely be using the technology

Confirmed: MySpace Joins Google Alliance to Counter Facebook.
posted by ericb at 2:21 PM on November 1, 2007

If GOOG stock breaks $1000, I think I'll kill myself.

Nice knowing you.
posted by Mr_Zero at 2:26 PM on November 1, 2007

Welcome to the social!
posted by porn in the woods at 2:29 PM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

So, what, my Google homepage will want me to join the humans to fight the zombies now?

I think all of MySpace and Facebook's applications should be evidence to anyone with some sense who's making a social application: if you let the users customize it, or god forbid, encourage them to customize it, without very strict limitations, then, on average, they will take a shit on the internet.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 2:31 PM on November 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

its
posted by interrobang at 2:36 PM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

screw an opensocial.

what about an ice cream social? huh huh?

with blueberries please
posted by Stynxno at 2:49 PM on November 1, 2007

So once this is done, Google uses whether or not they're your "friend" somewhere, and how far removed, to filter your Gmail for you, I suppose? It's something like that, or ads, right?
posted by davejay at 3:15 PM on November 1, 2007

Dear Misters Google,
Could you please build an online genealogy application for me? I'd really appreciate it. Sure, there are sites like Geni finally bubbling up, but they're all run by marketers and dataminers who seek the valuation of active email addresses and look upon the deceased as loss leaders. You good people at Google seem to be alone in the depth of your appreciation of all information, in seeking to be the world's library. Why squander your power here finding a new way for teenagers to announce that Good Charlotte means everything to them? Imagine if you could digitize historic government (the census, the birth marriage death records, the property records) and church records, all that stuff now held underground in Utah, then give ancestors the ability to index, annotate, and link together mentions of an individual across records. If you could then make it possible for people across the world to collaboratively build profiles of their ancestors supported by these historic records, plus family stories, keepsakes and photography, most of the people who lived in the Western world in the past couple hundred years would soon be linked to their living descendants. What a resource you'd have. Think about it. Thank you.
posted by TimTypeZed at 3:49 PM on November 1, 2007 [5 favorites]

its
Not fair, interrobang. One of those "it's" is not like the other one.
posted by GeckoDundee at 3:49 PM on November 1, 2007

I was pondering when this would appear on the blue, and wondering if the immenant post would include the published, yet still broken link. (Referrring to the last one, in case it does become working in the future.)
posted by ijoshua at 4:39 PM on November 1, 2007

It'll be just like puritan New England again. Where everybody knows everything about you, what a great idea.
posted by 517 at 5:02 PM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

an interactive, web 2.0 geneaology app

Not all that 2.0, maybe, but this might be right up yer alley.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:15 PM on November 1, 2007

Yeah, I've been using geni, and it's really addictive. There are some things that need to be worked out, but even as it is, it's well worth trying. Just uncheck the box that says you want them to send people e-mail.
posted by languagehat at 5:19 PM on November 1, 2007

So lessee... not only do they track my searches, they track my advertising clicks and my IP address, scan my email, and, now, know who my friends are and what kind of tricks they're up to.

Yah, this is really going to end well.

We need secure encryption from keyboard-to-screen. It's way too easy to learn far too much personal information about internet users.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:35 PM on November 1, 2007

I thought Google only did useful and/or cool stuff.
posted by DU at 6:55 PM on November 1, 2007

MySpace Joins Google Alliance to Counter Facebook.

Wow, Tom Google sure has a lot of friends!
posted by dhartung at 9:47 PM on November 1, 2007

and, now, know who my friends are and what kind of tricks they're up to

One of the whole goals of OpenSocial is that you can choose which networks you use, which is part of why a lot of the same groups are working on an open social graph as well. That means you don't have to use any network/service from a company you're not comfortable with, simply because your friends do.
posted by anildash at 11:13 PM on November 1, 2007

So there is no central nameserver keeping track of IPs and names?
posted by five fresh fish at 11:22 PM on November 1, 2007

Nope, OpenSocial is just an API set that anybody can implement (if they want to host applications) or use (if they want to build apps).
posted by anildash at 3:24 AM on November 2, 2007

This looks like a very good idea. I wish they'd release the service provider docs already.
posted by rusty at 7:06 AM on November 2, 2007

Great, now the Facebook API is passe. That trend lasted all of two months.
posted by lsemel at 9:37 AM on November 2, 2007

Ok, so far I've understood that this means that apps will work on all participating social network sites.

What I'm interested in is whether users on one network can now transparently interact with users on another network. Anyone know more about this?
posted by Anything at 9:00 PM on November 3, 2007