Google OpenSocial
by Ankur Naik | December 13, 2007 at 1:05 AM
The web is more interesting when you can build apps that easily interact with your friends and colleagues. But with the trend towards more social applications also comes a growing list of site-specific APIs that developers must learn.
OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds.
Many sites, one API
Common APIs mean you have less to learn to build for multiple websites. OpenSocial is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community. The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.
In order for developers to get started immediately, Orkut has opened a limited sandbox that you can use to start building apps using the OpenSocial APIs.
Comments
OpenSocial
Ankur,
I am on the board of the Silicon Valley Web Builders and our group (although I didn't attend) just had dinner with the Google folks to discuss where they are with this. If there is anything particular that you are looking for, please let me know. I will float it by our group and see what I can find out. I'm not a technologist, but rather a recruiter... but I float in this pond and can help with introductions.
Genice Jacobs