Google Code

Update (Nov 1st): MySpace joins Google’s OpenSocial.

More updates: Adding more reference links at the bottom of this entry

Google has announced its open social API. Very interesting. This can be big and a leap forward, converging into one service all social information and activities currently spread out across many social portals and platforms.

Based on TechCrunch:

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:

* Profile Information (user data)
* Friends Information (social graph)
* Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

Note the inclusion of activities (such as Jaiku’s life-streams, and other).

It seems most social players, including Plaxo and LinkedIn are involved, but not involved is MySpace is not, neither is Facebook (which is the typical tendency of protecting their turf).

Related to this see:
* Campfire One: Introducing OpenSocial (YouTube) – good introduction
* Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web
* Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday
* Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web
* OpenSocial details coming out
* OpenSocial makes the web better
* Open Social: screencast and screenshots
* Report from the front: Tonight’s launch of Open Social

Is this another brick on the wall? on Google’s path to complete information “ownership” (see Google owns you (and me too) but now with central access of our daily activities and our friends activities, our profiles and our friends profiles, and how they all connect or relate to each other? Not that I’m paranoid, but it is something to think about. Update: based on Google, all information is not centralized and will reside on their respective containers (i.e. LinkedIn, MySpace, etc).

ceo