Google makes social networking power move -- finally

by Juan Carlos Peréz

October 31, 2007 —

Belatedly recognizing the importance of social networking as an online service
and advertising vehicle, Google Inc. this week will unleash its strongest response
yet to the rising threat and skyrocketing popularity of MySpace and Facebook.

On Thursday, Google will announce OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs
(application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed "to spread
social applications across the Web," the company said.

These common APIs have been designed to let developers create social networking
applications that will run on multiple Web sites, simplifying the making and
distribution of these programs.

Partners supporting OpenSocial include various well-known software developers
and social networking sites: Oracle, Salesforce.com, Hi5, iLike, LinkedIn, Slide,
Ning, Friendster and Plaxo. Neither Facebook nor MySpace is on the list of partners
at press time.

The move is also no doubt intended to dilute the massive success Facebook has
had in attracting external developers since it opened up its Web site platform
to third-party applications in May.

About 7,000 such applications have been built for Facebook so far, helping
to make the social networking site more attractive to people and thus boosting
its usage. MySpace recently announced it would follow Facebook's example.

By allowing developers to write an application once and have it work in multiple
social networking sites, the OpenSocial initiative could, in theory, water down
the appeal of Facebook's ballooning applications catalogue.

Once considered a fad of interest mostly to teens and young adults, social
networks have significantly broadened their demographic appeal, attracting many
people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.

Along the way, social networking sites have been created for other purposes
beyond entertainment and staying in touch with friends. For example, there are
social networks tailored for specific occupations, such as doctors, and interests,
such as sports.

Google has had a social networking site named Orkut for several years, but
it doesn't seem to have merited much attention from the company until recently,
and only after the popularity and potential of this type of site became evident.

Google was reportedly locked in a battle with Microsoft over which one would
be chosen by Facebook to buy a stake in the social networking company and earn
a deal to provide advertising to it.

Microsoft eventually won, buying a 1.6 percent stake that values Facebook at
an eye-popping US$15 billion, although the social networking company reportedly
will have revenue of just $150 million this year.

With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from
now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg recently said. About 250,000 new
users register every day at Facebook, which was founded in 2004.

In June, MySpace had 114.1 million unique visitors worldwide, ranking first
among social networking sites, followed by Facebook with 52.2 million [m], according
to comScore. Hi5 ranked third with 28.2 million, while Friendster was fourth
with 24.7 million. Orkut rounded out the top 5 with 24.1 million.

More information about OpenSocial and resources for developers will be available
in this Web
site later this week. There will also be a developer
sandbox.

IDG News Service