Google’s OpenSocial Arrives Tomorrow

OpenSocial, Google’s new social networking project, launches tomorrow. OpenSocial isn’t really a social network itself, rather it is a set of common APIs which application developers can use to create applications that work on any participating social network. Or perhaps you can say it’s one network to rule them all. What OpenSocial does is let software developers like Flixster, iLike, RockYou, and Slide write programs for social networks like Google’s own Orkut, as well as LinkedIn, hi5, Friendster, Plaxo, Salesforce, Viadeo, and Ning. These participating networks let the developers access core information like user profile information, friends information, and activities.

Clearly, OpenSocial seems a response to Facebook’s growing popularity as a platform, attracting developers who write apps just for Facebook. This allows the other, less popular networks a way to compete. However, poised as competition such as it is, what will be the incentive for the larger networks like MySpace and Facebook to join? That probably won’t happen, making OpenSocial less of the unifying force that it proposes to be.