Friday, November 02, 2007

Will Google's OpenSocial API Program Kill Ning? - Mobile Blog - InformationWeek

Interesting take, and certainly at odds with Marc Andresseen's euphoric OpenSocial  posts

As I see it, OpenSocial potentially gives Facebook and MySpace the ability to beat Ning at its own game. Assuming Facebook and MySpace integrate OpenSocial and these APIs give users the ability to create and integrate new kinds of applications and functionalities, why not give users the ability to create their own standalone networks in these respective platforms? Why not launch custom networks on both of these platforms and skip Ning all together?

As I see it, all Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, etc. have to do is add an additional level of interface customization and they can easily take Ning's market right out from under it. Why use Ning when you could build a professional network for a large company on Facebook or a custom network for a movie or TV show on MySpace?

Will Google's OpenSocial API Program Kill Ning? - Mobile Blog - InformationWeek

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