The Underscore Archives

Despite sounding like a mid-90s clubbing experience, here comes Google
with its Open Social set of APIs.

"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."
http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/

Think "the Facebook app platform", but opened up to any social network
that chooses to add Open Social support.

""OpenSocial is great. The user benefit is a shorter cycle before they
see cool new apps and ways to spend more time on social networks
independent of the network they are on," Levchin explained. "The most
powerful implication is for developers. They'll have less worry about
in terms of complexity and back end integration."

On the technical side, Levchin said the OpenSocial APIs are well
designed, with sophisticated distributed computing happening in the
browser, serving applications from multiple sources, such as services
passing through Google and Slide in a hi5-hosted container. "In
essence, it's pretty impressive," Levchin said."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=6824

Tim