Will Facebook Die? Maybe.
Everybody’s writing about OpenSocial, Google’s new initiative to build applications for social networks, comparable to the Facebook Apps.
Ning, an American micro Social Network creator, is a part of the project together with some other notable names. Ning’s founder, Marc Andreesen, who also founded Netscabe, explains the concept in this way:
# “Containers” — social networking systems like Ning, Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, and Friendster, and…
# “Apps” — applications that want to be embedded within containers — for example, the kinds of applications built by iLike, Flixster, Rockyou, and Slide
Andreesen says, Facebook is using proprietar languages and APIs called FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and FQL (Facebook Query Language). OpenSocial will be using HTML and Javascript!
I think OpenSocial is the right step into the things I mentioned in my article “Introducing the future of Social Networking“. I think it’s necessary for Social Networks to open for third party developers and let users add apps to their profiles.
A few days after the deal, Myspace joined the alliance.
And I think I like the project’s slogan: “The Web is better when it’s social”. That could be the slogan for the new Web which is open. I don’t know how to call, but maybe we could call it Open Web. It’s
Ah, to mention the headline in my text: I don’t think Facebook will die. I think they are the innovator for the Open Web - they were initiating a reform! And the reform is changing the Social Networks.