Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The web is better when it is social

There is a lot of buzz about Web 2.0. It seems that a new Web 2.0 application is built every day that leverages the brainpower of a community, uses ajax, and enables greater connectivity between people on the internet. Google is working to make standards so that the new social landscape on the internet is seemless by getting developers to agree on standards for building the applications so that websites can leverage each others content. They call it OpenSocial and it's pretty interesting. Read the text below and watch the video for more about the idea and process of using open standards.

-From Google's website
The web is better when it's social

If you've been involved in web development, you've noticed the continued trend towards more social applications. The web is definitely more interesting when you can build apps that easily interact with your friends and colleagues. With this trend has also come a growing list of site-specific APIs that developers must learn.
Introducing OpenSocial

OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. Using standard JavaScript and HTML, they enable developers to create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds.
Many sites, one API

Common APIs mean you only have to learn once in order to build for multiple websites. OpenSocial is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community. The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications.

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