Facebook announces the “Facebook Open Platform” for developers on the anniversary of its’ platform launch.
The facebook developer blog stated:
It’s been quite a year, with over 24,000 applications built on the platform and over 400,000 developers building new social experiences. We see about 140 applications added to our directory per day, and nearly all of our users have added at least one application.
The Facebook Open Platform is opening up parts of its application platform (open source -kinda) to developers. What makes me spill my coffee and laugh in the morning is the FB “open source” includes , the FBML parser, the API infrastructure, the FQL parser, and FB javascript. All of these custom language enablers are only opening up a proprietary social platform called Facebook. So this is more of a opening of a walled garden approach then true open source like Drupal. There will be some real advantages to utilizing the FBopen platform but open source may be a stretch (I guess there will be a new definition of open source soon seeing how even Microsoft is going down this road).
Crowd sourcing startup Cambrian House is headed to the deadpool. The company had a bold concept of letting web users submit ideas and rally around the viable ones. The crowd would get a piece of profits as the idea turned into startup success. A significant problem the business ran into was the following:
A key assumption for us, which proved out NOT true: given a great idea with great community support and great market test data, we would be able to find (crowdsource) a team willing to execute it OR we could execute it ourselves. We needed amazing founding teams for each of the ideas – this is where our model fell short.
-Cambrian House CEO Michael Sikorsky
There is no doubt great ideas are still just ideas if poor execution and lack of commitment is evident. According to TechCrunch, Cambrian House was unable to secure another round of funding and will be liquidating assets and intellectual property.
It is sad to see Cambrian House close the doors with such an amazing concept and one so deeply rooted with similarities to StartupAddict.com.
It looks like the next evolutionary step for Cambrian House is VenCorps
Scoutle a new dutch startup launched earlier this month with an interesting take on how to make automated social networking connections for websites and bloggers. In their words:
Your Scout is your personal webcrawler. He will walk over the Internet and will meet other Scouts. To help your Scout walk, give him some space so install the small Stage on your website. This will not only activate your Scout, but will also bring other Scouts to your website.
What I dig about Scoutle is it takes the concept of data portability or openness of social network data a step further —automating it! I have signed up for and account and will report on my findings. On the surface it sounds amazing to have like minded people know all about me and I know all about them. People I would never have ordinarily met….sounds like real social networking. Now if I could only automate myself to work a room at functions and events.
For more info on how it works check out Scoutle’s video
Google’s Friend connect has launched and gives web site owners the ability to add social features (within an iframe) to their existing websites. The code is a a cut and paste scenario and is not much more difficult then pasting adsense code.
I have to hand it to Google, they continue to create feature rich services that possess consistent UIs (user interface) and dead simple to implement. Friend Connect has a standard sign in and import feature from several social networks like Facebook and of course Orkut.
What is really interesting is that Google used the publicly available Facebook API because Facebook is not part of the open social movement. Friend Connect shows the power of data portability through the use of API’s and open standards.The pre-release of Friend Connect has internal or core social features developed by Google like rating system, friend import etc… users will have the ability to add any application developed for open social by external developers as well.
As far a privacy issues go…..well that continues to be an evolving battle. Google will have the ability to aggregate social information on users much the same way Google has gathered information regarding your website. After all Google is in the advertising business and gathering information is the honey for the advertising bees.
I will be implementing Friend Connect for StartupAddict.com as soon as Google lets me. For those of you new to this blog, StartupAddict.com is a vertical social network for entrepreneurs and startups launched last year. The site is built on open source Drupal and I feel Google Friend connect will add additional dynamic social information to the startup network. More importantly it will allow the existing and new user base to import friends and interact very easily enhancing site growth and eliminating the need for my developers to create drupal modules to facilitate this functionality.
I’m very excited about friend connect and how it will advance the social graph and interoperability among multiple social networks.
Techdirt poses an interesting counter argument to the typical rocket growth conversations among social networks lately, pointing out coincidences like Bill Gates killing his Facebook page on the heels of Microsoft’s recent $240 million FB investment. Techdirt also discusses the current declining growth trend among early adopters in the social networking space including my favorite, Friendster. FYI - If you haven’t read Inc’s spread on John Abraham’s rise and fall of Friendster “the first social network” from last year it is a must read for anyone interested in this space.
Bloggers attack you, call you “a real asshole” and “a very lucky idiot savant.” Former investors badmouth you. Other entrepreneurs copy your ideas without giving you credit. The New York Times makes reference to your “ballooning ego” and the local Fox affiliate can’t even get your name right.
Here is why I’m not buying into the social network counter argument:
I think social networks as we have come to know them are maturing at a rapid pace. User’s are continually barraged with new social media solicitations and sign-ups everyday. In addition, users are tired of spammers and over zealous ads. Companies like Google, Facebook and Myspace are scrambling to bring order to user’s craving more through the exchange of their social graph data.
Social networks are answering in the form of open api’s, portable data, OpenID and advertising models that will actually have standards. The social network has become a teenager (in Internet years) and is going through some growing pains. Most users maintain accounts hoping to take their profile and friend data with them to the next “it” property when the standards and technology is implemented.
Just like so many Gold rush trends in history, the “me-too” brands will eventually join the deadpool through attrition. The social aggregators and social platforms that hold true value propositions and offer real services to their userbase will survive. Monetization through advertising will continue to be the bloodline for the social network, but don’t under estimate what users may eventually pay for real benefits.
Sending a virtual cocktail or electronic poke is fun and viral but does it benefit a user over the long-term? Expanding your rolodex of like-minded people, pooling resources, solving problems and making money as a user through your social network is the stuff that will stand the test of time.
Imo.im is an instant message social aggregator that turns your social network friends (Facebook, Myspace) into IM friends. This will allow instant messaging to occur through Imo.im instead of through a single IM service like AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk. VentureBeat makes an interesting case of a possibly bigger trend:
if services that pair social network data with IM will it eventually render AIM and other IM services obsolete?
I think the bigger trend is correct but I think this trend is still wildly unclear which symbiotic relationship between social, IM aggreagtors and traditional IM will surface. Services like AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk have an enormous userbase built-in and continually rollout “social” services that seamlessly function within the instant messenger environment. The existing IM providers will develop enough social prowess to compete with the big social networks. Compete may be a strong word, but instant messaging services like Gtalk and AIM will continue to go social and force the social network user to go where the useful functionality is. IM in social networks has a lot to be desired and traditional IM has a long working history. Instant Messanging aggregation is a difficult animal because social can go IM and IM can go social, so where does that leave the IM aggregator?
I think Meebo has a huge headstart in this space and is already turning social themselves. Meebo is an aggegator, a social service and distribute killer plug and play widgets that can go in any social network. Meebo is front in center in my netvibes for my IM widget of choice. However I still find myself using traditional IM services…
For example, I have a gmail and yahoo email account….that automatically entitles me to a Gtalk IM and Yahoo IM. I find I use IM because I have email from these providers. Nothing to download, IM is just seamlessly integrated. Yahoo and Google will import your offline contacts and other free email contacts as well. If these services decide to import social network contacts, where does that leave the IM aggregator? VentureBeat nailed the bigger trend in this space and with the web becoming one big open melting pot of services, it begs that question….who will own the killer app? The aggregators or the aggregated.
Monster has plunged into social networking like fellow bellwether Cisco (Tribe.net and Five Across social acquisitions). Affinity labs was purchased for $61 million cash and has a number of specialized social sites. The vertical social networking trend seems to continue, however the fate of these vertical social networks it still unknown and traffic opinions vary widely from a low of 500K uniques a month to over a million.
Let’s hope the trend (and advertising dollars) continue as StartupAddict 2.0 gets ready for final launch.
An awesome spreadsheet by TechCrunch based on an inquiry to Comscore regarding data for social networks from October 2006 to October 2007 and percentage change.
TechCrunch also has a nice founding timeline and funding amount per company. Enjoy!
Opensocial has been getting big traffic since Google’s announcement into the social arena. Myspace along with numerous other social heavy weights have thrown their hat into the ring. I scan a number of blogs on a daily basis and I truly wish I could remember where I saw a graph of Orkut and Myspace teamed up (in terms of traffic) compared to Facebook. I’m sure a blog in my blogroll lineup is the culprit but I cannot think whom? Anyway, it portrayed a crushing blow to the 40 million users of Facebook. I employ you to take a look at how truly amazing opensocial will be for both Google and social networks. Take a look a the campfire 1 discussion below Google orchestrated regarding Hi5, Flixter, Slide and other case studies. It is as beneficial for the social networks as it is the widget makers. This will create such a drastic change in privacy settings and advertising that no one has even had time to think about it yet.
