The AppExchange Blog - November 2007

• Google OpenSocial and AppExchange

  Nov 1, 2007

  In response to the spectacular response to Facebook's platform, which launched in May, Google has announced OpenSocial, its own set of open APIs and standards to allow third-party developers to build applications on and using data from Google's web properties. There was a good article this morning in the New York Times:

  On Thursday, an alliance of companies led by Google plans to begin introducing a common set of standards to allow software developers to write programs for Google’s social network, Orkut, as well as others, including LinkedIn, hi5, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning.

  The strategy is aimed at one-upping Facebook, which last spring opened its service to outside developers. Since then, more than 5,000 small programs have been built to run on the Facebook site, and some have been adopted by millions of the site’s users. Most of those programs tap into connections among Facebook friends and spread themselves through those connections, as well as through a “news feed” that alerts Facebook users about what their friends are doing."

  This is exciting news for the AppExchange because now, developers can combine the power of Force.com with the OpenSocial APIs to create new enterprise applications on top of social graphs. For customers, this is yet another example of how the lines are blurring between the consumer and business webs. I can't wait to see what our developer community comes up with ... stay tuned for a new wave of "socially aware" enterprise apps on AppExchange!

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