Social Networks
Google Launches Social Graph API
Once again, Google makes Microsoft look stupid for buying Facebook stock at Zuckerberg’s ridiculous price. They just launched a social graph API that allows developers to harvest relationship data not just within social networks, but across the open Web through XFN and FOAF.
OpenSocial for widgets, and now Social Graph for relationships: Google is building a suite of APIs to blow social networking out of information silos and wide open across the Web. As demonstrated by Facebook banning Scoble for harvesting his own social graph, that openness is Zuckerberg’s worst nightmare.
Filipinos: Screw Multiply, Use Friendster
While bottom-tier social network Multiply stepped into deep shit by partnering with ABS-CBN, OpenSocial-enabled Friendster is expanding its Philippine office. Friendster serves 10.7 million Filipinos — and despite their history of technical glitches and patent trolling, I like the way they show how people are connected. They’re smart enough to use OpenSocial, they didn’t lure users through illegal filesharing, they didn’t lure users through nontransactional online “storefronts”, and they didn’t become party to a petty network war. Friendster already avoids a lot of the mistakes Multiply makes.
That’s because Friendster focuses on its core business of social networking — from expanding in key markets to adopting the right technologies. Even its patent-trolling is on focus. Multiply, meanwhile, goes half-baked on everything — from ersatz filesharing and content management, to ignoring de facto industry standards, to relying on some silly TV station to sell ad space.
Here’s the bottom line for Filipino social networkers: Multiply is slow to adopt standards, dependent on a TV station, and unfocused as a social network. Friendster adopted OpenSocial early, maintains its own office in a key market, and remains focused as a social network. Multiply serves around 2 million Filipinos, Friendster serves 10.7 million. If you want to connect with Filipinos, then screw Multiply. Use Friendster. That goes for users, developers, and advertisers.
(Of course, to connect with your American friends, use MySpace. Story via Hans Koch.)
