Techno Babble

Rumours and chatter abound about a recent move by Google to release a system for developers called OpenSocial, a new, open, Web API.

There is an in-depth article by Marc Andreessen on his blog at

http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/10/open-social-a-n.html

and further discussion on googlesystem.blogspot.com

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/…/opensocial-googles-apis-for-social.html

In essence, Google appear to be presenting a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. OpenSocial is aiming to provide the framework that will enable developers to develop social applications which can be used on any web-site or social network that supports the OpenSocial standard.

Although there has been no official Press Release to date you can view an article containing an unofficial notice at John Battelles Searchblog

http://battellemedia.com/archives/004058.php

Looks as though a formal announcement from Google will be made in the next day or so.

It may be worth noting mention of the web address (ready for when it becomes available - currently its not live)

http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial