Everyone headed to more complex social graphs, opening up API’s and dipping into advertising.
Google To “Out Open” Facebook On November 5
On November 5 we’ll likely see third party iGoogle gadgets that leverage Orkut’s social graph information – the most basic implementation of what Google is planning. From there we may see a lot more – such as the ability to pull Orkut data outside of Google and into third party applications via the APIs. And Google is also considering allowing third parties to join the party at the other end of the platform – meaning other social networks
Facebook Has LinkedIn In Their Crosshairs
And now Facebook is quietly making changes to their data structure to allow for the concept of “networking.” Currently on Facebook, users can say they are looking for friendship, dating, a relationship, random play or “whatever I can get.” But networking was recently added as a desired relationship type to the API (note that it is not yet an option on Facebook itself yet).
Counterstrike: Murdoch, DeWolfe Announce MySpace Platform and New Privacy Controls
Like Facebook, MySpace will soon allow the notion of different types of friends (family, friends, business contacts, etc). When accepting someone as a friend, you can also set the friend type. When that person visits your MySpace profile, the information they see will be based on the type of friend you are – resume type stuff for business contacts, drunken frat party antics for your college friends, etc.
