Marc Andreessen’s blog post today has been great at helping to explain what Google’s drive around Open Social. After reading the post, I think Facebook may have found some competition for the first time.
Two important points to note: Yahoo & MySpace are not participating in the war on Facebook - and I do mean it’s a war, as just about everyone else is pushing for open standards (which I totally support!!).
Now the question is: Google & friends vs Facebook - who wins? It’s like the big question of Alien vs Predator in a way 
. I’m going to stick my neck out here, and say that I think Facebook has met it’s match and Open Social will eventually force them to comply with more open standards.
Who knows, maybe the big loser here is actually Microsoft with their $15bn valuation on Facebook!
Allow me to quote my favourite comedian, Russell Peters : “Somebody is going to get a hurt real bad!”
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Comments On This Post
November 1, 2007 at 12:06 am
You have given away the fact you were up late last night watching Alien vs Predator
Do you think Facebook has got to big to adopt a “if you cant beat them, then join them” attitude. Not that I am saying they are going to lose.
Would it be so bad for them to support this idea and be the top social network on the system.
November 1, 2007 at 12:11 am
Ryan - I think it’s a great idea and that the need to adopt it for the sake of developers like us, but realistically, it’s not going to happen any time soon, because they don’t need to right now.
November 1, 2007 at 12:52 am
[...] Open Social : The FaceBook Killer? » This Summary is from an article posted at Vinny Lingham’s Internet Marketing Blog on Wednesday, [...]
November 1, 2007 at 7:02 pm
OpenSocial may help keep Facebook on its toes, but beyond that, I do not believe that it will pose much threat to Facebook’s current level of growth and popularity, especially with the $240 million investment by Microsoft. However, Vinny makes a very good point that one benefit of OpenSocial may be that it will force Facebook to adopt more open standards.
November 2, 2007 at 12:01 am
Hi Vinny
You cannot call Microsoft a loser here. MS has been around for quite a long time to know how competitors attack. For one, the 1.6 percent stake cannot be extrapolated to be called a $15 billion valuation. MS has secured an advertising deal with Facebook.
Now, look at this advertising deal from the point of this news: http://www.techmeme.com/071030/p68#a071030p68
Facebook could be launching a Social ad network that can be even matching up with Adsense..Nobody can be sure how large that can go, but the blogosphere now calls it a $100 billion company!
That’s not it..FB is also coming up with other things like Facebook Music, etc..(http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/31/more-facebook-music-rumors/)
So, I think merely launching OpenSocial is not going to get FB cowed down..All this being said, I am an open admirer of Google, and would love to see it win this battle!
November 2, 2007 at 6:06 am
The loser is actually Microsoft, who has been trying to persuade users to come back to Windows, which used to be a platform, if anyone remembers. Windows was supplanted by the browser, and now giant APIs which use HTML and javascript. This is going to make it even harder for rich client apps to gain traction.
November 2, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Anand - I really think that Facebook have lost the edge on their developer platform with Open Social - the news just keeps getting better - even MySpace has joined - Facebook will have to follow suit, and then Microsoft arguably did overpay - remember that there are other investors following Microsoft’s valuation - that was part of Facebook’s plan - and I think the may be reconsidering the valuation.
November 4, 2007 at 9:43 am
Vinny, even since hearing about Open Social I have been wanting to see your comments / thoughts about this new adventure of Google into social networking sites.
February 8, 2008 at 2:10 pm
How has the open social network progressed so farm, any thoughts?
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