I think this is actually a really safe prediction. Generally speaking, the best way to become a platform is to build a dominant application first and have everyone else build on top of you. Facebook has already done that and OpenSocial has not. Developers want to build for the platforms that are most popular. If you're not as popular as Facebook, it's in your interest to make sure developers can reuse as much of their existing work as possible when they're building apps for your platform.
Also, never underestimate the importance of time. FBML and any derivatives are available now and are benefiting from continued adoption and use. Until the OpenSocial framework is more widely available and adopted, we won't know how truly competitive it is. Every day they wait to release it is a day's worth of ground lost.
Eric Litman
· 1 year ago
Nice, Nick.
I'd prefer to see a RESTian API evolve out of this. Heard any rumblings?
Charlie
· 1 year ago
Interesting...
Going simply on the naming conventions used, I like the idea of a standard "Social Network Markup Language" rather than "Facebook Markup Language".
You appear to be suggesting that Facebook is going to switch to this more neutral-sounding name when you write, "Facebook is going to be the primary competitior to OpenSocial but rather than using the often critized FBML, they will use SNML and SNAPI to take OpenSocial head on."
What are you basing that prediction on?
I agree it would be nice, since the alternative is a world where application developers have to spit out one set of FB* tags for facebook and a set of SN* tags for any site that adops SNAPI. I like that name by the way; it's snappy (sorry, couldn't resist).
Brian Breslin
· 1 year ago
Nick, I think SNAP is the acronym for social network application platforms. So your term works. I think that your prediction is a safe bet. Just wondering when we'll see more robust documentation about bebo's stuff and what other networks might be integrating it.
so how soon before we seen SNML for dummies at amazon or fbml in 24 hours books?
Joe Suh
· 1 year ago
Nick, have you heard when 3rd party developers can port their Facebook apps to Bebo? Is it completely open now?
Anonymous
· 1 year ago
Your logic might be right, but you should be aware that Bebo's platform was nearly complete as a copy of Facebook F8 before OpenSocial was announced, so it's not like Bebo chose F8 over OpenSocial, it was just already in progress.
Nick O'Neill
· 1 year ago
Hi Joe,
I spoke with Bebo today and they said the port will begin taking place in the coming weeks. No hard deadline yet though.
Ken Weiner
· 1 year ago
I hope that Bebo can at least support fb tag prefixes in addition to sn prefixes until Facebook adds support for sn. I dread the thought of maintaining both if I want my app to run in Bebo and Facebook.
Joe Suh
· 1 year ago
Thanks for looking into it Nick. I'm planning to port all my apps as quickly as possible once I have access. I'll look for their launch announcement on your blog ;)
Martyn
· 1 year ago
The opening up of bebo's system will be early january, ie:first 2 weeks.
Basically bebo's sytem doesn't support FBJS,cookies and some fbml tags such as fb:is-it-christmas etc according to my sources.
All Comments
Also, never underestimate the importance of time. FBML and any derivatives are available now and are benefiting from continued adoption and use. Until the OpenSocial framework is more widely available and adopted, we won't know how truly competitive it is. Every day they wait to release it is a day's worth of ground lost.
I'd prefer to see a RESTian API evolve out of this. Heard any rumblings?
Going simply on the naming conventions used, I like the idea of a standard "Social Network Markup Language" rather than "Facebook Markup Language".
You appear to be suggesting that Facebook is going to switch to this more neutral-sounding name when you write, "Facebook is going to be the primary competitior to OpenSocial but rather than using the often critized FBML, they will use SNML and SNAPI to take OpenSocial head on."
What are you basing that prediction on?
I agree it would be nice, since the alternative is a world where application developers have to spit out one set of FB* tags for facebook and a set of SN* tags for any site that adops SNAPI. I like that name by the way; it's snappy (sorry, couldn't resist).
so how soon before we seen SNML for dummies at amazon or fbml in 24 hours books?
I spoke with Bebo today and they said the port will begin taking place in the coming weeks. No hard deadline yet though.
Basically bebo's sytem doesn't support
FBJS,cookies and some fbml tags such as fb:is-it-christmas etc according to my sources.
Any fbml tags do not have to be converted to snml as you can try out by using the snml test tool:
http://www.bebo.com/AppToolMarkup.jsp
don't snooze nick ;)