DISQUS

a reader · 2 years ago

I don't understand why you seem so defensive against this announcement (both here and on other site comments). Relax. As Marc said in his post, whether or not facebook joins this initiative it's a good thing for facebook (and, more importantly, for us all).

The 'coalition of the willing' may have been a coalition of nobodies, but who was leading it? Regardless of the immediate support, this is a great initiative by a great company.

Nick O'Neill · 2 years ago

Hi reader,

I completely agree with you that this could be big given the power of Google. What I was simply questioning was whether or not this is it all going down tomorrow? It's not and this is going to be a drawn out process not an overnight event. It was portrayed by the media (primarily Google's PR group ... not just the other blogs) as being a huge launch tomorrow.

That helped them get a bunch of press by spinning the story. Great move by the Google PR team but it's a bit misleading. No?

Best,
Nick

Nick O'Neill · 2 years ago

If anything, I should have been more critical of the PR team and not as much the people that simply reported about it. That's the main point of this post in addition to a little bit of embellishment ;)

Nate Too · 2 years ago

Nick, I have not seen anything to lead me to believe that GOOG PR was behind "the rumors". If anything, you and the rest of the blogisphere gave this more PR than anyone could have. It really doesn't matter what day the announcements are made and what day the code is finished and revealed. What matters are the months ahead: will FB get any traction with advertisers?

You seem highly critical of GOOG as the giant and none to skeptical of FB as the underdog. I can't even call FB a David at this point. All they are is potential. Unproven potential at that. THAT is the story here.

Nate Too · 2 years ago

Honestly, it's the title of your post that is entirely misleading.

Nick O'Neill · 2 years ago

Hi Nate,

I just wrote a post that says that OpenSocial still has a chance of succeeding. I don't want to discount them. Honestly though, the initial stories were all based on a Google press release that you can read here:

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

I'm sorry but there is nothing misleading about my title at all.

Best,
Nick

Nate Too · 2 years ago

Nick, we don't know if someone up at the top or someone in the trenches leaked this to Battelle. This is not a GOOG press release. Therefore, it's innuendo. Rumor. And the blogisphere spread it. That was my point.

Nick O'Neill · 2 years ago

Nate,

You say that as if you work at Google but your email address is a Yahoo one. Additionally, it definitely was a real press release because it's the same one the NYTimes used to create their article.

Best,
Nick

Nate Too · 2 years ago

Look, we can agree to disagree. It says and looks like a GOOG press release but it is dated Nov 1 and was posted by Battelle Oct 30. At best it was leaked, (granted, possibly intentionally by someone high up at GOOG but we just don't know), at worst it was fabricated and we will never see an official version from GOOG. In any event, it was not "officially" released by Google: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/

Nate Too · 2 years ago

....and therefore should not be relied upon as official company news.....

Nick O'Neill · 2 years ago

Lol ... you must not have dealt with P.R. people

Nate Too · 2 years ago

MySpace and Google Join Forces to Launch Open Platform for Social Application Development


Collaboration on ``OpenSocial'' to Spark and Simplify Web Innovation


LOS ANGELES & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov 01, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- MySpace, the world's largest social network, and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today announced that they are joining forces to launch OpenSocial-- a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications. Today's announcement underscores MySpace's commitment to supporting standards that foster innovation in an increasingly social Web.

Nate Too · 2 years ago

We're all citizens of a larger Web--no network is an island onto itself," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace. "We look forward to continuing to develop great technology with Google and all of the OpenSocial participants. It's exciting that social networks are getting social with each other."

The launch of OpenSocial is the first release of technical details for the forthcoming MySpace Platform. Starting tonight, developers can start writing applications for OpenSocial at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial which the MySpace Platform will support at launch.