OpenSocial Is Here

As expected, Google announced the new OpenSocial platform on Thursday. OpenSocial will give developers a common set of Application Program Interfaces, or APIs. They can use this to program gadgets that will run on many social networks at once.

Participating networks include Bebo, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, mixi, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

That's a lot of networks, and it includes some of the most popular social networking sites on the Web. Noticeably absent is, of course, Facebook. OpenSocial was created as a response to Facebook's growing popularity.

If you're a developer, you can find information and APIs at Google Code, and Google has set up a sandbox on Orkut at: sandbox.orkut.com.

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