Tim is really getting it right here-- and the analogy drawn here between the withdrawal of the Google SOAP API's in favor of the AJAX widgets is spot on. <p>Google/OpenSocial and Facebook/F8 severely limit the scope of the kinds of social applications that can be built. A widget living inside a controlled ecosystem is not an app! <p>That universal social aggregator we've all been dreaming about (and that friendfeed, readr, plaxo pulse, etc. have been trying for) is never going to happen when the data usage is so restricted.<p>Let me authorize my app (via oauth or similar) and get real data feeds (RSS/Atom/JSON) for me to mash up and leverage as I see fit! Why can't I get an RSS feed of my Facebook friends' news feed (and not just status updates)? And give me the firehose, let a thousand filtering algorithms bloom! Once someone creates a compelling social network host that lets me freely extract and aggregate all my friends' activity streams on demand, that'll be the real social web platform we've all been waiting for, and not just a widget host.<p>I think this is a real crossroads for Google and Facebook-- they've both been nominated as the next "Evil Empire", and how rigidly they control their developer and user ecosystems will determine if we'll learn to love or fear these companies in the next few years. Both have recently taken steps in the wrong direction.<p>NB: Someone should make a try at establishing a "social news feed" standard. An atom extension with an indication of event source, type, priority, etc...
I think Mr. OReilly has an interesting point about how all these different social networks that he is a member of portray an image of who he is... and my belief is that instead of having one ultimate platform such as Facebook with our social graph we might have to see it spread out between different networks ... each network will focus on something specific in our lives, and will hold information about us with regards to that particular niche, topic, group or activities that we have ... for instance I don't think facebook could ever replace Flickr or Ebay, and the two could have many info on me that represent me, my activities, reputation and social graph
"When you go to my Facebook profile, you get the real me. Thats not to say I answer every profile question. I don't. I'm not going to disclose everything about myself. However, the data that is available about me is the most comprehensive, self maintained database record about me on the internet or probably anywhere...."<p>" the most comprehensive, self maintained database record about me on the internet" is not quite the same thing as "the real me" is it? <p>The rest of OReilly's article seems to base itself on where the "real me" resides. On facebook vs something else.<p>All very bizarre.
Also, I think perhaps a more descriptive title is warranted here...<p>waxy's title: Tim O'Reilly on Open Social and Facebook (he nicely articulates why both fall short, while reframing the problem with a solid prediction)