Google's OpenSocial - Explained in Simple English

Hope you heard about the latest initiative from Google to unite all the Social Networking Application developers through OpenSocial. The OpenSocial is live now. Incase if you missed, here is the introduction to OpenSocial

OpenSocial  a set of common APIs that make it easy to create and host social applications on the web. OpenSocial allows developers to write an application once that will run anywhere that supports the OpenSocial APIs.

Global members of the OpenSocial community include MySpace, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

If I write an Application for Orkut using OpenSocial APIs, where else can I run it?

Application written using OpenSocial can run all the social networking sites which support OpenSocial APIs. So your Orkut OpenSocial  application runs on all the above mentioned sites.

 

How is OpenSocial APIs different from Facebook APIs?

Applications written using Facebook APIs run only on Facebook platform. But applications written using OpenSocial will run on the platforms of OpenSocial Partner members.

 

Is the list of members in OpenSocial community limited to the above said 15?

No. It's open to all the web communities. Anyone can join it by agreeing to certain guidelines of OpenSocial. All the major social networking sites are expected to join it soon.

 

Where can I find full list of OpenSocial Community members?

Visit OpenSocial Community Members page.

 

What programming language skills required to learn to develop OpenSocial Applications?

OpenSocial consists of both JavaScript APIs and Google Data APIs.

 

Does OpenSocial require any special markup languages or plug-ins?

No. OpenSocial uses standard JavaScript, HTML, and XML.

 

Can some one give Video demo on OpenSocial?

why not...here is the video presentation of OpenSocial launch event.

 

That's Great. I wan to develop an OpenSocial application for Orkut. How should I start?

Visit Orkut Sandbox Sign up page and register for get access to the Orkut  APIs.