OpenSocial: A Social Gaming Revolution?
OpenSocial was a platform developed by Google that aimed to enable social applications to be shared across different social networking websites. This meant that developers could create applications once, and users could access them on platforms like Facebook, MySpace, and Google+ without having to install anything new. However, despite its promise of a unified social experience, OpenSocial ultimately failed to achieve widespread adoption and was eventually discontinued.
What was the concept behind OpenSocial?
The idea behind OpenSocial was to create a common standard for social applications, similar to how HTML and CSS provide a standard for web pages. This would allow developers to create applications that could be used on any website that supported OpenSocial, without having to write different code for each platform. This was intended to benefit both developers and users. Developers would have a larger potential user base, while users would have access to a wider range of applications.
How was OpenSocial supposed to work?
OpenSocial applications used a standardized API, or Application Programming Interface. This API allowed applications to access user data and interact with the social network's features. For example, an OpenSocial game could use the API to access a user's friends list, send them messages, or display their profile information.
Did OpenSocial succeed?
Despite initial enthusiasm, OpenSocial failed to gain widespread adoption. There were several factors contributing to its decline.
- Competition from Facebook: Facebook, with its own rapidly growing platform, had already established itself as the dominant social networking site. It was not particularly interested in adopting OpenSocial and instead focused on its own social graph and developer platform.
- Lack of developer interest: The lack of widespread adoption by social networking sites discouraged many developers from investing time and resources in developing applications for the platform.
- Limited reach: While OpenSocial was supported by several social networking sites, its reach was limited compared to the dominant platform, Facebook.
What happened to OpenSocial?
In 2011, Google officially discontinued support for OpenSocial. The company cited a decline in usage and the increasing popularity of Facebook's own social platform as reasons for the decision.
OpenSocial and Games
While OpenSocial was not specifically designed for games, it had the potential to revolutionize the way social games were developed and played. The platform's open API and its support for different social networking sites could have allowed developers to create games that reached a wider audience and allowed for seamless social interaction.
What are the key takeaways from OpenSocial's failure?
- Standardization alone isn't enough: While OpenSocial had the potential to create a unified social experience, it lacked the necessary momentum and support from major players in the social networking landscape.
- The importance of network effects: The success of a platform often depends on the number of users and developers it can attract. In the case of OpenSocial, Facebook's dominance in the social networking space made it difficult for OpenSocial to gain traction.
Conclusion
OpenSocial was a bold attempt to create a unified platform for social applications, but it ultimately failed to achieve widespread adoption. This highlights the challenges of creating successful open standards in the face of strong competition and the importance of network effects in the growth of social platforms.