OpenSocial Findings #1

• Posted by Ian Suttle on November 7, 2007
• Filed under Social Networking

I've been giving a fair amount of attention to Google's OpenSocial platform over the past week.  Here are some notes on what I've learned so far:

• You can build OpenSocial apps as Google Gadgets or on your own.
• Gadgets can be easily added to iGoogle and Orkut.  Not sure how other sites will handle these.
• Orkut, Ning, and Plaxo are the only sites which have exposed any OpenSocial data.
• Authentication can be done via authSubRequest where you receive a token back, or you can collect uname/pw and auth the user yourself server side.
• User data security is an issue: http://hyper.to/blog/link/opensocial-insecurity-no-user-to-app-authentication/
• Running issues list: http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-api/web/opensocial-issues-list 

You have to apply to a host before anyone let's you participate.  Orkut let me in, but Plaxo didn’t let me participate.  They suggested I build my app first, then get back to them.  I haven't tried Ning.

The OpenSocial libraries and data are very buggy right now.  Google is quick to remind us we're part of a closed beta.  I've also read reports of people in different parts of the world having different experience with uptime.  For me, I was able to add my test Gadget to Orkut's sandbox environment and have it work, but it wouldn't work as an iGoogle gadget.

I'm also working on an OpenSocial C# wrapper for server side communications which I'll be hosting with CodePlex at http://www.codeplex.com/OpenSocial.  It's tough to write against OpenSocial when it's not stable, but I'm a glutton for punishment.

If you'd like, feel free to keep track of my OpenSocial bookmarks.

Tags: opensocial
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