Google starts linking social networks

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Let’s see. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Upcoming, Pownce, Plaxo, Yelp, MySpace, Flickr, Dopplr, and a few others.

The problem? They don’t know about each other.

Google, today, with its new Social Graph API, is trying to hook all of those together.

Another problem? If you’re a developer and build a “foograph” your new application doesn’t have anyone on it. There’s nothing lamer than a new social network that has no one on it.

Google’s new effort lets you import friends from other social networks into your new application.

The details are on the new Google Social API site (the sample apps should be turned on shortly but weren’t working when published this blog post) with more background from Brad Fitzgerald on the Google Code blog.

The problem is that for apps to be able to sense all your connections you’ll need to add (rel=”me”) tags.

Mike Arrington at TechCrunch has a few more details on this announcement.

In the test that they ran for me it showed about half of my social networks. I expect that will increase pretty rapidly as more social networking systems support the “rel=”me”” system.

UPDATE: Plaxo just shipped the first app (they claim) using this new API.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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31 thoughts on “Google starts linking social networks”

  5. Pingback: Google’s Social Graph API + Open Social API = Social Data Portability? | Gauravonomics Blog
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  9. I love the sound of this, certainly – I have at least one friend with five or six connections between us (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and her blog’s RSS feed, as well as friend status on a few forum sites) and being able to copy relationships around would be very welcome.

    (Rant from European about how evil Google is and how this breaks EU law in 3, 2…)

    Like

  10. I love the sound of this, certainly – I have at least one friend with five or six connections between us (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and her blog’s RSS feed, as well as friend status on a few forum sites) and being able to copy relationships around would be very welcome.

    (Rant from European about how evil Google is and how this breaks EU law in 3, 2…)

    Like

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  12. Robert,

    As always, top notch insight. I wonder at what we might call “the cart before the horse” syndrome.” In integrating all these services Google has done something fantastico, but should these services not be focused on the quality of data involved rather than how to “migrate” a beer to someone from Facebook to Twitter?

    I think that if we begin a discourse on this issue, then perhaps we will have some data to traverse the web with. Not to seem to critical, but should we not focus some on taking this Web to the next level?

    Always,

    Phil

    Like

  13. Robert,

    As always, top notch insight. I wonder at what we might call “the cart before the horse” syndrome.” In integrating all these services Google has done something fantastico, but should these services not be focused on the quality of data involved rather than how to “migrate” a beer to someone from Facebook to Twitter?

    I think that if we begin a discourse on this issue, then perhaps we will have some data to traverse the web with. Not to seem to critical, but should we not focus some on taking this Web to the next level?

    Always,

    Phil

    Like

  16. If Microsoft would have done this we would up in arms….
    Google does not control the relationships or the api……Just like they dont control any of the content that they spider that does not belong to them…..and turn this content that they dont own into billons of dollars for Google and very little for the original creators of the content….If goog is so good….why don’t they open source the entire project and create a non profit to run “Open” Social….They will not do this because they want to corner the market on the indexing of relationships that should be owned and controlled by the end users and not Google…Will Google ask me for permission to crawl my relationships ?

    Can I delete my relationships from the Google servers…The data is on Google’s servers….and they are a company…so they do own the data…
    ….How is this better than facebook ?

    Did Google contact any of the other companies that have social networks to ask them for their input ?
    No….

    Will there be a standards committee that allows end users and companies other than Google to have some input into “Open” Social..Dont hold your breath….its not going to happen…

    Any initiative to deal with a “Social” Graph should not be run by anyone company…Google is a company and we should stop fooling ourselves that they are in business for the public “Good”.
    Google is in Business to make money and this means that by their nature they will try to dominate with little to no regard to any notion of an open standard that would even the playing field for their competitors.

    Like

  17. If Microsoft would have done this we would up in arms….
    Google does not control the relationships or the api……Just like they dont control any of the content that they spider that does not belong to them…..and turn this content that they dont own into billons of dollars for Google and very little for the original creators of the content….If goog is so good….why don’t they open source the entire project and create a non profit to run “Open” Social….They will not do this because they want to corner the market on the indexing of relationships that should be owned and controlled by the end users and not Google…Will Google ask me for permission to crawl my relationships ?

    Can I delete my relationships from the Google servers…The data is on Google’s servers….and they are a company…so they do own the data…
    ….How is this better than facebook ?

    Did Google contact any of the other companies that have social networks to ask them for their input ?
    No….

    Will there be a standards committee that allows end users and companies other than Google to have some input into “Open” Social..Dont hold your breath….its not going to happen…

    Any initiative to deal with a “Social” Graph should not be run by anyone company…Google is a company and we should stop fooling ourselves that they are in business for the public “Good”.
    Google is in Business to make money and this means that by their nature they will try to dominate with little to no regard to any notion of an open standard that would even the playing field for their competitors.

    Like

  18. Interesting stuff as I, a digital immigrant, subscribe to more social networks and struggle to internalize the value. But, it also will influence our corporate decisions about how best to integrated and apply exrternal social networks — or at least their functionality — to the enterprise collaboration software we develop.

    Like

  19. Interesting stuff as I, a digital immigrant, subscribe to more social networks and struggle to internalize the value. But, it also will influence our corporate decisions about how best to integrated and apply exrternal social networks — or at least their functionality — to the enterprise collaboration software we develop.

    Like

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  25. Pingback: Publicitenews.fr »  Pourquoi Yahoo! et Microsoft ont tout intérêt à fusionner

  30. I think Digg jumped the shark when they broadened their appeal.

    They were very much tech focused, now they are far more general. Slashdot may make the same mistake.

    Like

  31. I think Digg jumped the shark when they broadened their appeal.

    They were very much tech focused, now they are far more general. Slashdot may make the same mistake.

    Like

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