Open, open API’s are all the rage these days. Most every major web 2.0 player offers some sort of open API platform that let’s others tap into their technology. Just look at Facebook alone. Ever since the company opened up it’s social networking website to application developers out there, Facebook users have been deluged with thousands of applications. How many times has someone given you a SuperPoke, or a Vampire Bite of some sort? Heck - how many of you are playing Scrabble online? Creating a website is merely the beginning for many of these online companies. It’s about creating the plumbing for future applications that others have yet to consider developing. Case in point? Look at Google has they’ve announced a new API initiative called OpenSocial. The concept is fairly simple. Write web applications that use the OpenSocial API and any website that utilizes OpenSocial will be able to use your application. “Write once and run anywhere”.

OpenSocial is designed specifically for application developers who want to target the social networking scene popularized by the likes of Friendster, LinkedIn, hi5 etc. As of now, Facebook and MySpace have not joined the initiative. You can check out more about OpenSocial at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial

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