Google+ May Be the First Open Social Network

 

There is a lot of buzz in the air that Google+ may be the first open social network.  At the moment all other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are closed social networks, which means that you need to sign up to use the service and you can only send messages and receive updates from within that particular social network that you are using.  For example you can’t send a message to someone on Twitter while using Facebook, and you can’t see that someone wants to add you as a connection on LinkedIn through lets say Twitter.

Google+ May Be the First Open Social Network | The Web

At the moment, Google+ is also a closed social network, but there is talk that Google+ may be the first open social network.  This would be a great move for Google+ seeing that this is pretty much how the rest of the internet works.  Email providers are all open social networks, thats why you can easily send a note to someone using another email provider.

According to Charles McCathieNevile, Chief Standards Officer at Opera, in an interview with VentureBeat.

“It can be best explained as having a common, agreed-upon format, if we both agree to speak English, then we can communicate. And this extends to all web standards.”

Google+ May Be the First Open Social Network | Why Stay Closed?

There is good reason for prominent social networks, like Facebook, to want to stay as a closed system.  If you have a lot of users using your service then you hold onto a lot of the market value and you can easily charge as much as you’d like for advertising space.  So why would you as a closed social network want to allow your users to interact with people on Google+ through Facebook?

Well, satisfying consumer demand.  Users are definitely excited that Google+ may be the first open social network.  Its going to bring simplicity to the whole social media game.

Google+ at the moment has a small market share so if Google+ may be the first open social network they should go ahead and do it now.

Google+ May Be the First Open Social Network | Why It Would Work

Here’s what Edd Dumbill, chair of the Open Source Conference, speculates on why Google+ may be the first open social network:

“I don’t believe there should or could be just one social network, Google+,” Dumbill said. “Instead we’re approaching a commoditization of the core social features of identity, sharing, updates and collaboration.”

Dumbill told VentureBeat that Google has several things it needs to do if it wants to truly open Google+ up. One of the most important things it must do is open up its API and clearly define it so it emphasizes sharing and collaboration.

“The Google+ API should be a forerunner of a standard for interoperating social systems that will let people collaborate across the borders of these systems,” Dumbill said.

Another thing Google needs to do is add Google+ functionality to Google Apps, to make the office and enterprise more social.

“You should be able to share and discuss documents with a circle, and use the information flow in that circle to drive workflow,” Dumbill said. “The idea is that everything, which in real life we might be able to talk about, we can talk about in virtual life.”  http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/02/google-plus-open-standards/

Google+ May Be the First Open Social Network | Hold Your Horses!

Just a month ago Google launched, Google Takeout, which allows users to download all of their information from all of their Google resources, this is definitely a step toward openness.

So, Google+ may be the first open social network, but time will tell and we shouldn’t expect this to happen tomorrow.  Google+ is a month old so we’ll have to give it some time to grow.

What do you think of the possibilty of Google+ becoming the first open social network?  Would that motivate you to use it?