AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Major news today in the world of social networking. Google has announced their OpenSocial Alliance, a way for developers to build social applications that span more than one social network. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch calls it “a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks (called “hosts”) that choose to participate.” Hosts include Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle.

Now comes word that the biggest Daddy of them all, MySpace, is joining, which would make everyone except Facebook a part of the alliance. Facebook, in my judgment, will have no choice but to join. So much for the value propositions that led to its $15 billion valuation last week.

In so doing, Google has again taken the position of facilitator regarding web applications. Rather than build its own social networking application (it already has one in Okrut) to compete with Facebook, it has chosen the path of adapting to the whole web as its platform. This is so smart.

Diane Mermigas agrees:

Google’s ability to create value and seize control of reinvented markets has been at the very heart of its more than 700%-plus growth from a $4.8 billion to a $220 billion company since going public three years ago. Google’s core services and technology are so fundamental to all things interactive, it can put itself in the middle of any trend or business and blow away competitors. The combination of Google’s scale and agility, vast resources and consumer intelligence make it the $700-plus share gorilla in the media space. And its social-networking plan is just another step toward cyber-world domination.

At the end of all of this is a very big hand in the growth and development of the portable web, a term I use to describe interactive media away from desktops or laptops. Its uses are, in some ways, the same as the WWW, but in other ways, it’s quite different. It’s much more personal, interactive, and reflective of the user’s real world persona. We need to watch this space and participate with great care, because the rules are being written every day.

So what can we glean from this that will help us downstream.

1. Everything is going mobile. By talking with Verizon and Sprint, Google is setting the stage for their operating system to become the mobile standard for, well, everything except the bloody phone itself. This doesn’t have to be seen as directly competing with our efforts, because Google’s mission is not to control so much as it is to enable. I have always been impressed by how focused the company has been on this goal, and this “enabling” message is one I constantly share with local media companies.
2. The OpenSocial Alliance will marry all of these applications in such a way that it finally makes sense to join many different social networking sites. My problem with the whole social networking concept is the same with the Web as a whole — how do you keep track of so much information? By participating with Google on this, I think everybody eventually wins. Assuming alliance members allow developers access, we could see some really interesting stuff coming down the pike.
3. Privacy, I believe, will be in the hands of individual users, simply because that’s been Google’s model all along. Call me naive, but I don’t think the company’s “do no evil” slogan is just marketing. I think it’s the path to prosperity in the new world. There won’t be a need for a “Do Not Track” list, because tracking, in Google’s paradigm, doesn’t include blinking and whirling or other disruptive ad attacks so popular with Madison avenue. I’ve seen enough from Google to give them the benefit of the doubt in this one.

Interesting times, indeed.