So how is this working out for Palo Alto, Calif.'s Facebook, which has
seen the mad creation of some 7,000 food-fighting, sheep-throwing,
slide-show presenting widgets pop up on the Web since it opened its
platform May 24? Facebook, which a spokesperson said has "not been
briefed on OpenSocial," and therefore is not sure if joining will
benefit its 50 million users, declined to discuss dollar amounts with
eWEEK. As Ovum's Bradshaw noted, Facebook pioneered the use of
third-party widgets on its site, which has proven to be a success in
terms of user enthusiasm and adoption. However, despite its lead in
this area, Facebook requires programmers to use its proprietary APIs,
while OpenSocial is built using standards such as HTML and JavaScript.
This means widgets on Facebook will be a lot harder to deploy on other
sites, and vice-versa, while OpenSocial widgets should be relatively
easy to deploy to between sites, he said. So, for all those laughing
at the amount of sheep flying or food being thrown between friends,
remember that somewhere Google, Facebook and their armies of software
developers are happily padding their coffers with your clicks. More Information
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