facebook vs open social
DESCRIPTION
Jawad Shuaib (http://www.j4wad.com) presenting Facebook vs. OpenSocial at the FacebookCampToronto 3TRANSCRIPT
Facebook vs. OpenSocialFacebook vs. OpenSocial
By: Jawad Shuaib
What is OpenSocial?
• Google’s Response to Facebook Developer Platform
• Write Once, Run Anywhere
• Google Widgets on Steroids
• Released too Early
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Market Size and Competition
• Ideally speaking, OpenSocial has a market potential for 250 million users as opposed to 64 million active users on Facebook
• 15,000 Applications on Facebook. Difficult to rapidly grow user base due to a saturated market
• Most existing Google Widgets can run on OpenSocial. Results? Difficult to rapidly grow user base due to existing competition
Email: [email protected]
Business & Marketing
• Facebook applications leverage the social graph but lack the ability to scale to other networks. OpenSocial can scale, but the applications must be “generic”
• Applications more viral on Facebook (i.e. support for email invites and better news feed)
• OpenSocial profile box will likely support advertising
• More applications won’t persuade users to switch from one network to another
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Technical Differences
• Facebook requires proprietary languages (FBML, FQL, FBJS). Google requires XML and JavaScript
• Google provides an IDE (aka Google Gadget Editor)
• Google hosts applications for free. Facebook doesn’t
Email: [email protected]
Language Support
Facebook API• FBML• FQL• FBJS• Partial support for AJAX• Backend languages like
PHP, Java, .NET on Canvas
OpenSocial API• XHTML/XML• JavaScript• Full Support for AJAX• Backend languages like
PHP, Java, .NET on Canvas
Email: [email protected]
Conclusion
• The choice of your platform should depend on demographic
• OpenSocial is modeled after Facebook. So if you’ve built a Facebook application before, it is relatively easy to learn OpenSocial
• “Write Once, Run Anywhere” is not exactly true. An Orkut specific OpenSocial app. Might not necessairly run on Hi5
Email: [email protected]
Conclusion
• Generic applications will do better on OpenSocial in terms of scalability. Applications that take advantage of Facebook’s social graph will have a difficult time scaling
• Don’t make your OpenSocial applications too generic, because they probably already exist.
• If Bebo supported both OpenSocial and FBML. I would develop using FBML. OpenSocial is buggy.
Email: [email protected]
Find me on Facebook
Jawad Shuaib
http://www.j4wad.com
References & Resources
• http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/• http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial• http://www.hi5networks.com/developer/• Bit5media.com• xkcd.com for comics
Email: [email protected]