Google Inc has announced the launch of a new system to take on the rising popularity of Facebook and MySpace.com by creating a single platform using which developers can create web applications for a number of websites.
Google is going on the offensive after it lost a chance of investing in Facebook to Microsoft last week. Known as the OpenSocial system, developers will be able to create their applications using standardized tools which will be compatible with all the social networks and websites that have signed up for the system.
Google director of product management Joe Kraus revealed that a number of social networks such as LinkedIn and Friendster have already joined the system along with Google's own social network, Orkut. "This is about making the Web more social; how do you have your friends go along with you to any site on the Web?” Kraus added.
Google hopes that this move will lure some developers away from Facebook with the incentive of wider exposure for their applications. The idea has already found its supporters with iLike Chief Executive Ali Partovi stating that OpenSocial will offer a number of benefits to developers, both big and small.
"For months we've been approached by other Web sites that want us to build iLike widgets for them and we've been unable to build it for them. The benefit OpenSocial offers us is we can essentially syndicate what we do to other social networks", he added.
However it will not be easy to beat MySpace or even Facebook because these sites have millions of followers built over the years.
