OpenSocial is 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.

Image taken from TechCrunch

OpenSocial is a set of three APIs using which developers can access core functions and information of any social network

• Profile Information (user data)
• Friends Information (social graph)
• Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

Since FaceBook launched its platform, there is a lot of buzz about social networking websites opening up the data to the application developers to deploy applications on the host social network. But the developers have to learn different APIs to launch applications for different social networks. But with OpenSocial, Google has addressed this problem and defined a set of APIs which will be common for all participating social networks. Every participating network should implement the APIs and developers can deploy the same applications across all networks.

For Google, the effort could breathe new life into Orkut. Orkut is pretty popular in Brazil and India.

More updates to come when Google officially launches the OpenSocial.

This article is basically written for the users who are not so familiar with the latest happenings in the social networking space and for non-technical users of Orkut.

I am simplifying the things to the most basic level and assuming few things as there is no official confirmation and documentation available from Google at the time of writing this article.

When Google opens up Orkut Platform through a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and services, these will allow outside developers to inject new features and content into the Orkut user experience.

Let me present you with two real world scenarios to understand these terms and technologies from the bottom up.

Scenario 1:

Imagine, you want to get opinions on a specific topic or an answer for a question from your friends in orkut. Will you scrap everyone in your friends list or will you send an email to everyone? They are not flexible and it will be a heck to sort out all the emails and scraps. So, wouldn’t it be great if this kind of functionality is built into Orkut where you ask a question on your profile page and people can answer then and there without moving out of the page. Your friends can see the list of answers given by others and there are all possibilities that you can get an answer to a question or an opinion on a topic/idea. Rating the quality of the answers can also be included.

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