Facebook, Google to Join MySpace in Data Portability - Questions for Facebook (
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But eWEEK has questions.
For example, MySpace is launching with four partners, so is Facebook launching
with partners, or just throwing something to see if it sticks?
Also, what security method is Facebook using? MySpace is using OAUTH.
Will Facebook leverage OAUTH, OpenID or some proprietary security, which
will go against the grain of standardization?
Facebook, which did not respond to eWEEK, will have to answer these
questions.
Facebook told Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li, one of the analysts
fortunate enough to get a briefing May 9, that Yelp.com could be one of the
sites it is targeting.
"If I link my Facebook identity to my Yelp identity, I'll be able to
port over my profile, my content, my reviews," Li wrote in her blog.
"Also, I'll be able to see if any of my Facebook friends are also members
of Yelp—and be able to automatically have our friendships authenticated and
visible on Yelp."
So, clearly Facebook Connect is supposed to work like MySpace. What is
unclear is how.
Also, days after Google declined to answer whether or not it would join
MySpace's Data Availability effort, Google appears set to announce its own take
on data portability.
According to TechCrunch, Google will introduce May 12 Friend
Connect, a set of APIs that lets OpenSocial members shuttle profile information
from social networks into other Web sites. Ideally, users could move data from
MySpace to other apps, perhaps even Google Apps.
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington raises an important point: "The reason
these companies are rushing to get products out the door is because whoever is
a player in this space is likely to control user data over the long run. If
users don't have to put profile and friend information into multiple sites, they
will gravitate toward one site that they identify with, and then allow other
sites to access that data."
The idea that the companies will hold any sway creates a nice competitive
atmosphere, but the fact is that this is now table stakes; as Forrester's Li points out in her blog, social networks are
becoming like air, and companies will have no choice but to let users control
the data.
Whether MySpace, Facebook or Google is first won't matter. Users will demand,
and vendors will have no choice but to supply.
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