ZDNet has this very comprehensive analysis of Facebook’s dilemma regarding OpenSocial – to remain where they are inside their walled garden (and remember it’s a pretty substantial garden in there with lots of people to play with), or to join in OpenSocial.

Quote of the day goes to Anil Dash of Six Apart;

It’s not true to say that Facebook is the new AOL, and it’s oversimplification to say that Facebook’s API is the new Blackbird, or the new Rainman. But Facebook is part of the web. Think of the web, of the Internet itself, as water. Proprietary platforms based on the web are ice cubes. They can, for a time, suspend themselves above the web at large. But over time, they only ever melt into the water. And maybe they make it better when they do.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

5 Comments
  • AD has some strange ideas, despite his obvious interest in and enthusiam for OpenSocial (I share these sentiments BTW).

    It’s one thing to say that Facebook isn’t the new AOL – technically-speaking of course it isn’t, but it’s sort of like AOL over the internet, if that makes sense. Don’t know about the analogue of ice cubes either. What happens to walled gardens is that they either have their walls broken down, or the garden eventually becomes deserted.

  • Robin, I’m not sure I agree — AOL is an example of a service that, while definitely smaller, is hardly deserted. It’s just joined the web.

  • @Anil your data may be better than mine but consider that AOL pretty much decided it had beetter join the net to survive, which means that they pulled down some of their own walls. Amazing that AOL users had the impression that the net *was* AOL – such is the extent of their familiarity.

  • P.S. that BSOD thread must be one of the longest you’ve experienced …

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