NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Social Responsibility's Strategic Benefits

December 15, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)

Join Ed Granger-Happ, CIO of Save the Children, for a discussion of how creating an organization that is socially responsible improves staffing, retention, leadership development and overall corporate health.

Working With and Communicating to Your Board of Directors

January 13, 2009, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM US/Eastern (GMT-5)

CIO panelists who will share tips and experiences working with their boards: Twila Day of SYSCO; Jeff O'Hare, West Corp.; Marc West, formerly with H&R Block.

IT's Role in Growing Mid-Market Companies

January 14, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET (GMT-5)

Mid-market Council members will share their companies' stories and challenges in driving or coping with growth. Panelists represent Veterinary Pet Insurance, Medicis Pharmaceutical, and Intrax Cultural Exchange.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 
SUBSCRIBE TO CIO
 
Are you involved in setting the direction for your company's IT budget or strategy?

Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!

 
 
 

Google Makes Social Networking Power Move -- Finally

Search engine superstar Google is poised to launch OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed to spread social applications across the Web.

 

October 31, 2007 — IDG News Service — Belatedly recognizing the importance of social networking as an online service and advertising vehicle, Google Inc. this week will unleash its strongest response yet to the rising threat and skyrocketing popularity of MySpace and Facebook.

On Thursday, Google will announce OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed "to spread social applications across the Web," the company said.

These common APIs have been designed to let developers create social networking applications that will run on multiple websites, simplifying the making and distribution of these programs.

Partners supporting OpenSocial include various well-known software developers and social networking sites: Oracle, Salesforce.com, Hi5, iLike, LinkedIn, Slide, Ning, Friendster and Plaxo. Neither Facebook nor MySpace is on the list of partners at press time.

The move is also no doubt intended to dilute the massive success Facebook has had in attracting external developers since it opened up its website platform to third-party applications in May.

About 7,000 such applications have been built for Facebook so far, helping to make the social networking site more attractive to people and thus boosting its usage. MySpace recently announced it would follow Facebook's example.

By allowing developers to write an application once and have it work in multiple social networking sites, the OpenSocial initiative could, in theory, water down the appeal of Facebook's ballooning applications catalogue.

Once considered a fad of interest mostly to teens and young adults, social networks have significantly broadened their demographic appeal, attracting many people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.

Along the way, social networking sites have been created for other purposes beyond entertainment and staying in touch with friends. For example, there are social networks tailored for specific occupations, such as doctors, and interests, such as sports.

Google has had a social networking site named Orkut for several years, but it doesn't seem to have merited much attention from the company until recently, and only after the popularity and potential of this type of site became evident.

Google was reportedly locked in a battle with Microsoft over which one would be chosen by Facebook to buy a stake in the social networking company and earn a deal to provide advertising to it.

Microsoft eventually won, buying a 1.6 percent stake that values Facebook at an eye-popping US$15 billion, although the social networking company reportedly will have revenue of just $150 million this year.

With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg recently said. About 250,000 new users register every day at Facebook, which was founded in 2004.

Loading...
 
 
IT Jobs
 
 
 
ABCs
 

Just the basics, please. Sometimes we all need a refresher or we need to make sure our team and our colleagues are all on the same page.

Over 25 tutorials on everything from business intelligence to virtualization.

 
 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Leveraging Social Computing Technologies for ERP Applications

Best Practices: Safe and Secure Hardware Asset Recovery

Operational Excellence Is Key to Maximizing IT Investments

The Right and Wrong Master Data Management Strategies to Start Small and Grow Big

Paving the Way for Trusted Collaboration

State of the Market: Application Performance Management

Proactively Identify and Resolve Performance Issues

Union Bank of California Improves its Online Banking Services

The Link Between APM and Customer Satisfaction

Providing Around-the-Clock Customer Satisfaction

Deliver Social Computing Business Value

Make Hidden Trends, Inter-Relationships and Influences Visible.

"Enterprise-Proven" is the Prerequisite for Enterprise SaaS Portal Solutions

File Integrity Monitoring: Prove compliance and secure your IT environments

Affordable technology-no compromise. HP server solutions

SOA Educational Library at the TIBCO SOA Resource Center

CIO Viewpoints: Migrating to Exchange 2007

Thrive during global disruption. Cisco video featuring Juan Enriquez

A new level of interoperability. Make IT Work As One@novell.com

Protect data-HP All-in-One and Disk-Based systems

Businesses Transform with VMware Virtualization

Download the free CIO Starter Kit to access useful resources created by top CIOs

The Business of Managing Content: Xythos Document Management & Microsoft SharePoint

Server Virtualization Benchmark Results

White Paper: Never Enough Compute Power?

White Paper: Scaling Down HPC for Smaller Organizations

17 Ways to Reduce Cost in IT

Learning from BPM Leaders

Webcast: Mitigate Operational Risk- Real Answers for Tough Times

First-hand look at this never before seen research

Effectively Managing High-Performing, Business-Critical Web Applications

Managing Service Level Agreements to Achieve Business Goals

APM Solutions: A Window into Complex Web Applications

APM Solutions Offer Insight into Complex Web Applications

Five Best Practices for Enterprise Collaboration Success

The ECM Paradox: Extending Local Flexibility to Strengthen Central Control

Customer Insight Yields Sales, Marketing Gains

Corral, configure and control all your mischievous machinery with a Lantronix device server

Spend less. Get hosted UC. Get cash back. It's easy under a Cypress

Predict the future with HP Insight Power Manager

Log onto Hitachi True Stories, films inspired by the next great achievement

Earn PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATE Part-Time, Online at Syracuse University's iSchool

Make IT Work As One@novell.com

Predict the future with HP Insight Power Manager

HP LaserJet P4014n printer starting at $799 after $100 IS. www.hp.com

CIO Starter Kit includes useful resources created by top CIOs. Free Download>>

How to Start a PMO & Realize the Benefits Fast

Virtualization Benchmark and TCO Analysis-Read Now

Learn to Leverage Maximum Computing Power

Windows Vista: Essential Benefits and Deployment Strategies