The Social Network Wars Begin In Earnest: Facebook Bans Google Friend Connect :

Why do all journalists have to frame issues as a war?

The first few widgets available on the Friends Connect OpenSocial hosted platform are from Google and in there is an OpenID Signin, and a Friends viewer. And also in there is a Facebook application. And it's this Facebook application that is calling Facebook's bluff.

Either Facebook's Connect API let's you use Facebook's auth and gives you access to your friends. Or not. And on the surface the answer is "Yes, as long as we like you". But even this isn't clear. FB appear to be saying that you can get and store ID numbers, but you can only display your contacts' data on the fly.

Which finally brings us down to a privacy debate that is central to the whole data portability drive as it relates to your list of friends. You have a claim on your own profile data. You have a claim on your list of friends. But you *don't* have a claim on your friend's profile data. And in that context Facebook looks like it's trying to do the right thing while also using it as a core part of their business model. Google is also trying to do the right thing from the public access point of view. Actually your friend's profile data is public information. And public information wants to be free.


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[ 16-May-08 9:04am ] [ ]