Open Web APIs, Google’s Open Social and you

Big buzz abounds as Google launches it’s new Open Web API called Open Social. Marc Andreessen has a nice write up on the subject: Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web. Here’s a snip:

My company, Ning, is participating in this week’s launch of a new open web API called Open Social, which is being spearheaded by Google and joined by a wide range of partners including Google’s own Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, Salesforce.com, Oracle, iLike, Flixster, RockYou, and Slide.

In a nutshell, Open Social is an open web API that can be supported by two kinds of developers:

• “Containers” — social networking systems like Ning, Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, and Friendster, and…
• “Apps” — applications that want to be embedded within containers — for example, the kinds of applications built by iLike, Flixster, Rockyou, and Slide.

Read more here: http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/10/open-social-a-n.html

And here’s a clip from a related post by Michelle Murrain over at ZenOfNPTech:

OpenSocial is a set of APIs. It’s aimed primarily at developers. Google has a number of partners, including social network sites like LinkedIn, Friendster and Ning, as well as Salesforce, which does have very interesting implications given the increasing use of Salesforce in the nonprofit sector.

OpenSocial is a set of APIs that handle three different kinds of user data: profiles, social graph (who your friends are) and activities (the stuff of the Facebook news feeds.)  And the language of these APIs are standard HTML and Javascript. Any application written for OpenSocial will work on any partner social network – any OpenSocial “container”. That means developers need only write an app once, and it can get used on any of the networks involved, like Orkut and LinkedIn. Basically, if the more social network sites that adopt OpenSocial, the more open the whole thing gets.

Read more here: http://www.zenofnptech.org/2007/11/what-opensocial-means.html

Some related reading:

• OpenSocial doesn’t knock down walls
• Google’s Open Social API – Googlified
• Google OpenSocial will (hopefully) make social apps more relevant
• OpenSocial, Google’s Open Answer to Facebook « GigaOM
• Google OpenSocial – Let’s Discuss
• Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web
• The long awaited “Facebook killer” from Google is here
• What’s “Open Social” All About
• Why OpenSocial Is so Exciting

Yep, PayPerPost is Now IZEA

Yesterday I wrote Interesting: PayPerPost to Change Name to IZEA and, sure enough, I get an email today announcing the change. Here’s an excerpt from the 11/1/07 ”PayPerPost is Now IZEA” email:

I am very excited to present our new corporate name and identity, IZEA, Inc. 

Going forward our company will be known as IZEA, with PayPerPost as its flagship product and other properties including Blogger’s Choice Awards, RockStartup, Zookoda and BlogInSpace under the IZEA corporate umbrella. These changes are the natural result of our phenomenal growth as a company and the continued success our user community is having with our social marketing tools and strategies.

This new corporate framework will enable us to further execute on our established mission statement: To empower everyone to value and exchange content, creativity and influence. We will be adding additional services over the coming year and I feel strongly that the IZEA brand will allow us to present all our solutions in a more complete and understandable way to our clients, users, investors and the press.

You can read more about the changes in the IZEA Press section: PayPerPost Changes Corporate Name to IZEA

Interesting: PayPerPost to Change Name to IZEA

I just saw an interesting  post over at ProBlogger: PayPerPost Inc Changes It’s Name to IZEA. It appears that nothing much will change on the PPP side, here’s a clip with some details:

IZEA will be the parent company for the different services that PPP has been operating including PayPerPost.com, Zookoda.com, BloggersChoiceAwards.com, RockStartup.com, RSSBrief.com, URLBrief.com and BlogInSpace.com.

PayPerPost will continue to run as a service – it’s really just a launch of the parent company – probably a good move as PPP has a fairly fragmented brand among bloggers – some loving it and some hating it.

Read more here: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/11/01/payperpost-inc-changes-its-name-to-izea/#more-4732

I’m so new to the PayPerPost community that my blog hasn’t even been approved yet. I figure I spend enough time on the internet I might as well try to make a little honest money writing reviews for things that interest me. It was good to read that the PPP service won’t be interrupted but we won’t know how things will really work until the new IZEA website is up and more details are released.