OpenSocial

A group of companies including Google has released a set of standards called OpenSocial that will allow software developers to write applications that work with any social network that participates. Current participants include Orkut, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Friendster, Xing, Plaxo and others but not Facebook, which continues with its proprietary lock-in strategy (In Economist 3-9 Nov 2007 visited 12 Jan 2007)