TMS: Too Many Sites (Social Networking Sites)!

Let's see. I've got this blog, a Google Pages site, the GMA News blog, blogs on design and Macs, and due to recent peer pressure, a Multiply site.

That's not to count Yahoo! 360 (inactive), Orkut (inactive and forgotten), Twitter and dozens of invitations to Facebook, Friendster, Amazon (yes, they now have social networking!), LinkedIn, Flickr, Zooomr, hamster, monster and oyster. Okay, those last three were jokes, but in the age of the Net, who knows? :)

I like Twitter a lot because it's a fast way to send vibes to the ether, so I tried inviting my friend Rej, who promptly said, "Another one? I'm tired of them."

She's got a point. For the longest time, I've been refusing to join Friendster. My friend Marian wanted me to comment on her blogs and when I tried, Friendster refused and told me flat out that I should first be a member. And then what? Have an empty Friendster website?

I had the same feeling with Multiply, but my friends and family kept flooding me with invites until I had to give in.

My annoyance is multiplied (ahem) by the fact that once you get locked in one site, you're pretty much locked in. So my friends at Friendster can't really join my Multiply network and vice versa etc.

What we need is more open social networking. My ideal one allows full interoperability with anything, and it would have:

• Open ID, so I will only need one username and password
• A way to let anyone connect to my site, get content and, if permitted, manipulate it (often called APIs)
• This would include photos, blog entries, links, Google and Amazon ads, etc
• Example: from my site, I can create a feed or bridge to Multiply, Flickr, Friendster, etc

But can we all get along? There are economic reasons why the existing networking sites are not interoperable. Would people be willing to pay extra to get the convenience of interoperability? Time for me to investigate Facebook (which means, time to register there. Sigh).

Slap in the Facebook (Wired Mag)

The Social Web: Creating An Open Social Network with XDI

PeopleAggregator and Open Social Network Systems

UPDATE: After a couple of months, the OpenSocial Network initiative was signed by Google, MySpace and a few other social networking sites.

The Google Code

Google Cracks Open The World Of Social Networks