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Filed under: Developer, Social Software, web 2.0

Ning gets 90+ OpenSocial-powered apps

Ning, a popular web service that lets you set up your own Facebook-style social network (and hosts it for you) just added something that Facebook and MySpace have had for quite a while now: apps. Like applications on those other, bigger, networks, Ning Apps are powered by OpenSocial, a much-hyped API for building third-party apps that work on multiple social networks. Open Social has been around for years, making slow progress: maybe becoming available on Ning's 1.5 million different sites will help.

Ning Apps allow network owners to provide additional functionality to their users, often through integration with other sites. For example, Ning is currently highlighting video apps from Qik, Hulu and UStream and collaboration apps from Box.net and Google Docs. In total, there are more than 90 apps available, with more coming soon, as the Ning team explains on the official blog.

Customized site designs are a big draw for Ning, and the apps have all been designed to match your network's appearance, so you don't have to worry about becoming a Fugly Friday candidate when you add new features. Apps also integrate with Ning's tabbed navigation, letting you add an app as a separate tab that you can organize and rearrange. OpenSocial developers can also build their own Ning apps, so don't despair if you don't see one you want - it might be on the way soon.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

Ning is pro-freedom, and porn agnostic

Marc Andreessen of Ning is our hero. Ning, the online platform that allows users to create and maintain their own social networks, seems to have a few naughtier communities its midst. We'd be more shocked to hear it didn't, quite frankly. This is the internet, after all.

Some do find it surprising, however. Enough people, in fact, that Andreessen issued a statement on his blog today.

Andreessen's response is calm and well-argued. The short version: People who violate the terms of service will be dealt with accordingly. People who do things that are outright illegal will be reported to the authorities. He isn't, as he puts it, "pro-porn" but is "pro-freedom."

The Ning blog outlines a little bit about the "Red Light District." Adult-oriented sites must have warning pages, and must not appear in the search results on Ning.com. Additional tips are given on keeping non-adult sites free of racier material.

Interestingly enough, some of the high-traffic sites that Valleywag pegged as being pornographic simply aren't. (We will warn you some are, so if you're not supposed to be checking out that type of site for whatever reason, don't.) The most noticeable mis-categorization: GirlonGirl, a site where you can vote for the sexiest (fully clothed) girl. The other? Pomoworld, which looks a bit like Pornoworld if you squint. It's dedicated to a post-modernistic lifestyle.

Cheers to Andreessen and Ning for taking a position on the issue, and explaining that position like a rational (dare we say it?) adult.

[via blog.pmarca.com]

Filed under: Internet, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

Is Google playing Microsoft to Facebook's Apple?

OpenSocial sites
Microsoft became the market leader in operating system deployment largely by making its OS and software available to any hardware maker that wanted to license the technology. Apple, on the other hand, has always insisted the its OS should only run on Apple-labeled computers. So while Microsoft is often slammed for not being "open," the company owes much of what it is to early openness.

And it looks like Microsoft arch rival Google may be playing the same card when it comes to social networking. The company's OpenSocial social networking platform allows third party companies to partner with Google. While Facebook opened up its API earlier this year, allowing third parties to create applications, Google has attracted some major players, including MySpace, Six Apart, and Bebo, LinkedIn, Ning, Friendster, Plaxo, and Hi5. That's sort of the equivalent of getting IBM and HP on your side.

But here's what makes OpenSocial different. You'll notice that some of the big names in there are other social networks. That's because OpenSocial is a platform, not a website. MySpace, Friendster, and other social networks partnering with Google will use OpenSocial APIs, meaning if you develop an application for one site it will function on all the other sites.

In other words, OpenSocial isn't a social networking site. It's a common set of APIs that will be used by social networking sites -- and Google is behind the initiative, which gives them the same kind of status here that Microsoft had in the early days of desktop operating systems. You know, if you think desktop OSes and social networks are comparable, which they're probably not.

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