The Eye

OpenSocial is basically three APIs bundled together that allows developers to roll out the same application across a number of participating social networks.

So far, the big draw is OpenSocial’s supposed simplicity and openness. Facebook keeps its data secret and  developers have to use its own markup language, whereas OpenSocial is  allowing developers to work with a simple set of tools consisting of HTML, javascript, and elements of Flash. Here’s how it comes together:

First, there are the “hosts,” who are essentially a group of participating social networks. Google wisely dipped into Facebook’s pool of competitors by nabbing Hi5, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Orkut, Ning, Salesforce, Friendster, Viadeo, and Oracle right out the gate.

OpenSocial will work with another group, dubbed “developers” that includes many familar to Facebook’s users such as RockYou, Slide, iLike and Flixster

 It’ll be interesting to see what evolves over the next few months.