Comments on: A Mountain Or A Molehill?

By: Connecting News, Commentaries and Blogs at NineReports.com -

Connecting News, Commentaries and Blogs at NineReports.com - — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:20:37 +0000

[...] something of … new chatter – Last Updated – Monday January 28 Request a Trackback A Mountain Or A Molehill? One of the disadvantages to the competition between the most popular Web 2.0 tech blogs, i.e. [...]

By: Shaun Dewberry

Shaun Dewberry — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:04:39 +0000

I’m skeptical. I’m pretty sure they’re both “joining” simply to keep their options open, and possibly even to defend their interests in future should the DataPortability Reference Design turn out to be some sort of real standard. It’s simply insurance – without representation one of these companies could be easily caught with their pants down. They all want to know what the others are up to with their user data.

The real ‘bombshell’ is the the subtle, ‘friendly’, slipping off of the gloves in the fight to control user data.

By: Jaxon Rice

Jaxon Rice — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:01:09 +0000

Yes, but up until now there was very little indication that Facebook was open to data portability. The fact that Google and Facebook are joining the working group means that this is now inevitable in some form or another.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:47:31 +0000

I understand that Jaxon but this is simply an announcement that representatives from each will join the discussion. Not that Google and Facebook have agreed to be open?

By: Jaxon Rice

Jaxon Rice — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:10:22 +0000

This is a big thing Mike, mostly because it was unexpected. One of the biggest crticisms of Facebook was its “walled garden” approach. By joining the data portability group Google and Facebook (probably two of the biggest stores of user data) are signalling a move towards open platforms where you can easily take your data and social graph with you.

Remember our “You are the social network” conversation yesterday? This is what it is all about.

*Please delete the half typed comment above. My cat jumped on my keyboard. Stealthy cat is stealthy.*