Part of the issue with Google's Friend Connect is that when users grant access to Google's product, Google might share their information with another application, or some part of it, maybe not all of it, without that user knowing. And part of what makes our system work is that people know exactly who they are sharing all their information with.

Funny thing is, Google claims an employee did talk to Facebook before launching the product. At least, according to Google engineering director David Glazer. No matter, said Zuck. "Google's a big player in the space and they make good things and our goal is to work with them to figure this out." Hear that Larry, Sergey? You guys make good things, so Mr. Zuckerberg will deign to speak with you. After he's done with his round-the-world trot.

It's been 16 months since since Google acquired the company from Excite founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer. During that time JotSpot languished and users — like me and my coworkers at my old gig — suffered from bugs and poor customer service.

If you like, blame the delay on JotSpot employees wasting their time at Google. After all, Kraus runs OpenSocial, Google PR's answer to what once looked like the runaway success of Facebook's application platform. One former JotSpot employee, Google Sites product manager Scott Johnston, seems to use his 20 percent time sending Twitters.

But more likely the delay is due to limited market demand for a "Sharepoint killer." Microsoft's SharePoint, which lets you post huge PowerPoint presentations to a file server instead of clogging your Exchange box with extra copies, has been doing a good job of killing itself. Do you know anyone who uses SharePoint willingly and gladly, without being strongarmed by a central IT department?

(Photo by ptufts)

Plaxo and Google are working closely on its OpenSocial platform, and Smarr incorporated Fitzpatrick's recently developed friend-finding tool hours after its launch. Would Google spend a nine-digit sum to keep an engineer happy? Sure. It's pocket change for the search giant. An acquisition would also keep Smarr and the technology he's developed out of Mark Zuckerberg's hands at Facebook. And to think, I didn't even need to map a social graph to figure that out. (Photo by silverisdead)

Google's Joe Kraus told The Social, "We've made a lot of progress." You people on the outside just can't see it yet, he said.

"In the classic kind of platform world, what typically happens is there's a lot of work that goes on that isn't consumer-visible," Kraus said. Which of course means, Trust us. We're Google.

At least one OpenSocial launch partner, Bebo, has already decided to go with the Facebook Platform. Expect more to follow. Google has yet to match the hype surrounding its OpenSocial announcement, admitting earlier this week its platform won't be ready until next year. "Open" is just another word for nothing left to lose.

LinkedIn will announce its own developer platform on December 10 . Friendster has already announced its own. MySpace, though it may have been hoping OpenSocial would spare it the expense of developing its own platform, is well on its way to copying all things Facebook.

Earlier this month, BusinessWeek reported that "Google had become frustrated with phone companies that were blocking some Google applications from being used on phones attached to their networks." Which phone companies? Which applications? Which phones? The BusinessWeek article conveniently omitted such details, and neither Google nor the publication offered comment on the record when I asked for them.

That's because, I suspect, there are no real examples. Google's Chris Sacca, the leader of the company's wireless "special projects," has been talking up the evils of big, bad phone companies like Verizon. But Verizon's latest move shows that it's not that the phone companies are resistant to the idea of openness. They oppose, rather, the notion that Google should get to set the rules for competition — rules that will no doubt smooth the way for the sale of mobile advertising on terms favorable to Google's offerings.

With Android, its mobile-phone OS, and OpenSocial, its widget platform for social networks, Google is trying to upset others' applecarts. But make no mistake: This isn't because Google is trying to do good and fight for openness. It's because Google, in negotiations with players like Verizon and Facebook, isn't getting its ways. Releasing software APIs may seem like a particularly nerdy and passive-aggressive way of throwing a temper tantrum. But make no mistake: That's exactly what Google's been doing. Expect more bawling and rolling around on the floor at the Googleplex at Verizon's latest move.

(Photo by Wikimedia Commons)

Several applications will be available the day LinkedIn's platform launches. The social network also introduce several new apps of its own on that will "enable them to draw on the wisdom, knowledge, experience, resources, and inspiration of their networks."

It's not good news for Google's OpenSocial initiative, in which LinkedIn is a theoretical partner. Why would LinkedIn need its own platform — if, that is, OpenSocial were anything more than a PR scam?

"I've never seen a growth chart with such a sharply pronounced inflection point," Plaxo marketing executive John McCrea told CNET. "Within hours of the Google OpenSocial social network service unfolding, it was surge conditions here. Our service almost buckled."

Of course, OpenSocial is thoroughly half-baked. The fact that you'll soon be able to throw virtual sheep at fellow Plaxo users should not have, by itself, driven usage up. What that tells me is that McCrea hasn't been doing his job. If some wonky API announcement mentioning Plaxo was enought to bring users of Plaxo's Pulse to 1 million, imagine what would happen if McCrea actually started marketing this thing.

• The Bay Area Facebook Developers meetup takes place at the Googleplex's Building 43, and the subject will be about extending your app to reach Google's OpenSocial platform. Pizza will be served at 6:45 p.m., and talks begin at 7. Take pics! Pose with the dinosaur! [Facebook]
• The Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference series begins at 1 p.m. on the Berkeley campus. Today's focus is on the electrification of vehicles, so expect lots of Priuses in the parking lot. [UC Berkeley]
• Thanksgiving is Thursday. Have your travel plans ready? Alert your pals on Dopplr, so you can make plans to escape the family together.

Got a to-do that's a must-do? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com. Check out more events on our Google Calendar:

Read/WriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick Twitters:

Update: Amazon contacted us this morning to let us know that though they sent us a draft press release, they are not in fact making any such announcement, they are not supporting OpenSocial and if they were it would still be under embargo anyway despite the date on said release.

Apparently, though, Jeff Bezos & Co. aren't prepared to diss Facebook quite yet. Amazon's PR team messed up and hopes we'll just ignore their own press releases, or honor some after-the-fact embargo. Sorry. Even when done right, the day of the embargo is over.

That's probably true, but most would say the real reason Facebook won't join OpenSocial anytime soon is that it wants to keep developers to itself. Good theory, but good luck with that plan. Here's what a third-party developer working on app for both platforms told me. It's not really that hard to write a Facebook app in the company's proprietary FBML and then rework it for the OpenSocial platform. So maybe Facebook really is concerned about protecting user privacy. But if that's the case, then why doesn't it start its campaign closer to home?

I'm watching the Android video. Man, I thought my videos were boring, this one takes the cake. This stuff is still vaporware. No phones are available with it. I don't know of a single developer who has had his/her hands on Android. At Microsoft I learned DO NOT TRUST THINGS THAT THEY WON'T SHOW ME WORKING. The UI looks confused. Too many metaphors. One reason the iPhone does so well is because the UI is fairly consistent. Fun, even.

Last week I was in the Open Social press conference. Everyone else in the room worked for a big-name media outlet. Business Week. Wall Street Journal. Los Angeles Times. CNET. Barrons. etc. etc. Even TechCrunch was relegated to a phone-based seat and wasn't in the room.

(Photo by Dwight Silverman/Houston Chronicle)

It's more of a gadget platform than a social-networking approach. It's a way to add gadgets to pages with a couple of extensions to it. That's been a very interesting thing for Facebook and it's taken off, and OpenSocial to me looks like a way for a set of people to try to participate in that phenomenon that's happened on Facebook.

Smith: Which is better, the Facebook platform or OpenSocial and why?

OpenSocial. Partner sites have over 200 million users. OK, the OpenSocial APIs don't reach as deeply into social graphs as do Facebook's, but if partners want to modify them so that they do it's fine. OK, OpenSocial apps won't be able to send invitations to a user's friends as the apps can on Facebook, but we can copy that idea too. Our philosophy is to allow partners to do all the work. By the way, unlike when Faceboook launched, none of the partners got an early advantage. Except for us. Other containers are not accepting applications as quickly as Orkut.

Chane conclued, "OpenSocial is still very much a work in progress, and we'll have more to say soon." We'll cut that down to a palatable size, too.

A few quick points to douse your raging one for OpenSocial:

• As some are pointing out, OpenSocial should really be called OpenWidget. Why? Because app users on one social network still can't interact with users on another. The "social graph" — or list of friends — of one website won't connect with others through OpenSocial. This will limit the viral growth of applications as well as their usefulness on smaller networks.
  
• But MySpace, right? Well, remember, MySpace already planned to launch a developer's platform. They still are. This competition was going to happen anyway.
  
• But Bebo, right? Well, no. Bebo joined OpenSocial but also announced it would import apps written in FBML. So now developers already planning to write for Facebook actually have another reason to.
  
• Facebook's platform itself was more hype than substance four days ago. If the best app we've seen yet is a way to download your address book, I'm not ready to say the reason Facebook dominates has anything to do with its third-party platform. Like Facebook itself, its application platform is more a matter of hope than reality. So what's Google's me-too OpenSocial, if not an imitation of hype?

The whole strategic idea behind OpenSocial is aggregate enough users to lure developers away from writing applications just for Facebook. Bebo signed on yesterday. But, just in case Google's master plan doesn't work and all the good stuff keeps going to Facebook, Bebo said it will launch a tool for Facebook developers to port their applications to the Bebo. Devious! (Photo by The Fayj)

Asked if Facebook was contacted by Google and invited to join its OpenSocial initiative, she reportedly said:

Despite reports, Facebook has still not been briefed on OpenSocial. When we have had a chance to understand the technology, then Facebook will evaluate participation relative to the benefits to its 50 million users and 100,000 platform developers.

(Photo by {dpade1337})

Notice the Flixster app installed on this profile, part of the Ask a Ninja socia network by Ning:

Here's a DubPages profile with an iLike app installed. Check out the "activity stream," very similar to Facebook's news feed:

So here's a new chart from Hitwise. It compares the aggregate U.S. market share of OpenSocial partners Orkut, Hi5, Friendster, Plaxo, Linkedin and Ning versus Facebook. Like what you see?

Some will object to this graph because it only covers U.S. market share. Fine, but remember that Facebook isn't an international slouch either, with 60 percent of its users based outside the U.S. and 11 million members in Canada and the U.K. alone.

And the other problem? As far as I can tell, OpenSocial does not yet interconnect social networks. So widget makers seeking a U.S. audience — the one advertisers today are most willing to pay for — won't get the kind of viral growth they can on Facebook. Their apps will be stranded on small islands, without the critical mass that causes the rapid spread some Facebook apps have seen.

Apologists will continue to hype OpenSocial, arguing that Google Gang users, in aggregrate, will lure developers away from the Facebook platform or at least weaken Facebook's hold on them. But the looks of these charts, do you see that happening?

I don't need a costume. I'm just going to go around telling people I'm the Valleywag, to see if they jump out of their skins. Trick or treat!

Open Source — let's see your source code.

OpenDoc — let's get rid of Office.

OpenID — let's see your users.

Free Beer — Web 2.0.

• The New York Times: Google's Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning
  
• O'Reilly's Radar: Hi5, iLike, Slide, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and Six Apart
  
• TechCrunch: Orkut, Salesforce.com, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle
  
• Valleywag: Hi5, Orkut, LinkedIn, Friendster, Ning, Salesforce.com, and Oracle

Guess the only way to find out for sure who's involved is to attend CampFire Thursday night on the Google campus. We would, but we have a thing against CamelCase. But bring us back a s'more, wouldja?

(Photo by russelljsmith)

LinkedIn's new layout, still in beta testing. Note the app modules on the right.

Here's another. See how the calendar app incorporates the user's "social graph," or list of connections? It's enough to make Zuck stamp his Adidas-clad feet.

According to the Mountain View Fire Department, Google has yet to file for an outdoor fire permit. All it takes is a $130 fee and having someone from the fire marshal's office run a plan check and an inspection at the site. (Which they can do in an hour, if they're not busy.)

Speculation is that Google wanted the campfire to be the moment when they would introduce all the other major players to each other, because Google's strict NDAs, you see, would have kept them in the dark before. (Yeah, right. As if they wouldn't talk to each other before the big day. Remember, Google, these people might work with you, but they don't work for you.) It would be awfully embarrassing if Google's attempt at social networking got hosed down before it even got a chance to flame out.

(Photo by pfly)

Or, rather, pretty charts. They're easier, right?

Here's the U.S. monthly visits for Facebook vs. destination social networks Orkut, Friendster, Plaxo and LinkedIn — all Google partners:

Here's the U.S. monthly visits for Facebook vs. some of Google's other varied new partners, Newsgator, Xing, Ning, and Salesforce.com. For the record, Xing and Ning are not related.

If I'm a developer, I'm still going to Facebook first. Google says these partners reach an audience of over 100 million users globally. But the problem is that all those users are in different networks. Viral success in one network won't necessarily spill over into another.

A better solution for Google? Rework its MySpace search and advertising contract on more favorable terms for News Corp., and in return, get MySpace to sign up for OpenSocial.

Look at what happens when you drop bottomfeeder Plaxo from the list of social networks and add MySpace instead:

The incentive for MySpace, of course, is that this solution would save News Corp. execs the hassle of looking up exactly what an open platform is, exactly. Or having to figure out how to look up definitions on the Internet. Or the Internet.