Come for the Ride…

Per Mashable’s blog post, Google’s OpenSocial API is now live. This comes only a few days after the announcement, which is somewhat bittersweet for me.

On one hand, if Facebook joins this program at a later date, it means we can potentially code widgets for all these networks with one fell swoop. In fact, it may also be interesting to be able to code something that taps into all social networks at the same time.

On the flip side, as much as I like Google, it’s just another way for them to force themselves to be the authority on something they weren’t number one at. Being that we work in the web industry, that’s a ‘lil dangerous and a bit too close to home.

OpenSocial Launch Partners

For about 4 years, I used to only visit about 3 websites on the internet. If you’ve shopped everything you’ve ever needed and have all the news on feeds; there really isn’t much else to do on the web.

In more recent days though, my journey to find interesting sites and people have led me to a number of places. So after reviewing tons and tons of web 2.0 sites, it’s nice to see that there is someone out there critiquing them like a normal sensible person would.

If you’re interested, check out Sucky Startups.

TechCrunch had an article today about a new video classifieds autos website that launched or is in the process of launching. The website called HotSwap, focuses on selling autos through the use of user generated videos.

This brings up a good question. Is the public ready to do the work required to populate a site with video commercials? We know YouTube was a big hit with user generated videos… but I would venture to guess those are a bit more fun to make than 30 second to 4 minute long commercials.

On another note, the HotSwap site does have Web 2.0 design elements which is cool and it’s something different than the other auto sites out there. Also, the TechCrunch article says the used autos ad market is at $370 billion a year. If that number is accurate, then this project is heading towards a great place.

Edit: I saw another article today that says U.S. online advertising currently tops off at less than 20 billion dollars. I think they meant to say $370 million dollars earlier…