MediaVidea

Platform Wars 2.0: Your Platform is Just a Widget on Mine

Tim O’ Reilly was right when he said that Web 2.0 was about controlling user’s data. People got so caught up in the Facebook Platform Tsunami that they forgot the restrictions that Facebook put on their own data. This was put to test yesterday when Start Page site Netvibes.com launched the Facebook Widget which would allow users to view their Facebook notifications and friends from their Netvibes start page.

Start Pages including Netvibes.com, Pageflakes.com and Google were among the first ones on the Widget bandwagon but Facebook seems to have won over more developers (aided by the all the hype created by A-list bloggers, one might add) for its pseudo-open platform.

But as Richard Macmanus says, with its latest move, Netvibes has reduced Facebook to a mere Widget.


Coming back to the Platform Wars 2.0 theme, it is interesting to read Dave Winer’s stand on this:

Facebook could easily be the place where the dam breaks. It's attracting so many users, who may at some point realize that they want control of the data that's locked up inside Facebook. Then vendors who have been on the right side of this issue will be the heroes.

Meanwhile, all you platform owners rejoice! Your platform is just a widget on mine.

Labels: controversey, facebook, start pages, trends, web 2.0

posted by Pramit Singh @ 3:02 PM