This is Big - Google plans to open Orkut using APIs

September 22, 2007 · Posted in India Social Networking, India Web 2.0 

TechCrunch reports about a secret meeting held at Google HQ. The objective - to discuss Google’s plans of ‘opening up’. As per TC, Google will be announcing a new set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to leverage Google’s social graph data (whatever that means)..

Here’s the most interesting bit:

On November 5 we’ll likely see third party iGoogle gadgets that leverage Orkut’s social graph information - the most basic implementation of what Google is planning. From there we may see a lot more - such as the ability to pull Orkut data outside of Google and into third party applications via the APIs.

This is a H-U-G-E piece of news for two reasons:

1) With 7.2 million Indian users (does not include Indians accessing Orkut from outside India), Orkut is the social networking platform that has the highest number of Indian members. Opening access to Orkut implies instant access to all the Indian users of the site (in other words, a sizeable online Indian population)


2) If the above bolded statement actually happens, this could mean opening up of a whole new industry.

Just look at the applications industry that has been spawned by the recently launched Facebook platform. And Facebook Platform doesnt even allow you to build your standalone app and pull Facebook data into the app. Facebook developer program necessitates you to build the application on Facebook itself.

Contrast this to the possibility above - you can build and host your own application and integrate Orkut data into your application. Not on Orkut. Not on Google. You can pull Orkut data as you like into your own application.

This would be an Indian marketer’s dream come true. Not to mention the tremendous startup opportunities this would open up for Indian entrepreneurs. Of course, we’ll have to wait till such an API is officially announced and consider any ‘gotchas’ that may be involved. None the less, the opportunities that would open up by such a move have gotten me all excited.

What do you think ?


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Comments

11 Responses to “This is Big - Google plans to open Orkut using APIs”

  1. Chandra on September 24th, 2007 12:19 am

    I have been predicting that google will someday open up Orkut after facebook has done it.
    If they really expose the orkut data to third party applications, I guess we could expect a number of startups based on orkut API. May be we will see some copycat Facebook apps.
    Considering the usage of Orkut by Indians, there will be a great opportunity for innovative applications.

  2. Ashish Jain on September 24th, 2007 9:45 am

    This IS really HUGE buddy.
    well i m all game to dive in this opportunity. Just waiting for them to Open up!

  3. pranav on September 24th, 2007 7:06 pm

    ashish,

    i’m pretty sure there’ll be lots others waiting for such an opportunity too :-)

  4. Sid on September 24th, 2007 8:09 pm

    Would Google be like a social-network of social-networks where all your identities are merged into one, or a stand-alone social network which is open through APIs, or perhaps a combination of both these ideas? In either case, it can only be good.

    I had written some Perl some time ago to build me a list of popular movies and books on Orkut. Having an API for accessing Orkut data would just make writing similar hacks easier which would translate into lots of useful hacks by various developers and that’s a good thing.

  5. Sudhanshu on October 2nd, 2007 6:22 am

    With the way the government has been behaving, I doubt if they will let us use it in India :)

    But it would be huge. And for the first time, it would force Indian companies to come up with something new. Orkut isn’t as huge in the US as it is in India, so there wouldn’t be comparable to the Facebook frenzy. Which means it would be upto us to use it wisely..

    Here’s another one who’s waiting for it to open up :D

  6. Chandra on October 11th, 2007 7:47 am

    it will be huge in India… cant wait to see an official release from Google.

  7. sandeepbhati on October 24th, 2007 7:00 am

    i need indian railways API (database)
    train schedule,timing etc

    reply asap

  8. Roj on October 28th, 2007 5:22 am

    What kind of applications would you folks be interested in seeing for Orkut?

  9. Ashish (CitiPals) on October 29th, 2007 5:59 pm

    hey guys, yes, this is indeed exciting. we are already working on an app for facebook and would very much like to leverage the social graph on orkut. yes, totally aware that orkut is the social n/w for India but facebook has been making strides as well. Would definitely love to invite folks on this forum and get their thoughts on the app we plan to release in the coming weeks.

    -Ashish.

  10. pranav on October 31st, 2007 8:57 pm

    Ashish - are you guys releasing the moviematch or an app for local listings ?

  11. manish ( citipals ) on February 22nd, 2008 1:36 am

    similar to moviematch on facebook, citipals has launched moviematch on bebo, using bebo’s open application platform ( which is a clone of facebook’s f8 ). the bebo moviematch app can be found at http://www.bebo.com/moviematch