All this talk of Google’s OpenSocial networking initiative reminds me of college, where yelling “Social!” at a party meant everyone drank. Which, when you think about it is a pretty good analogy for what Google is doing. It yells “OpenSocial” and partners line up to guzzle the sweet widget Kool-Aid (Goog-Aid?).
Let’s remove the metaphor and make OpenSocial a straight up drinking game. Fire up the frat boys (also known as your company’s sales team) and follow these simple rules.
Take a drink:
- Every time a social network or app developer signs up, which, with 27 partners already could end the game quickly.
- When a crestfallen Microsoft realizes people are buzzing about “OpenSocial” not Zune’s “the social.”
- For every dollar above $700 Google stock hits.
- For every dumb vampire, werewolf, zombie, pie-throwing, super-poking FBML widget that you’ll never have to write again.
- Every time Google reminds you that Orkut is HUGE in Brazil.
- For every crappy emo band on MySpace who can now more easily inflict their pained junior-high lyrics across a multitude of networks.
- For every day Facebook holds out, patiently waiting for Google to call them and join the Open Social.
And finally, drown your sorrows when you realize the Google-Bot is now your god, and you bow before it. (Om recommends Bourbon for this segment of the drinking game.)
12 comments so far
8:59 PM PT
Okay… now where is Om’s promised commentary on OpenSocial?
9:39 PM PT
Hahaha, those are priceless.
I especially like the one about always being reminded how huge Orkut is in brazil.
Here’s a geeky one: Create a google alert for “opensocial” and set the alerts to be “as they come”. Then, for every time a new alert comes through, you take a drink.
12:14 AM PT
I suspect you to be drunk after 3 minutes. Really.
5:24 AM PT
[...] can read more about this at TechCrunch, Gigaom, or at [...]
7:10 AM PT
[...] GigaOm fala em 27 ou 29? (ou já seriam 30 ou 31?) parceiros até agora. Por enquanto, estão mais ligados a redes de [...]
7:38 AM PT
Hahaha, the total benifit goinng to evil G. Drain money from others.
Have pray for evil G on Sunday?
10:57 AM PT
facebook search is down
4:04 PM PT
Google, Yahoo etc to have an Open Contact information etc, that maintains my name, email address, physical address, list of friends , etc.
So If I search on Google Maps for driving directions to “Sam’s house”, Google Maps should access my friends contacts and find the directions directly. Or If I say , on Google Talk or Yahoo messenger, to call “Sam’s phone”, then it should find Sam in my contacts phonelist and call the person up.
And one should be able to import contacts etc from each others databases. While Google’s OpenSocial helps developers by helping them leverage their code, this Open Contact will help the consumers by helping them leverage their contacts info , across multiple sites.
Similarly, my Groups (Yahoogroups, GoogleGroups, etc) should be portable across multiple social networksing sites. So on for my posts on walls, etc
Details in http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dthcr25_140g7wfqb
5:38 PM PT
Om:
You need to reflect what Microsoft/Facebook is GOING to do next into the equation.
Microsoft has such a hold on the platform, browser and applications at this point, that their next move will be important to watch. Microsoft still hold the windows and shades on how we interact with the internet.
90-95% (any guesses) of the time spent by most people are not on Google or MySpace. I am on GigaOm more than on Google, :-).
Another thing to watch will be the next steps from MySpace to control how OpenSocial turns out.
And the API’s on both sides are still somewhat close in what it provides. The show is not over yet.
1:15 PM PT
lmao, sounds like my weekend…
3:50 PM PT
I am flinching at how drunk we will all be after playing this, especially if you’re at a Googler-heavy party in Mountain View.
8:13 AM PT
Haha those are some funny drinking game rules. Shame the Google stock has gone way down from $700!
http://drinkingfungames.com
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