Netscapisation: The Next Big Thing?

Everyone these days has a profile on a networking site like Facebook or MySpace. These first-generation sites set the standard in their fields. For example, Facebook started out as a network for college students specifically, but opened its doors to any interested user in an effort to compete with MySpace. MySpace, on the other hand, has borrowed some of Facebook's ideas. For example, users can now tag themselves and each other in MySpace images, a feature long missing on the older site. This competition has seen a rapid evolution of the way we network online, a far cry from plain-text profiles and boring message boards.

Recently, I decided to abstain from MySpace altogether. I liked Facebook's cleaner, more efficient layout, and the lack of garish, hard-to-read profiles. Of course, I was faced with the same problem as anyone else who has ever tried to make this jump. It was like the Iron Curtain stood between the two sites. Some of my friends already had Facebook profiles, but how could I keep up with the lives of those who refused to leave their beloved MySpace? A recent article in The Economist argues that it's only a matter of time before the "walled gardens" of proprietary social networking go the way of Internet providers like AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy.

The term "Netscapisation" refers to the abandoning of old, proprietary systems in favor of open standards. This is taken from the way that users migrated from, say, the closed-off America Online in the late '90s. A sizable population left AOL's internal chats, instant messaging and exclusive features in favor of the electronic frontier of an Internet and World Wide Web governed by open standards and brought into their home by browsers like Netscape. No longer was it a problem for an AOL user and a user of, say, Earthlink to share links and be able to see the same content.

Now, companies like Google aim to bring open standards to social networking sites. The search giant has already launched its own networking site, orkut, done in an elegant, clean, typically "Google" style. Now, it's trying to open the channels of communication with other sites. Ning, Bebo and MySpace have already signed on in support of Google's OpenSocial API. This is basically a set of programming standards and libraries that will allow people to use the same app (such as a comment board or music player) on any networking site that supports OpenSocial.

The standard premiered last fall on several sites. Aside from the capability to make games and other fun widgets, apps written using the OpenSocial API have methods for accessing things like your friends list or profile, the things at the core of a site like MySpace. But will they succeed? One application, iLike on the Ning network, took just 20 minutes to crack, fueling concerns about security. After all, who would want to use something like that if some unsavory individual could gain access to your private messages and friends list? All the same, saying that Google's solution isn't the right one doesn't mean a right one won't be along soon.

Facebook has been developing its own platform and has its own following of developers. If it proves to be better, it would be a small step to open up the standards and let people on other networks use the same Vampire game or the same Takes All Types app. The next stage would be the ability to send messages and get news feeds from one site to another, through media like e-mail and RSS. What does this mean to the user? The Iron Curtain is coming down.