It's great to hear that Marc Canter is writing a book, called 'How to build the Open Mesh'. He's been working for years on this vision with his product PeopleAggregator. He's just posted the four Appendices that conclude the book in his blog. It's a great overview of the major web platforms: Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Mesh, and Facebook/MySpace.
Here are Marc's comments, via his post, and you can click the images to see the diagrams. Disclosure: I used to do some consulting work for Marc's company, during 2005-06.
]]> Google
“What does Google’s Open Mesh look like?”
Most of the infrastructure, services and applications that Google offers work all by themselves and are not dependent upon anything else. Google has launched OpenSocial and built Google Friend Connect.
Yahoo!
“How is Yahoo building the open mesh?
Yahoo probably has the most comprehensive, well architected approach towards building their own open mesh. They've left lots of room for us without getting in our way. Now they just have to execute those plans!
Microsoft
“Will Microsoft connect their Live Mesh to our Open Mesh? …[and what about the rest of Microsoft?]
Live Mesh totally rocks and it'll probably become a key element of our open mesh. It'll gateway us to mobile, car, living room, game machines.
Facebook & MySpace
“Aren’t Facebook and MySpace really Closed Meshes?” … [ and how can we connect to them?]
Sending out tentacles or satellites isn't the same as being open.
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