Earlier this week we heard that MySpace will launch its 3rd party developer platform in just a few weeks. And of course the instigator of large scale social networking platforms, Facebook, announced their "open platform" in May 2007. Although it turned out to be not quite so open, the Facebook platform has been probably the year's biggest Web success story to date.

So the social network 'platform wars' will be well and truly on, once MySpace and now Bebo launch their developer platforms! Watch this space for more on the Bebo news...

Tim and John talk about "innovation in display" and assembly; a lot of companies will show that here. The conference will show what companies are doing with the web platform, talking to a lot of platform leaders. Issues that will be addressed: open vs closed, data models, future of entertainment, young users just coming to the platform.

All platforms allow developers to create games for PCs, Macs, Nintendo Wiis, and iPhones. The free version, formerly known as Unity Indie, was previously priced at $199. Broke and/or stingy devs are welcomed to download the platform here. The pro version of Unity's platform will continue to sell for around $1,500.

In a statement released today, CEO David Helgason said, "With the explosive growth in new platforms and performance improvement in our Unity suite of products, we believe that there are no technical hurdles remaining for high quality interactive content everywhere.

"Now we are removing financial hurdles as well. Unity is mature enough and easy enough to use that it can be the entry point for those developers taking their first steps with the technology."

With the 2.6 release of the platform, Unity provides full support for external versioning tools such as Subversion, Perforce, or any other version control system. Unity has also added Visual Studio integration and can automatically sync a VS project to source code so all scripts are in the solution and IntelliSense is configured.

Lest you think the entire endeavor is completely altruistic on AOL's part, the Open Mobile Platform is also the unified "software module" that AOL hinted at last September, which the company hopes will push its services and APIs onto as many mobile devices as possible. The platform is designed to play nice with third-party APIs, as well as those from AOL including AIM, AOL Mail, AOL Video, MapQuest, Userplane, Truveo, and Winamp. AOL is counting on developers to create mobile applications that lean on AOL services and can be deployed across multiple mobile device operating systems.

The platform is also about pushing AOL advertising services onto the mobile web, as well. "The AOL Open Mobile Platform will also give developers the ability to monetize their mobile applications by utilizing advertising resources, such as clickable banner ads, provided by AOL's Platform-A," wrote the company in a press release.

Some have suggested that the real battle for online supremacy will be fought on mobile devices, and that Microsoft's recently rebuffed bid for Yahoo! has as much to do with mobile as with competing on search or text advertising. With AOL's name dragged into the fray as a possible alternative for Yahoo!, their mobile efforts become that much more interesting.

Today Bebo has fully lifted the lid on their platform plans - and surprisingly it has ended up aligning itself to the Facebook platform. Surprising, because previously it had declared itself a partner in Google's competing OpenSocial.

The Inside Facebook blog reports that the Bebo platform is almost identical to Facebook's - it is nearly 100% compatible, in that the APIs, markup language, and query language are all the same. The Bebo Platform is launching tonight with 40 application developer partners and media partners such as NBC Universal and Flixster.

A post today on the official Facebook blog notes that Facebook is opening up its platform architecture to other social networks. So this move by Bebo/Facebook is certainly a move against Google's OpenSocial. Although it looks like Bebo may be trying to have its cake and eat it too, by declaring support for both Facebook and OpenSocial.

In related news, Webware reports that Friendster has fully launched its developer platform with more than 180 applications available to its 56 million registered users. Friendster first announced the platform on October 25.

"I believe the web is a platform. And that everything we need for an open ad market, or an open data architecture, or frankly most anything else, is available on the "web platform" today."

The reason I like that rough definition is it recognizes that content, media, markets, social apps - and lots of other things - are being built on the Web today. Too often people equate the Web as Platform idea to new software built with AJAX. I won't bring out the rather lame 'Web 2.0 is about people' line, but I will say that the Web is a platform for many more things than just software. Look at the Web innovation happening in libraries, as just one example.

Delving into the Web as Platform... I'm in the middle of exploring mashups - of all forms - and data models. I haven't written much about it yet in R/WW, because I've been busy doing and studying (and working!). But sooner or later an outpouring of blogging will occur on R/WW around these themes :-) In the meantime, I want to highlight a comment left by Ramana Kovi in Fred's post. Ramana made a valiant attempt at categorizing the 'Web as Platform' concept. He is building a DLA platform of his own called ePlatform, so he has probably thought a lot about this. 

Ramana puts Web platform vendors into the following categories:

Core services

1. Authentication system (e.g. SXIP, Passport)
2. Payment System ( e.g. Paypal)
3. Reputation System ( e.g. Opinity)
4. Credit/Risk Management System (Dun & Bradstreet/FICO )
5. ...
6. .....

Data services

1. Product Catalog Services ( e.g. Amazon/iTunes etc)
2. Mapping services ( Google/Yahoo/MSN/Map quest)
3. News services ( Reuters/AP)
4. Ad Network ( Adword)
5. ...
6. ….

3. Communication/Collaboration Services

1. E-Mail
2. Calendar & Messaging
3. Blogs
4. Wikis
5. Social networks
6. ....

I think this is a very useful way of looking at the 'Web as Platform' concept (aka Web 2.0). How about we make an attempt here on my blog to fill out Ramana's categories. I'm going to think about the Data Services in particular. Please add to the above list started by Ramana in the comments below. I'll do an update post in a few days with a complete list, provided I get a good response. I'll be adding things too in the comments (right now I have to get back to my paid work!).

It won't be a very warm welcome compared to the Facebook lovefest. Though this should be unsurprising, LinkedIn's platform will require permission from the company before developers can get in on the action. Though Facebook apps do need to be added by Facebook to the app directory, a quick look through there shows that the bar is low enough that it may as well be open to all.

LinkedIn will focus its platform on letting developers tie LinkedIn functionality to outside services (Salesforce is the example given, surprise surprise) and to adding buttoned-up business functionality to LinkedIn itself.

It's Not a Social Network!

Nye also told the Times that LinkedIn doesn't consider itself a social network, either. That's funny, that's what Facebook loudly insisted on to its developers pre-platform launch, too. They weren't allowed to mention MySpace or the phrase social networking in their PR. Facebook is a social utility - they insisted. That was an eye-roller at the time and sounds even sillier now.

We'll see what the LinkedIn platform looks like when the rubber finally hits the road, but when it happens - don't quit your day job to be a LinkedIn app developer.

1. NewsGator API
2. Google Reader platform
3. Windows RSS Platform
4. Feeds as a platform
5. State of the aggregator

I don't really have anything to add, being busy in the middle of other work right now. But I wanted to at least point to Niall's posts, because it's 'must read' material for anybody interested in RSS and microcontent aggregation. As he summarized in the State of the aggregator post:

"We have only just begun to explore the full possibilities of current feed technologies. Rich media enclosures, related content definitions, and well-defined author data open up new possibilities for user interaction and content discoverability. I believe most future uses of syndication technology will occur behind the scenes as a transport layer opening up a common XML parsing format to multiple applications and specialized uses. We've only just begun to change the world of publishing, customization, and personal empowerment."

Go check it out... also Dare Obasanjo summarized a recent ETech presentation on the same themes.

Flickr pic by JoshB

The Content Engagement Platform is a complete widget solution that delivers authoring, distribution, monetization, and analytics. MuseStorm CEO Ori Soen says their platform can help businesses "take syndicated content to the next level."

MuseStorm is aiming their end-to-end platform at enterprise-grade deployments. In their press release announcing the platform, they tout a partnership with Simon & Schuster books, which used the Content Engagement Platform to create and deploy widgets on their BookVideos.tv web site. According to MuseStorm, the book publisher is using their advanced analytics module to track individual plays of author video within their widgets. Simon & Schuster is a subsidiary of CBS, who we reported in May was working with MuseStorm to create widgets. A breakdown of the four pieces of the MuseStorm widget syndication platform is below:

• Authoring - MuseStorm's widget creation application (Widget Studio) simplifies the platform of creating cross-platform widgets that can be deployed on the web or desktop. The company says their app makes building a widget "as easy as creating a PowerPoint presentation." A screenshot of the Widget Studio is above.
• Distribution - The distribution arm of MuseStorm's platform can deploy widgets in a variety of formats, including to almost any web page, start page, blogging platform, or social network. Widgets can also be deployed on the desktop (Dashboard widgets, Windows gadgets, Yahoo! Konfabulator) and on mobile phones or over instant messaging systems. MuseStorm says that they're always adding new distribution channels and are currently seeking partnerships with start pages and social networks.
• Monetization - The Capitalize module of the MuseStorm platform integrates ads into widgets. The module supports a variety of ad networks, says MuseStorm, can deliver contextual, action-triggered, and rich media ads and can integrate with the analytics module for tracking of ad campaigns and user engagement.
• Analytics - The crown jewel of their widget platform, MuseStorm's Total Analytics package gives publishers complete usage and interaction statistics.

"With our technology, companies can interact with their audiences via the Web on their browsers, desktops, or mobile devices to better understand and respond to their preferences," said Soen. "We believe that there are limitless opportunities to capitalize on this strong audience engagement." MuseStorm is based in Israel and was founded in 2005.

The "Etelos Platform Suite" is squarely aimed at Enterprise. Etelos Founder and CEO Danny Kolke said in the announcement that "our larger partners want the opportunity to have their own marketplaces and tools to manage distribution channels." He also noted that large partners now have applications "that they need to move to the web for implementation and scalability."

This is precisely what IBM recently told us, when explaining why Big Blue is now making serious moves in the browser. IBM told us that their customers don't want to do installs anymore, that they want the rich experience that desktop apps have traditionally provided - but they want to have it in the browser. IBM is the biggest software services company in the world for enterprises, so if they are moving applications to the browser - it's clearly what most big enterprises want these days. Therefore we think this is a very smart move by Etelos, one that is sure to find good demand from enterprises.

Although the terminology is a bit confusing (over-use of the words 'platform' and 'SaaS', for a start), it's worth breaking down what makes up the Etelos Platform Suite. According to Etelos, it consists of four key products:

• SaaS Application Platform: Technology that enables traditional ("shrink-wrapped") software to be distributed as Software as a Service.
• SaaS Marketplace Platform: Easily managed Marketplace that integrates licensing, billing and account management that is designed for Web app distribution.
• SaaS Distribution Platform: Turnkey Marketplace with a company's products or services integrated into it.
• SaaS Syndication Platform: Application developers can publish their app via a network of distributors.

We will continue to track what innovative startups like Etelos, and bigcos like IBM, are doing in the Web Office space. See ReadWriteWeb's Enterprise channel for more news and analysis on these trends.

Previously the Bebo platform was only available to a select group of media and developer partners, including NBC Universal, CBS, NBA, Yahoo!, RockYou, Slide, and others. As of now, there are 63 apps in their Developer website - Bebo obviously hopes to ramp this up quickly now that anyone can develop apps.

As we noted in December, the Bebo platform is almost identical to Facebook's - it is nearly 100% compatible, in that the APIs, markup language, and query language are all the same. So Bebo is supporting Facebook Platform standards currently. Having said that, Bebo still supports Google's competing standard OpenSocial - or at least they will when OpenSocial is ready for action. It's unclear at this point how Bebo will be able to support what is shaping up to be two competing standards!

Bebo has a reported 40 million users and it is the leading social network in countries like UK and New Zealand. Practically speaking, Bebo will be relying on its support of Facebook standards to increase their third party apps well past 63. Facebook has thousands of third party apps, so Bebo is banking on a lot of those getting added to Bebo too.

Related: Hyped New Platforms: Explaining the Difference Between One and the Other

The new MyAOL platform is an OpenSocial container based on the gadgets.*API, meaning developers shouldn't have to do much to get their widgets up and running on it. A fair number of MyAOL gadgets already have millions of users, so the new developer site seems like a real opportunity.

The new MyAOL platform enters the game at a complicated time. Widgets, little modules of content and functionality easily embedded into websites but built by 3rd parties, were supposed to be the future of the web, according to some advocates in recent years. The Facebook Platform was heralded as the widget Holy Land, but key site design decisions treated widgets poorly from the start and subsequent Facebook redesigns have banished them to near invisibility.

Defenders of the platform argue that the redesigned site just keeps really stupid apps from proliferating, making it all the more important to build widgets for actual utility. Scott Rafer, the genuinely brilliant if cynical co-founder of widget ad company Lookery, says the new Facebook is dead to him as a widget man. As a bulk-ad sales guy, Rafer's company deals in very large part with really stupid widget apps. So it goes. If your platform isn't supportive of stupid widgets, then your platform essentially doesn't support widgets at all.

MyAOL is Big

MyAOL is a good old fashioned startpage. An increasing number of AOL properties have recently started incorporating 3rd party content and moving towards a strategy of openness. AOL has a bad rap but is doing some innovative things.

The company's new platform gives third party developers access to a large group of users. How big is the AOL platform? 10 million people have installed the AOL Weather widget, 6 million have installed the Topix.net news app and there are 1 million AOL Pandora users. Those are very respectable numbers! In fact, they are much higher than almost all of the Facebook app numbers, though Facebook only exposes "active users."

The point is, it's a strange time for the much-hyped widget but the opening of the MyAOL platform represents a good opportunity. In Firefox on my Mac the site doesn't work very well, but it works well enough for millions of people. Widgets remain a promising paradigm, if only the host sites are truly comfortable promoting widget use for the long term, instead of burying 3rd party widgets and renewing their focus on in-house links.

Monetizing a Button

The AddThis platform, which we also use here on RWW, should be a good fit for Clearspring, though it is not quite clear how Clearspring could monetize the service.

For users, AddThis is simply a convenient way to share and bookmark interesting sites. The problem with this, of course, is that a bookmarking button is extremely hard to monetize. Unlike some of its competitors like delicious or ma.gnolia, AddThis is not a destination site for most of its users, but simply a feature provided by the publisher.

Clearspring is clearly looking to expand its audience, but, as Josh Catone points out, it also gives Clearspring access to an enormous vault of data about sharing on the net, which it could use to build an advertising and marketing platform. Over time, it will be interesting to see how Clearspring plans to integrate these two products.

Some wondered after Google's App Engine announcement Monday evening when Microsoft would offer a competing cloud computing platform. The biggest tip off from the job advertisement that Red Dog is it, is that the CIS team wants the platform to "lead the marketplace as the best platform for rapid development, deployment, and maintenance of internet services and applications." Microsoft will supposedly roll out a first version of Red Dog to "external customers" (defined later as "ISV customers who are ... early adopters") this year.

As Kniskern points out, not much is known about Red Dog at this point, but indications seem to point to some sort of platform as a service offering from Microsoft dropping within the next year.

Note: No, that's not a real Red Dog logo. It's just Clifford The Big Red Dog with a tiny Windows Live logo dangling from his collar...

Robert Scoble has written a couple of posts recently about Microsoft products being a platform:

1. Robert quoting Kevin Warbach: "The Internet companies that have thrived while AOL faltered -- Microsoft, Amazon.com, eBay, Google -- have two things in commons. They are deeply technology-driven, but they see technology not as an end in itself but as a platform."

And a day later...

2. "Well, the Web is what the Web is. I can see tons of places that Amazon could be tons better, if the platform underneath was better. But, yeah, the Web is awesome. So was the Model T, in its time."

The implication clearly is that the Web is past its prime and should be sent to the glue factory like a spent racehorse. To which I reply, well maybe the Web has some deficiencies as a platform for 2003-era Internet applications. But the Web still has one thing going for it which beats everything - it's FREE. Yes the World Wide Web is FREE, as in both speech and beer. That's gotta count for something, right?

update

Robert responds: "It certainly does! The Model T was the first affordable car, too. But, can we move beyond that?"

Sure but can't we build on the platform we already have - the Web - rather than create new ones? No one company - not Microsoft, not Google - owns the Web. The Web is decentralized and it operates on a few basic open standards - URI's, HTTP and HTML. The Web is more like a road than a car. Not that I want to resurrect the "Information Superhighway" metaphor from the 90's! But my point is the Web is the de-facto platform, built on a few universal protocols. Let's build on what is already free and usable.

Right, I'll get off my soapbox now...