Social networks think that the members’ data is what differentiates them from other social networks. The data using which they draw social graphs or find contexts for advertising is gold and there is no way that can be shared. While there was a small project called DataPortability.org aimed at making data portable and networks interoperable, social network members used unusual ways of extracting their own data. [Continue]

Jason Kottke notes that Facebook is AOL 2.0. Valleywag notes that both are closed. Scott Heiferman’s quote is gold While at Sony in 1994, I was sent to Virginia to learn how to build a Sony “app” on AOL (the #3 online service, behind Compuserve & Prodigy at the time) using AOL’s proprietary “rainman” platform. [Continue]

Facebook plans to be a platform that has the potential to give birth to industries. Already one of the fastest growing sites with a rich profile of users, Facebook could go anywhere. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, explained that it intended to become an operating system to support full applications. [Continue]

Vauhini Vara at WSJ reports Facebook is planning to provide service pages for integrating with other services. Before you think that this is the same Web 2.0 trend about opening up APIs, look for the phrase “within its popular website”. On Thursday, the Palo Alto, Calif., company will announce a new strategy to let other companies provide their services on special pages within its popular Web site. [Continue]