Microsoft exec trashes Google's OpenSocial
What does Microsoft's $240 million investment in Facebook really buy? A chance for the longtime Web laggard to finally rag on Google innovations, of course. So what did Microsoft VP Chris Jones say about Google's OpenSocial, an initiative to let developers build "widgets," or small Web apps, for multiple social networks? Jones insists on calling them "gadgets" instead of widgets — a sign of how out of touch they are in Redmond — but other than that, in an interview with News.com, the nyah-nyah tone of his playground taunt is clear:
It's more of a gadget platform than a social-networking approach. It's a way to add gadgets to pages with a couple of extensions to it. That's been a very interesting thing for Facebook and it's taken off, and OpenSocial to me looks like a way for a set of people to try to participate in that phenomenon that's happened on Facebook.