So we’re winding down what Newsweek predicted would be the Year of the Widget. I don’t think it played out that way, but maybe I missed something. (Like predictions being worth reading.)
If there ever was any real widget momentum underway, it crashed when facebook kicked open the Platform. (Feel free to hit me in the comments for using facebook and open in the same sentence.)
I didn’t like the use of the platform label when Zuckerberg first declared it. But 10,000+ facebook apps make the use difficult to dispute.
I’m not typing on the virtues of facebook here. Personally, I think the thing sucks - all ur bits r belong to facebook. But we definitely feel the significance of the facebook platform a hell of a lot more than any supposed widgetization of the web. (This coming from a work request point of view.)
Enough talk of the borg. The idea that we’re declaring working models is far more significant. Let’s example in on Twitter again. Popular opinion holds it as a working model. So, rather than build a standalone app to track iou’s, why not grab on to the API and drop a new publishing rule into the existing ecology?
I like platforms. Experimentation gets easier. It’s not the new way of doing things, it’s another way. The web is gaining sophistication.
Great point. If it’s a real platform, we should build libraries of functionality on top that we can all share. I think many (including me) have been looking at the API from the wrong angle.