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All eyes should be on Google’s Annual Developer Conference, Google I/O next week. As the first Google I/O with the Google+ Team, and a serious read/write API yet to launch, I predict we are about to see an explosion of social apps at a level we haven’t seen since Facebook’s F8 Conference in 2007 when they launched their platform to the world. The parallels are very similar.

Let’s look first at the original APIs for both. Some may not be aware of this, but previous to Facebook’s 2007 F8 conference, they too had an API very similar to the state of Google+’s API today. Called “Facebook Developers”, the original API in 2006 was limited to a small number of requests per day, very similar to Google+’s current platform. It was mostly a read-only API, with, eventually, the ability to create widgets that could be embedded as apps on a person’s Wall – a new feature of Facebook at the time. You could also access very limited data about a person’s friend graph and wall posts. It wasn’t until F8 of 2007 that Facebook really opened the floodgates for this, increasing API requests, opening up the ability for “Canvas apps”, and giving full access to integrate apps into multiple “integration points” within Facebook itself. In fact, it wasn’t until years after that that developers could really start integrating this data into other websites and mobile apps. Just like Google+, Facebook took baby steps to launch their API, but when they were ready, they launched big.

Google+ is in a very similar state today. Their platform is limited in the number of requests you can make per minute, and per day. They only allow a few select enterprise partners write access to the news feed. They’ve opened up a few elements, such as games, to a few partners to integrate right on Google+, but in very limited form. They’re in a very similar state to Facebook in 2007. When Facebook launched though, developers came in droves, seeing user growth in the millions in a matter of days. Facebook itself grew significantly during this time.

It was during this time that I met Paul Allen, who was looking to launch his company, FamilyLink (originally called We’re Related). He and I both saw eye-to-eye on the power of this platform, and while we both took our separate ways we saw first hand the power of platforms like these.

While I’m sure Google has had the opportunity to learn from Facebook’s mistakes (Facebook has had to change their platform quite a bit since they originally launched), I anticipate we could see a similar flood when Google+ finally launches their full platform to the world. Will we see a Canvas Page-like approach? I’d guess we will – OpenSocial supports this and much of Google+’s current platform bases on OpenSocial standards.

I anticipate a number of integration points, a raised request limit, and as a result an increase in apps, and developers coming to the Google+ platform. There’s one advantage Google+ has over Facebook though: Google+ has Google. Remember always that Google+ is just a social layer over all Google products. That means even their platform will likely some day extend across all of their products. This is exciting, and what will bring similar success to developers in the same way Facebook did back in 2007.

Next week is a very exciting week for Google+ and Google as a company! I’ll be there every day of the conference, and I can’t wait to see what gets announced. To me this is one of the most exciting conferences in the history of Google, and it will be fun to have a front seat to this moment in history. Keep watching my stream on Google+, and on StayNAlive.com to keep updated of the event!

(Disclosure: FamilyLink is a former client of mine)

Originally posted on Google+!

The news is spreading today that LinkedIn’s database was hacked, and millions of users accounts have been compromised. I keep hearing over and over again to “change your password.” That’s smart. I changed mine this morning. Something that people aren’t saying though is that your other social networking accounts could be at risk as well thanks to LinkedIn’s poor security policies. Here’s why:

If you’re one of the majority of people that use your password on more than one social network (yes, I’m looking at you, because you’re likely one of them – there are even security professionals that make this mistake), the first thing I would do as a hacker once I decrypted the digested passwords obtained is not target your LinkedIn account. Instead, I’d start going through Facebook, Twitter, and even Google and start trying it there where I could do more damage.

Is it the same as your Gmail account? Sweet! I get some LOLz on your behalf, and I can now start making password requests, without your knowledge, to all of your other accounts. Now I can post to the Google+ Pages you manage. I can post to the Facebook Pages you manage. See where I’m getting?

If you were using the same password on LinkedIn as anywhere else important on the web, you need to go now and change your password there as well. Here are some quick tips as you do so:

Make it more than just a word and numbers. Make it a sentence, preferably with letters, spaces, numbers, and even non-alphanumeric numbers (like $ and * and others).
Keep it at least 10 characters long – if you take my above recommendation, that should be easy because sentences are easy to remember.
Use a different password for each social network. You could use a similar password, but add a different set of numbers or words to the end to help you remember which is which. Figure out a system that works for you and that you can remember.
If you can, rotate your passwords every so often. Change the numbers or words added to the end. Add a character or two. It’s up to you. That will prevent this from being a problem in the future.

These tips should keep you safe, and they really aren’t very difficult to do. You just have to build a system, and do it!

This article was shared first on Google+.

Month: June 2012

2012 Google I/O – Is This the 2007 Facebook F8?