Google announced yesterday that Orkut won't go live with Opensocial in February, well, not exactly. A few developers have been selected and their applications will appear in the initial directory during a testing phase that will last up to four weeks.
Who's got a golden ticket? :: This question reverberated throughout the Orkut Developer Community yesterday following the announcement, which was posted on
Orkut's new Developer Blog.
The typical stream of activity in Google's developer group slowed to a crawl as developers world-wide tried to digest this information while anxiously awaiting an
email that, for 99% of us, did not appear.
Group Project Manager Amar Gandhi's announcement was short and sweet, noting that: "We'll push just a few apps to production" and "If you submitted an app, but are not selected for the pre-launch testing phase, hang tight...".
They will begin whitelisting applications at the end of this four week 'pre-launch testing phase', according to the blog post.
Apparently, this decision was made because "We (Google) feel that this pre-launch testing period will ensure that users are introduced to apps in the best way possible." At the time of this writing, Google has not responded to developer concerns related to this announcement.
The delay also seriously affects developer timelines prior to launch, as launch dates for individual networks are seeming to merge.
It's worth noting that in one of their first blog posts, MySpace expressed their intentions with respect to how their release will be handled.
Update :: Thursday, February 28th
Lane LiaBraaten (from Google) dropped a note in Google's Orkut Developer Group last night clarifying Google's original blog post. He noted that: "It wasn't very clear in the blog post that this testing period will involve a very limited set of people, less than 1% of orkut users".
Many concerns regarding Orkut's 'pre-launch testing phase' ( which originally read like a full blown launch with limited attendance ), should now be completely alleviated.
To make a long story short: Google has postponed an Opensocial launch on Orkut for a few weeks in order to complete (minimal) user testing prior to launch.
Update :: Saturday, March 1
Another launch plan clarification was released from Google on Friday, 02/29. This clarification also addressed the previous application submission deadline and noted that: "Apps that were submitted and approved before Feb 16th will be deployed at launch". For the many developers who scrambled to assemble code for the submission deadline, this information is likely most welcomed.
Group Project Manager Amar Gandhi also stated that "Leveling the playing field for all developers is a top priority, and we will do everything we can to make sure this happens".
Way to go!
So when is the launch?
The recent announcement implies another four weeks of waiting, which puts us at the end of March. Of course, this is only tentative, and applies only to Orkut.
A more recent post on the MySpace blog implies that we may have an Official MySpace Launch Date sometime this week. Very Cool!
Also, don't forget about Hi5, Ning, and others, who are preparing to Launch Opensocial to the Consumer. We are looking forward to official launch announcements from these and other networks.
Update :: Friday, March 7
This past week, both MySpace and hi5 announced their upcoming launch dates.
Per this new post on the MySpace Developer Blog, the MDP ( MySpace Developer Platform ) will go live to MySpace users on the 13th of March. This 'Soft Launch' will also include a gallery for application listings. Stay tuned to the MySpace Developer Blog for more information.
Hi5 also announced that their platform will go live soon. They've asked that developers have their app in the Hi5 sandbox by March 28th in order to join the party at launch time. (If anybody has a link to this announcement page, please send it our way.)