For a user, the Internet is just a dynamic application. All of the websites and apps and everything else add up to the same abstract features that are present in any desktop app:

1. Store/read data
2. Query for data
3. Write/edit data

That's a useful conceptual framework for planning a successful startup in today's internet.

After doing some research, I realized there was a major flaw in my previous post regarding the potential of OpenSocial - the new standard will not allow member data to move between the various participating social networks. For now, the gardens will remain walled. Cattle? Safe!

So what this means is that if you build an app, you can plug it into any social network that participates in the OpenSocial standards, but not across multiple participating social networks.

Update: check this for a clarification on a seriously flawed assumption in this post.

Initially, I spent a lot of time thinking about OpenSocial in terms of Widgets/Apps/Gadgets, which is I think where people want us looking: it's in the big graphic on the Google documentation and it's what made Facebook so sexy to developers.