Happy Halloween.  I am (probably) going to Salem to view the masses of ridiculously complexly costumed folks drunkenly wandering the streets.

But the point of this short but sweet update is something Google had up its sleeve and recently displayed slyly, like a magician who knows damn well he has your card (link to Marc Andreesen's blog, which is worth reading if you can figure out how to navigate to his old pages.  I think he has like 10 entries total.)

The gist of Google's gutsy move is that it has, with the consent of heavy hitters such as LinkedIn and Orkut, created an open API that can be used across many social networking sites.  This is typical Google brilliance:  many developers are afraid to develop apps for say, Facebook, due to fear that they will be trapped in a walled garden with no portability.  Now one app can be written and ported to many social sites with very minimal modification.  It is not perfectly cross-platform, however: Myspace and Yahoo have not deigned to sign on with this cabal of social climbers.

This is looking good for Google.  And even better for any social networking app startups.  Rock on, little friends.

UPDATE:  Myspace is now among the Open Social consortium.  The gods must be crazy.

 
 

I think this is more than enough Diplomats references for any blog, ever.  I promise I will stop.

I just wanted to touch on this, like every other dumbass blogger out today.  This is the most interesting piece of news to come off a major network in a long time, for those of us interested in startups.  I remember when (just a few years ago) Facebook was soundly ridiculed for not selling out for $875 million.  I was one of the people doing the ridiculing. 

For those of you too lazy to click the blue text, Facebook sold 1.6% of their stock to Microsoft for a cool $246 million,  Sit back and think about that for a second.  I and my co-founders were just in the running for the latest YC funding round, and we were pumped about getting maybe 20K.  And yes, I know it is more about the connections than the money.  But still, to anyone starting a startup, or even contemplating it, chew on this:  the current valuation of Facebook is in the neighborhood of $15 billion.  With a B.  Ford Motors is worth $18 billion, in comparison. 

I'd also like to touch on the significance of this to Microsoft.  It is the smartest thing I have seen them do in quite some time.  As I read in some other random blog linked to Hacker News, some envision the role of Microsoft morphing into a company that soaks up hot startups to add innovation to their otherwise quite stale product.  I sincerely hope that this is the case; it would be really interesting indeed to see Microsoft in such a role. 

I'm heading down to Boston tonight.  Now seems like a good opportunity to add this link, in case you actually want to see what Sean is up to 'round the clock*:

http://twitter.com/cagedbird

*DIsclaimer:  Twitter is weirdly addictive.  You've been warned.