Google 'matures' with free application project

13th May 2008

Search supremo Google has revealed plans to offer website developers free applications.

The company's engineering director, David Glazer, said that the project represented a shift from 'protectionism' to a more open approach in the social networking sphere.

"Social activity on the web has been bottled up in a handful of sites. As things mature on the web they become more open and more interoperable," Mr Glazer told AFP.

He was speaking after MySpace announced plans to make personal details stored on the site transportable to alternative providers, such as Twitter.

The News Corporation-owned site's revelation was followed by a similar statement from Facebook, which is planning its own data sharing project.

Facebook also this week revealed it is to adopt a heftier approach to security in order to protect younger consumers.

Entitled Friend Connect, the Google initiative was unveiled at California's Googleplex campus earlier this week.

It would see applications, photo sharing galleries and message boards made available to website owners for no charge.