But that same scale also makes attacking an OpenSocial application a more attractive proposition for hackers.
The group released a set of standards, called OpenSocial, that allows software developers to write applications that work with any social network that participates.
The first of those OpenSocial vulnerabilities hasn't taken long to surface.
OpenSocial's temptation for hackers means member sites should be careful to limit the reach of applications into users' information or other sensitive areas, says Adam Nash.
Safely implementing OpenSocial's applications will require teamwork between Google and the sites entering into its new network, says David Glazer, a senior product engineer at Google.
He says the OpenSocial APIs are based largely on the ones used for Google Gadgets, the applications Google lets users install on their "iGoogle" personal home pages.
But they illustrate the vulnerability of Google's new platform, and raise the question of who's responsible for OpenSocial's security: application developers, social networking sites or Google itself?
But OpenSocial's huge network may create a bigger target for social networking site hackers than has ever existed before, says Adam Nash, senior director of products at business networking site LinkedIn.
Earlier this month, Google pushed the "everyone is welcome" attitude to its extreme with OpenSocial, a partnership of social networks that will let developers create a common set of applications to be used across many sites.
OpenSocial's greatest strength could be its greatest weakness: Google hopes applications developers will work with OpenSocial technology because they need only write an app once for it to run on many popular sites, including Orkut, MySpace, Friendster and Bebo.
OpenSocial's greatest strength could be its greatest weakness: Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) hopes applications developers will work with OpenSocial technology because they need only write an app once for it to run on many popular sites, including Orkut, MySpace, Friendster and Bebo.
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