Get the picture!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 10:55 AM

Posted by Jason Cooper, orkut team

Late last week, we added API support for fetching albums and photos via apps running in the sandbox. Now your applications can request and display the viewer's public albums, enabling you to create an even richer, personalized experience for users.

To help you get started, we have published a tutorial which describes the new API calls available and how to use them. An API reference is also available on the OpenSocial wiki.

Since the Albums API is only available on the sandbox for now, please hold off on submitting your apps to the directory if they depend on this API. We will publish a new post when the Albums API is generally available.

Learn more about how Google is using OpenSocial and other technologies to make the web social at Google I/O, Google's annual developer conference, coming up in May. Early registration is now open.

OpenSocial Applications on orkut profiles

Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 5:01 PM

Posted by Vijaya Machavolu, orkut team

The orkut team is aware that a small subset of OpenSocial applications are being used to spread phishing attacks to orkut users. In order to ensure that we maintain our rigorous security standards, we have temporarily removed all applications from users' profile pages.

The functionality of these applications will not be affected. We're working on bringing these applications back to users' profile pages as quickly as possible, and applications will begin to reappear as this process continues.

Users can still access applications from the left nav bar and open them in canvas view. Applications will also continue to have access to the same API, allowing them to send messages and post updates to activity streams. We have found these to be the main drivers of application usage and believe that applications should continue to enjoy the same popularity.

This is the first step we're taking to help make applications safer and faster for our users. We'll be sure to keep you posted about these changes, so please stay tuned for updates. To learn more about building safe applications for orkut, please check out this blog post or visit the developer forum.