A few days ago, rumours surfaced of a possible alliance between Facebook and Nokia — which would mean, among other things, Facebook being bundled as a default application on the Finnish company’s future handsets and, I’d assume, a corresponding veto on any competing social network sharing that space.

While the news itself isn’t earth-shattering, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the parallels emerging between the coming social network war and the browser war we lived through years ago.

If you were around for that one, you’ll remember the dirty tricks both sides resorted to (</marquee>, </blink>, </frame> and other horrors) and the collateral damage it caused (websites only compatible with “optimised for” IE/Netscape, or the five-year “rest” in Internet Explorer’s development). In short: anything goes to monopolise the market, followed by the inevitable stifling of innovation that comes with it.

Now it looks like we’re starting to see something similar play out. Two sides: Facebook + Microsoft on one, and everyone else (MySpace, Orkut, Hi5…) + Google on the other.

• Facebook: I’ll give you my API, but you code in my language, the users are mine, and the apps you build don’t leave my house. Oh, and almost forgot — the advertising is mine too.
• Google: I’ll give you my API (OpenSocial), you code in standard languages, the users are yours, and you can take your app anywhere you like. The only thing I control is everything else (including the advertising).
• Facebook: I pursue alliances to get my social network bundled on every platform, securing my lead.
• Google: I build platforms (Android, OpenSocial) that every social network is welcome to join, let them fight over their slice of the pie while I become the universal platform.

Laid out like this, the right choice seems obvious — but other factors come into play (like the near-unpredictable choices of users), which ultimately tilt the scales back to level and leave the future somewhat uncertain.

For our part, the answer is clear: the social network world is on its way to becoming a mainstream communication medium, and for that to happen its core features need to be standardised. That standardisation must be driven by an alliance between the industry’s leading players, in the interest of fostering innovation and competition.

We can’t make the same mistake twice and let the future of the web fall back into the hands of a single large company. The future is open!