About Social API & Motown

We propose that the browser maintains a list of "social platform providers". Each of these can be defined by a small text file, distributed through the web, and discoverable through normal page markup techniques. This file could be, in fact, an Open Web Application Manifest - which contains the name, icon, and service data needed for the browser to communicate with the web property.

Each manifest contains several URLs, which, taken together, allow the browser and the service provider to work together to provide social experiences in the browser. These addresses are loaded into the browser in a slightly different contexts than a normal web page, and have some "special powers," reflecting the deeper relationship users have with a social platform, and assuming a higher level of trust by the user. The service provider can update an always-visible screen area, request notification for "pushed" events, and open windows that are "pinned" to a single web domain. Because of these special powers, it's important that the user is always in control of which social platform providers get loaded, and can switch them on and off whenever he or she likes.

The Social API includes both "back-end" integration, which is largely invisible to the user, and "front-end" integrations, which display new user interface elements to the user.