A lot of hype surrounds OpenSocial, but a few things may keep it from taking off the way Facebook applications have.

#1 - Can it be monetized?
If developers can’t make money off the applications, then what is the point of developing on the platform?

#2 - Is it truly open?
Can you communicate across social networks? Can I get my friends list on Plaxo, Orkut and Myspace — or is it limited to the container?

#3 - Will it really be a standard — or a mess in six months?
Founder of Ning.com has said that containers will be able to develop API’s specific to their container. What happens in six months when Myspace has a ‘bulletin’ API, Ning has a friend finder API, and Orkut has a photo gallery API — all completely different and none that work across networks?