What I've missed ...

OpenSocial - Google's new "Facebook Platform killer." After spending a weekend with it, I can say it's currently a nightmare. It's like they shoved their Google Gadget API into Orkut, and then called Orkut an "OpenSocial container." RockYou was one of the first to have an OpenSocial app up and running, and it was hacked within 45 minutes.

Facebook Ads - Ads that are both targeted and viral. I honestly have no idea how this is going to impact Facebook. In general, ads don't directly benefit the user.

Facebook Beacon - This is actually kind of cool. It's a way for external sites to publish your actions into Facebook. So, if I buy a movie ticket at Fandango, I can optionally have it post in my news feed that I'm attending the 9:30pm showing of Enchanted. It's hard not to look at this as a small response to OpenSocial, even though I'm sure it's been in the works for quite a while.

Windows Live - New services were officially released today. I'm using Windows Live Writer to compose this blog post. It's pretty slick, and was completely plug and play. Windows Live Mail also offers some slight improvements over Windows Mail, such as stationary, photo mail, emoticons, and other less flashy things I haven't noticed.