notice how the first item in the "what this API can do" in the Documentation is:
"Build applications without maintaining your own server."

I'm sure they would LOVE to host your social network data for you. That keeps Google in the envious position of always having more information about people and their networks than anybody else on the planet.

I realize that many critics have started arguing that we are in a "post privacy" era, but damn, letting someone else know exactly who I associate with, what they look like, where they live, what they buy, etc.... it's really kinda scary.

They tout this as putting users in control of their social network data, but I don't know that that's actually true.

Hm.... Google just wants the data to be open so they can have access to it -- figuring they can mine that data better than anybody else since they have the best tools and other data about us already.

Plus, I'm so sick of Javascript (argh....) :)