Gigya launches beta of Socialize, more social sharing

Joining the ranks of heavyweights Google, Facebook, and MySpace, social widget startup Gigya has opened the beta of its social sharing platform Gigya Socialize.

Promptly following the $9.5 million investment the company received in March, Gigya Socialize falls in line with Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, and MySpace Data Availability.

Web sites using Gigya may implement the service in two ways: Flash-based plug-and-play components such as newsfeeds or sharing panels may be placed in the user's site, or the Gigya API may be directly accessed to incorporate data from participating third parties.

Currently, friend data from Gtalk and Orkut can be accessed, and contact lists can be built from Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL address books. As the company expands, it plans for its service to grow into a FriendFeed type of "all-in-one" social hub.

While the company may not be the biggest name of the bunch, data collected from industry analytics firm comScore counts over 120 million users of Gigya's widgets, and the recent influx of capital will help push the service forward. As the big names squabble over interoperability, the door is open for a "little guy" to come in and make a good showing.