> Add APIs to let a 3rd party ecosystem develop.
Because they haven't done this? https://developers.google.com/+/
Because they haven't done this? https://developers.google.com/+/
And you're pretty wrong. You do that by posting App Activities via the Moments API (which the user controls the visibility of using Circles, just like any other posts.)
https://developers.google.com/+/api/moment-types/ These come in a number of different types with different semantic properties, with a generic fallback type, and a publicly posted process to request new types.