Yahoo, Google, and MySpace Versus Facebook

Beleaguered Web giant Yahoo, under takeover threat from Microsoft, has joined Google's OpenSocial consortium, which is developing universal standards for applications across social networks.

In a joint announcement, Yahoo, Google, and MySpace announced the creation of OpenSocial Foundation, which will "provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction."

The news brings the social networking landscape into clear relief: On one side, Google, Yahoo, and MySpace. On the other, Facebook and its partner Microsoft.

"Yahoo believes in supporting community-driven industry specifications and expects that OpenSocial will fuel innovation and make the web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions of users," said Wade Chambers, Yahoo's vice president for platforms.

"Our support builds on similar efforts with the OpenID community and will expand the opportunity for developers and publishers to benefit from an open and increasingly social Web," he added.

Yahoo's decision to join OpenSocial is important for Google, which has tried to portray the initiative as an open, community-wide effort, and not a proprietary Google project.

"OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning," said Joe Kraus, Google's director of product management. "The formation of this foundation will ensure that it remains so in perpetuity. Developers and websites should feel secure that OpenSocial will be forever free and open."

Meanwhile, Facebook affirmed that it would not join OpenSocial.

"Facebook has long been a leader and supporter of open source initiatives but will not join the foundation," Facebook said in a statement. "The company will continue to evaluate partnership opportunities that will benefit the 300,000 Facebook Platform developers while improving the Facebook user experience."

by Sam Gustin