OpenSocial APIs allow developers to create a single web-based application that can work on any number of social networking sites.
A single application could be created which uses data from any site or adds a new function between several services.
"Yahoo believes in community-driven industry specifications and expects OpenSocial to fuel innovation and make the web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions of users," said Wade Chambers, vice president of platforms at Yahoo.
"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."
Yahoo also announced that it will partner with Google and MySpace to form a non-profit group dedicated to the technical and legal aspects of OpenSocial.
OpenSocial.org will develop frameworks for handling intellectual property and governance issues, and establish guidelines for documentation and technical issues.
Google was quick to welcome Yahoo into the OpenSocial fold, which now includes LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster and Salesforce.com.
"We are looking forward to Yahoo users joi
Yahoo agreed to join rival Google’s OpenSocial platform, which aims at building an infrastructure for the social web, as Google described it. Through the OpenSocial, platform, developers will be able to create applications for social-networking sites. The platform was launched last November, and MySpace is already a member.
“OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning,” said Joe Krauss, Director of Product Management with Google. “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,” Krauss added.
This association appeared as a surprise considering the known rivalry between Google and Yahoo, but, together with MySpace, the three said they were planning to ensure neutrality and longevity for OpenSocial and as founding members to offer developers the potential to connect with over 500 million people worldwide.
“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, Vice President Yahoo! 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.”
MySpace also welcomed Yahoo! as an important addition to the OpenSocial network, stating that this alliance will provide developers with the necessary tools to make the Internet faster and ‘foster more innovation and creativity.” The organization will be created within the next three months.
With the help of OpenSocial, developers will be able to create applications to access social networks and update feeds, and with the help of a common API, they will also be able to make them available to users. This movement looks as a response to Facebook’s own open system that allows developers to create applications on the Web.
little more about opensocial
Google has released a set of open application programming interfaces (APIs) that lets developers simultaneously craft applications for multiple social networks.
The OpenSocial APIs will work with any participating social network, and allow applications to integrate information from the user's profile, along with data about friends, contacts and activities.
A programmer could use the information to build a messaging application to exchange instant messages with friends in their network, and potentially across networks.
An application developed for Facebook is limited to this one service, but a set of common, broadly supported APIs would allow developers to distribute applications across multiple social services.
Facebook was the first major social network to open up its platform to developers, and has attracted more than 5,000 applications since June.
Google, however, is going beyond building an open alternative to Facebook's APIs. OpenSocial also boasts support from enterprise players Salesforce.com and Oracle.
Early OpenSocial supporters include LinkedIn, Friendster and Plaxo, as well as the Google-owned Orkut social network. Big networks such as MySpace and Facebook are missing from the list of partners.
Google has an advertising partnership with MySpace. Facebook signed a similar deal last week with Microsoft, which is believed to have outbid Google for the agreement
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