MySpace is adding some serious clout to Google’s freshly launched OpenSocial. The popular social networking site has signed on to be a part of Google’s APIs for creating social applications on the Web.
In a press conference Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, “The broader story is the Web has moved to the next state. We knew the Web would have social framework and we knew it would be would be standard, open and extensible.” Schmidt said that Google and MySpace had been collaborating for over a year in the social area.
MySpace joining OpenSocial gives Google a solid position to further compete with the likes of Facebook. Although Google had about a dozen partners when OpenSocial launched none carried as much weight as MySpace.
Google was asked about Facebook possibly joining OpenSocial. Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s developer programs said, “When you are trying to establish an open standard building on simple tech like Javascript and HTML, you want to see it adopted by as many people as possible. We are talking to everyone, but we are not announcing any further partners today.”
As for what this means for MySpace’s own platform that is still in development, the company said that developers can begin writing applications for OpenSocial which the MySpace platform will support at launch.
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe said, “At the end of day, we want the Web to be a better and more interesting place and for the maximum amount of innovation to occur. It only occurs if you are building new apps as opposed to rebuilding the same over and over.”
