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Nov. 2, 2007

Google is working hard to catch up as fast as it can with Facebook, especially after Microsoft acquired a minority stake in the popular social networking site.

And now the wind might be changing a bit more in favor of Google... MySpace and Six Apart will soon announce that they are joining Google’s OpenSocial initiative.

The fact that MySpace and Six Apart are joining Google could mean that there is a "mini war" brewing between Microsoft and Google, but of course this isn't news anymore.

What's more, Google has even confirmed that Bebo is joining the newly-formed group as well.

So here's a rundown of who's joining who: MySpace and Six Apart have joined Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and... even Oracle.

There's still no word on whether MySpace will continue with efforts to complete its own recently announced platform.

It would appear that the whole social networking segment is ganging up to take on Facebook, with Google successfully steering everybody around.

Just a few days ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted as saying: “we’ve been working with MySpace for more than a year (in secret) on this.”

Overall, MySpace says their new social networking platform will be entirely focused on OpenSocial.

A Google press release to be published today names Engage.com, Friendster, Hi5, Hyves, Imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, Orkut, Plaxo, SalesForce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo and XING as current or potential OpenSocial partners.

For its part, Flixster says it took them less than a day to create a small platform of its own.

So now some industry observers are starting to ask, will Facebook be forced to join OpenSocial? Google says they are talking to everyone.

This is a major and very strategic decision for Facebook. In the end, they may have no other choice but to join this newly-formed "united front".

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Source: Information Week