MySpace, Bebo join Google OpenSocial

Social networking sites MySpace and Bebo have announced they will be part of Google's OpenSocial developer initiative.

MySpace was not initially part of OpenSocial, leading many to believe that it was absent from the project despite the fact that it already has a search and advertising contract with Google.

In an interview with ZDNet Australia sister site CNET News.com earlier this week, Google's director of product management, Joe Kraus, said "We would love MySpace to be a part of it," which technically neither confirmed nor denied its partnership.

When smaller rival Facebook started to take off earlier this year -- and then launched an API for developers -- MySpace seemed somewhat shell-shocked and began focusing on initiatives like games and original video programming that fit it more into the mould of a media hub rather than a social network. But last month, MySpace confirmed that it was working on a developer platform strategy of its own.

Social-networking site Bebo, which has made its most significant inroads among young people in the UK and New Zealand, has also joined Google's OpenSocial project. In Australia, Bebo recently announced a partnership with Yahoo7.

Additionally, Bebo will release an application programming interface (API) later this year that will "enable Facebook developers to easily bring their applications to the Bebo community," a Bebo representative said on Thursday.

It's not yet clear what this really means, as Bebo, which has hinted at more major announcements over the next two months, has not yet issued a full news release to elaborate.

Other confirmed OpenSocial partners include: Engage.com, Friendster, Hi5, Hyves, Imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, Orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart (the parent company of TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, and Vox), Tianji, Viadeo, and Xing.

But MySpace may have a more prominent role in OpenSocial than most or all of the other players -- likely due to its sheer size.

"As the most trafficked Web site in the country and the most popular social network in the world, MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. "We're thrilled to grow our strategic relationship with MySpace by joining forces on this important initiative."