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March 12, 2008

Yahoo To Join OpenSocial in April, Microsoft Groans.

Erick Schonfeld

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Following previous reports that Yahoo is talking to Google about joining OpenSocial, we are now hearing that the decision has been made and that it will be announced in April. OpenSocial is Google’s social-networking platform that is a response to Facebook. Yahoo has been sitting on the sidelines of the fight between Google and Facebook for the hearts and minds of developers, and with this move it will place itself firmly in the anti-Facebook camp.

Becoming part of OpenSocial is in keeping with Yahoo’s stated commitment to open itself up more to third-party developers. (As I’ve noted before, it can always do better on the openness front). There is already a lot of support for OpenSocial, from MySpace to Bebo to Hi5. If developers are going to start creating amazing social applications for OpenSocial, Yahoo should welcome those applications on its site as well.

But given Microsoft’s takeover bid for Yahoo, which seems more likely every day to succeed, joining with Google appears to also be an attempt to further complicate any such deal. Microsoft, of course, is a big investor in Facebook and handles a large chunk of its advertising. If it ends up buying Yahoo, OpenSocial may be a deal that Microsoft finds it needs to unwind. Although, there is nothing stopping big Websites from supporting both OpenSocial and the Facebook platform (see Bebo).

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. A Taylor

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Erick,

    I see this as an advantage for Yahoo/Microsoft as they will have a footprint in both camps so to speak and will have a bit more influence and reach.

  2. Kumar

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    The first day MS has control over Yahoo they reverse the OpenSocial decision. No big deal.

  3. Russ

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am

    I guess I don’t see it yet. How would Yahoo leverage OS? They operate like a portal, not a social network. Basically does it mean that on MY Yahoo page I can add OS app’s? OK, I guess thats not bad, better that Yahoo’s old “widget” strategy. But its going to be pretty weak I think.

    Am I missing something?

  4. YDrive

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    Good stuff, at least for the user communities! :-)

  5. 113.com

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Facebook and OpenSocial can certainly coexist well, and proven.

  6. Rashmi Ranjan

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Every one might just go towards Open Social …..

    No big thing in doing that …. its a open forum and all developers will get the advantage …. as well as the websites…

    I am also going to allow Open Social API .. in my forthcoming website …

    Till then ..
    Vote for your choice of World IT Day ….
    http://www.worlditday.com

  7. Steel

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Yang is just seeing how far he can push the envelope. Balmer has to be livid as this is really not a good thing to do with the MS offer on the table.

  8. Ryan Merket

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am

    As a Facebook developer and OpenSocial skeptic, I just don’t see OpenSocial taking off like the FB platform did. Even with all these large backers — back it all you want, but in the end it’s up to the developers to decide which platform that will develop for.

  9. The Hater

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    @3: Y! is the world’s largest social network. To whit:

    It has the world’s largest user base.
    It is the world’s most visited website.
    From it’s portal and various properties, it knows an awful lot about you.
    Social networking has proven (at least somewhat) to be sticky and is, at the very least, the way things are currently moving.

    Given all of these things, what the hell do you think Y! is working on? They’re not going to make a social network (360 failed, Mash failed) - they’re turning the entire site into a social network.

    No social network is anywhere near as comprehensive as what Y! could do, and no network comes anywhere near to fulfilling the niches of their userbase, which are some of the most profitable niches out there.

    Seriously, people. I again ask: what the hell do you think they’re working on? They’re not blind.

  10. Joe

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Not sure about OpenSocial, what’s really needed is unrestricted public access to this in a controlled way (controlled by the data owner). Do you really need to be part of a ’social network container’ to do this?

  11. bob cobb

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    well this has pretty much made my mind up. I was holding off on building an open social app(specifically for myspace at first) and now I feel like I’d be stupid not to.

  12. Your Daddy

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    It will end up being a great way for MSFT to be a part of the enemy and know more about them without bending over to them (Google). Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…

  13. Social Marketing Journal

    March 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    It will be quite interesting to see how this all pans out for users, developers and the social networks alike.

  14. Darren Stuart

    March 12th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    Sorry, I have to disagree MS are only interested in the ad network and will leave the rest of yahoo much as it is.

    Whats to say MS won’t join this at some point in the future anyway.

    The headline on this is a bit tabloid

  15. DC Search Engine Marketing

    March 12th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    let see what will be next big Y or big G

  16. Chris

    March 12th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

    Yahoo is almost an open source project now. I use YUI in my new business. They may as well release the server side code too. Then Microsoft would have nothing left to buy as far as IP. Yahoo should make it all BSD.

    I do have a gripe about YUI. There is no auto style in the base.css or the other css files for radio buttons, form elements positioning and so forth. Please add that to YUI soon if anybody from Yahoo is reading through.

    base.css has a 1px border around tables, and without some preset form element css I am back to using tables to space labels and inputs in fieldsets.

    Please Fix that Yahoo!

  17. Joe

    March 12th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    The first thing that would do if I where Microsoft, that is if they still really want Yahoo, is fire Yang and the rest of the jokers on the corporate level who keep dragging this out and then are attempting to muddy the waters so to speak as if their trying to spite Redmond.

    Could you imagine what would have happened if Larry Ellison was after Yahoo?

  18. Charlie

    March 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    I am loving the middle finger that Yahoo seems to be repeatedly be giving to Microsoft. Microsoft deserves every bit of it for a number of reasons, but most especially the way they conducted themselves in the late 90s and early 00s.

  19. Michael Vu

    March 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    I am still shocked that Yahoo hasn’t been able to create their own social network…Either way, good move on their part. Looks like it’s Facebook vs the world!

  20. me

    March 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

    This just means that if microsoft buys yahoo that the victor of facebook vs opensocial will still be a win for microsoft
    What better way to win then to ally yourself with both armies
    No clear victor = Still no harm to you

  21. Jughead

    March 12th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Open Social…..it doesn’t matter. Widgets are the fruit of the new platform era of the internet. Ruby, Ajax, Flash and javascript. These are the environments that will spawn web 3.0.

    Incredible apps like Animoto’s slideshow widget are revolutionizing content delivery and end user experiences.

  22. Smart

    March 12th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    Uhm… Bebo is in the Facebook camp.

  23. Erick Schonfeld

    March 12th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    Um . . . Bebo is in both camps. Follow the link.

  24. bob cobb

    March 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    I never used bebo until I had a small app developed for it. Wow, what a piece of shit that social network is. There seems to be a lot of errors, and I really cant stand how everything works.

  25. John C. McClore

    March 12th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

    Would it be feasible for msft to buy goog?

  26. Being Open

    March 12th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    This was already confirmed on John Furrier’s blog at furrier.org.

  27. fernando

    March 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

    @eric s: “But given Microsoft’s takeover bid for Yahoo, which seems more likely every day to succeed, ” Over a month since the bid was rejected, and we still feel MS is taking over Yahoo any . . . day . . . now.

  28. Miracle Blade

    March 13th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    That’s a big slap in the face for Microsoft.

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