Today, Userplane announced their support of the Open Social API. This is massive! This means that no matter what social network you are using you will be able to communicate with other userplane and AIM users from within the social network. This is a significant announcement. The one thing that Userplane should be concerned about is that the majority of social networks have yet to develop their platform and won’t be launching until next year.

As a result other competitors can announce their intent to support Open Social but it won’t mean anything until the new platforms launch. This is also a sign of each of the social network functions expanding into individual verticals. Want music on your social network? Go to iLike. Want chat? Go to Userplane. Want users to create photo slideshows? Contact Slide. Alternatively, we may see some of the large social networks acquire each of the leaders in each of these smaller verticals.

Yesterday on AllFacebook, I discussed the potential of Facebook acquiring iLike and Flixster. While I think it’s currently unlikely, it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise there will be an enviroment in which each of the vertical leaders are competing with each other. Do you think MySpace or Facebook will end up acquiring the leaders or will we see more competition within each social network vertical?