Yahoo Potentially Joining OpenSocial

Erick Schonfeld is reporting that Yahoo may be joining OpenSocial. While I don’t think that this is a deal breaker for Microsoft acquiring Yahoo, this would be a massive step in the process of Google attempting to “out open” Facebook. Just as we saw with the YouTube news this morning, the future of the web is in services not sites.

OpenSocial is Google’s answer to making social a service for the whole web. There is no sign of how this will all pan out because none of the social networks that have become OpenSocial partners have officially launched yet. So far Facebook is way ahead of the competition in most accurately mapping all of our contacts. As of now this news is simply hearsay but it could be another large piece of the history of OpenSocial.

So far, 2008 has shaped up to be a year of opening up. It will be interesting to see who else follows.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.