MySpace Asks Facebook to Join OpenSocial Alliance

MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe has invited rival Facebook to join OpenSocial, the social-networking open source platform initiated by Google (full story). The move comes as somewhat of a surprise, as many industry analysts originally saw the initiative as a response to Facebook's rapidly growing social-networking presence. Speaking at a media conference Sunday, DeWolfe said Facebook, the number-two U.S. social-networking site, was likely to be under pressure to sign on to the group, which will enable software developers to write programs that operate across multiple platforms. "The main difference now is that developers have a common page to develop advertising real estate," DeWolfe said, adding the standard would free up developers to create more innovative content. Facebook COO Owen Van Natta responded by saying his company was "evaluating" OpenSocial. "Standards which reduce friction for developers are good," he said. "Facebook is going to embrace standards which enhance those things." However, "privacy and control of security is really important. If that is going to be undermined in any way, that is something we can't do," he added. MySpace is owned by media giant News Corp. Microsoft recently paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook (full story).

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