Yahoo Joins Open Social Foundation

Google announced last year it would be forming an organization called "Open Social," a group designed to promote open source applications on social networking sites like MySpace and LinkedIn. This week, Yahoo joined the fray, causing one C-Net blogger to refer to the group as "The Justice League of social networking."

According to the Open Social website, the group's mission is to create "a common API for social applications across multiple websites. Built from standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps with OpenSocial that access a social network's friends and update feeds. By using a common API, developers can extend the reach of their applications more quickly, yielding more functionality for users."

The Wall Street Journal argues that Yahoo's decision to join the initiative proves it is broadening its scope, giving Google a stronger foothold in the social application development world.