Citing a source with direct knowledge of Yahoo plans, NYT is reporting that Yahoo is seriously considering plans to join to Google-led OpenSocial Alliance. Launched sometime last year, the OpenSocial Alliance currently has MySpace, Bebo and several other social networking sites to its fold.
A Yahoo spokeswoman who neither denied nor confirms the rumor said that it is but logical for Yahoo to join the OpenSocial Alliance since the company has always been an advocate of open standards. Although the OpenSocial alliance has open up a handful of open social network applications and tools, it still hasn’t achieved that much considering it has Google and MySpace on its lead. The best that the OpenSocial Alliance did so far is to open up MySpace to third party developers which enabled third-party developers to access MySpace open API for developing better and more applications.
So, why is Yahoo finally joining? And why this late? I couldn’t help but relate this still to the slumping condition of Yahoo as a major Internet player plus the impending take-over threat by Microsoft. Yahoo badly needs an ally in whatever form it could get. Opening up its site to outside developers plus gaining some “allies” from the OpenSocial Alliance could shield itself off from external threats. Who knows, this might open a box of opportunities for Yahoo?
