Facebook to Join Google's 'OpenSocial' Alliance?

The day after MySpace announced it was joining a Google-led alliance meant to let applications written for one social networking site be used on others, it looks like lone outsider Facebook could join up, too. That's according to Fortune Magazine, which reported that Facebook and Google representatives met yesterday and that a board member said Facebook is open to the OpenSocial standard.

As the conspicuously absent major social network, Facebook's reaction to OpenSocial has been the subject of much speculation and debate in Silicon Valley. Mozilla's COO said, “I would not let Google take the ‘open’ mantle from the world,” and suggested Facebook should challenge Google for control of the standard. But another observer said that wasn't necessary: "Interoperability itself will be the glue that keeps it from becoming proprietary." (More open standards stories.)