Can you Google My Space?

In a bid to dominate the social networking neighborhood, plans have been announced this week that sees Google and over a dozen other leading social networks team together in a bid to overtake rival Facebook.

OpenSocial, the new joint social media venture with MySpace in addition to a collective of companies led by Google, will introduce standardised tools to allow software developers to write programs for the global social network.

The deal, set to include Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING, may have greater pulling power for developers and users alike, with the combined partnership including a network of over 100 million users – double the size of Facebook.

The partnership is clearly aimed directly at social networking portal Facebook, who recently signed a deal with Microsoft, to integrate a new advertising strategy - boosting the social portals worth at US$15 billion.

Facebook also visited the application path last year, flinging open its doors to developers, witnessing over 5,000 programs built, uploaded and run on the Facebook site.

“As the most trafficked website in the country and the most popular social network in the world, MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web," stated Dr Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc.

Google hopes the move will potentially boost Internet usage, however industry blogs state that Google would indirectly benefit by selling advertising. 

Google has previously established strong advertising connections with numerous social networks, including a $900 million collaboration to sell advertisements on MySpace.

In addition, the search giant is also profiting from advertising dollars generated through strategically placed advertisements inside Facebook applications that are used throughout the social portal.

MySpace’s Chief Technology Officer Aber Whitcomb elaborates on MySpace’s theoretical rational.

“We’re all citizens of a larger Web - no network is an island onto itself,” he said.

For the time being however, the island has spoken - Facebook is a firm favourite for software developers and social networking villagers.