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Search engine giant Google has announced that it is to allow developers to create applications based on its own open system.

The OpenSocial system will enable developers to come up with applications, which will potentially be able to be used across a number of different social networking websites, using three application programming interfaces.

Google’s new initiative follows in the footsteps of Facebook’s highly popular system, where developers can create numerous applications that users can install on their profile pages.

About a dozen OpenSocial partners have been signed up by Google so far, including Friendster, Orkut and LinkedIn.

‘The distribution message is really useful for developers in getting their applications spread across multiple sites,’ Google product manager Joe Kraus told eWeek.

Google was recently trumped by Microsoft in the race to secure a stake in Facebook.

Microsoft eventually paid $240 million (£115 million) for a 1.6 per cent holding, valuing Facebook at $15 billion.

Tags: application programming interfaces, developers, eweek, facebook, footsteps, friendster, giant, google, initiative, joe kraus, linkedin, microsoft, orkut, product manager, search engine, social networking, stake, trumped

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.