Yahoo In Discussions To Join Google OpenSocial

Yahoo is in late stage discussions with Google to join their OpenSocial platform, says a NYTimes story from earlier this evening. Multiple sources at both Yahoo and Google confirm to us that discussions are happening, but won’t say when an announcement might be made or even that a final decision has been made.

This would be a major win for Google, which has already enticed MySpace and other big partners to a platform that launched less than five months ago. OpenSocial is a defense by Google and it’s partners against the runaway success of Facebook Platform, itself less than a year old. Both platforms allow third parties to create applications that will run on OpenSocial partner sites, or Facebook, as the case may be.

If and when it is announced, look for it to come through the corporate technology group (under new CTO Ari Balogh). Yahoo platform and technical announcement always come through this group.