In a bid to regain some respect in the ever-fickle web development community, MySpace is about to launch their developer platform. Why should anyone care? Because despite all the hype around FaceBook and its platform, MySpace is still the most popular social networking site on the web by a long shot, that's why.

Of some significance, the MySpace platform is said to be compatible with OpenSocial, Google's social networking developer platform (yes, they have one too). OpenSocial is also supported by Bebo and SixApart, so it seems there's a bit of a cartel forming to compete with FaceBook.

Apparently these platforms are great ways for developers to make money. How exactly? By plastering their embedded applications with ads and/or PayPal donation buttons, or alternatively by selling the "pro" versions of their applications for some coin. It's a win-win scenario I guess: Users get some added functionality and developers get some revenue. Too bad I just removed all my 3rd party apps due to privacy-invasion fears.

Not to be outdone by the Facebook/Microsoft partnership that's been slowly but surely forming, Google has just launched a new social network applicaton framework called OpenSocial, and the first big player to sign up is none other than the number 1 social network (in terms of unique visitors) MySpace. Other sites jumping on Google's bandwagon include Bebo, LinkedIn, and of course Orkut which is Google's own social network that is really big in Latin America and Asia but nowhere else for some reason.

OpenSocial seeks to do for other social networking sites what the Facebook Platform has done for Facebook: create an ecology of 3rd party applications that tie in to the social network through API's to enable expanded functionality (either useful or playful) beyond the core suite of tools, and at the same time providing a new outlet to embed Google ads. Pretty clever concept to make it a somewhat universal platform, and it will be interesting to see if it has the same impact that Facebook has had on the web development community.