Ning Launches OpenSocial Support. Will They Support Facebook Next?

Ning, the roll-your-own social network, is finally integrating with the Google-led OpenSocial coalition, meaning that developers who have written for one of the other OpenSocial networks (MySpace, hi5, Friendster, etc.) will be able to port their apps easily to Ning.

Ning, which lets users create whatever social network they want to (it says 500,000 have been created so far), is starting out with 25-30 OpenSocial apps, and they hope developers will double that in 6 months. The company was actually a charter member of OpenSocial, but had yet to actually integrate their platform with the OpenSocial spec.

But even though OpenSocial is often described as the anti-Facebook coalition, CEO Gina Bianchini says  she may follow fellow OpenSocial member Friendster’s footsteps. Friendster recently integrated its platform with Facebook’s as well, making it the first network to do that after Facebook open-sourced its own platform. Says Gina: "We’re not making any early announcements (about Facebook integration), but it’s absolutely something that we want to be a part of."

See Also:
Portable Contacts Could Be The Final Piece Of OpenSocial
Have Facebook Developers Been Flocking To OpenSocial? No
Google's OpenSocial Is Killing Facebook App Buzz