FriendConnect.gif: Paste this image in your site, Myspace, Facebook, Ebay copy this code...

<a href="http://www.weeklybits.com/google-and-facebook-team-up-3a-where-27s-myspace-3f_article_8_5412.html"><img src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=482869c314b9b9ea009b7637&maxX=200&maxY=201" border="0" alt="FriendConnect.gif en Tech WeBlogs WEEKLYBITS.COM"></a>

The main connective tissue here is Google's anti-Facebook "OpenSocial" coalition -- the group of social sites that have supposedly banded together to create a common app platform, in an effort to take on Facebook's status as the site of choice for app developers.

But there are two curveballs here:

• Three of the sites joining up with Google on Friend Connect are OpenSocial members: Hi5, Plaxo and Google's Orkut. The fourth is... Facebook.
• Not included in the rollout: MySpace -- the largest social network on the OpenSocial Initiative.

What's going on? We don't think that this is tantamount to Facebook formally joining OpenSocial. But it is worth noting that a company famous for its walled garden is suddenly opening a lot of gates. And that the best possible outcome for social networks -- portability of all their stuff to sites across the Web -- doesn't look like it's going to become real anytime soon.

See Also: OpenSocial -- Doomed From The Start?