Bebo joins Facebook for common platform

Social networking sites get cosy

14 December 2007 9:46 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Bebo has announced a link-up with rival social networking site Facebook that allows software developed for one site to work on the other.

The link will see applications developed for the platform work across both sites which together have nearly 100 million users.

Bebo also recently signed up to Google's OpenSocial project, a set of common APIs (application programming interfaces) for building social applications across the web.

Google says the partnership "spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications".

Bebo's decision to team up with Facebook is a boon for Zuckerberg's site, which did not join the OpenSocial program, and Bebo will be the only site to work with both competing technologies.

"Facebook had great success when it allowed third parties to write their own software applications a few months ago", Joanna Shields, the president of Bebo, said.

"Now, within a few hours, a Facebook application can run on Bebo, which should be good news for software developers."

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