Friendster Deploys Google's OpenSocial API

Social networking site Friendster announced Tuesday that it has deployed the OpenSocial API as part of its developer platform.

The Friendster Developer Program launched in December 2007, about a month after the company announced it would support Google's OpenSocial initiative.

"With widespread support throughout the industry, OpenSocial has become a de facto standard for developers of social applications," David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster, said in a statement. "OpenSocial makes it easier than ever for developers to build and distribute their applications across multiple destination sites like Friendster."

"Developers can spend less of their time on integrating and more of their time on building interesting, useful, fun, and/or compelling features," Jones said.

Friendster has deployed APIs from version 0.7 of the OpenSocial specification in order to allow integration with existing OpenSocial applications. The social networking site plans to support additional OpenSocial APIs in the coming months, including the new 0.8 APIs.

"Friendster's launch is another major milestone in the adoption and deployment of OpenSocial throughout the social web and around the world," David Glazer, director of engineering at Google, said in a statement. "We're particularly excited that OpenSocial is helping Friendster bring new social applications to users in Asia, and we look forward to seeing users embrace these apps."

Friendster is now the number one social networking site in Asia, with 55 million registered users, according to the company. It lags behind MySpace and Facebook in the U.S.

OpenSocial launched with the support of sites like Friendster, LinkedIn, and Google's Orkut. MySpace joined the effort shortly thereafter, and Yahoo followed suit in March.