Yahoo's involvement in the alliance, which could reportedly be announced soon, would bring a large base of online users to OpenSocial, and would deal a blow to Facebook.
OpenSocial already counts MySpace, Bebo and numerous social networking sites among its members.
The initiative aims to break down the barriers between rival social networks and establish a standard set of applications to work across all the sites.
Although Facebook remains a noticeable absentee from OpenSocial, Facebook still counts around 200,000 developers and 16,000 applications on its platform.
However, Yahoo's backing could prove a significant counterweight to Facebook's application activity, prompting some observers to speculate that Facebook might eventually join OpenSocial.
Yahoo was unavailable for comment when contacted by Mediaweek.co.uk.
OpenSocial already counts MySpace, Bebo and numerous social networking sites among its members.
The initiative aims to break down the barriers between rival social networks and establish a standard set of applications to work across all the sites.
Although Facebook remains a noticeable absentee from OpenSocial, Facebook still counts around 200,000 developers and 16,000 applications on its platform.
However, Yahoo's backing could prove a significant counterweight to Facebook's application activity, prompting some observers to speculate that Facebook might eventually join OpenSocial.
Yahoo was unavailable for comment when contacted by Mediaweek.co.uk.
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