Bebo has signed on to share technology with Facebook in a deal that could be a thorn in the side of Google's OpenSocial product.

Google, which tapped MySpace and Friendster as participants in OpenSocial, had initially had some traction with the platform, which aims to break down the barriers that divide users across the web's array of social networks. That initial burst had somewhat isolated Facebook. But now that social network will have its own technology partner in the form of Bebo, which has agreed to share technology so that developers can create applications that work on both sites.

"Facebook had great success when it allowed third parties to write their own software applications a few months ago," said Joanna Shields, the president of Bebo. "Now, within a few hours, a Facebook application can run on Bebo, which should be good news for software developers."

While OpenSocial pits Google against Facebook and Microsoft, which recently invested in the social network, against each other, Bebo may be the big winner from the feud. So far Bebo is the only social network that has signed on to support Facebook's application programming interface and OpenSocial.

Bebo is the largest British social network.