A few weeks ago I wrote a post poking fun at the current trend in the web industry to release a “platform” for what seems like each and every product. It has seriously gotten to the point where the mentality appears to be if you don’t have a platform out, you might as well be in TechCrunch’s DeadPool. I stated in my title of that post that I was going to start a “platform for platforms” – now TechCrunch has the scoop that it appears a “platform for platforms” is precisely what Google is doing with its “Makamaka” project – to be known as ‘OpenSocial’.

This platform craze of course all started after Facebook announced their’s at this year’s f8 summit. This opening up to the community was a defining moment for Facebook and turned them from a hot company into a volcanic one – one now at least perceived to be worth $15 billion dollars. Obviously copycats were going to follow, MySpace and the like, but as more and more pile on the platform – it was going to collapse under its own weight eventually. Companies have a hard enough time developing a product let alone making sure that it works with 20+ platforms. This is the opportunity Google saw.

Not surprisingly everyone outside of Facebook and MySpace seems to be already onboard as partners with Google’s OpenSocial to take on the big boys – they’ve got LinkedIn, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Ning, and of course Google’s own Orkut, among others. Developers so far include some of the Facebook Platform big boys: Flixster, iLike, RockYou, and Slide.

There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything prohibiting Facebook or MySpace from joining up with Google as well – but it seems pretty clear that at this point it’s going to be a giant 3-way war: Facebook vs. MySpace vs. OpenSocial – unless Facebook keeps growing at its rapid pace, then I would expect to see MySpace join the OpenSocial camp for an all out Facebook vs. OpenSocial war. Just remember who Facebook’s new investor is…that little Google nemesis we like to call Microsoft.

According to TechCrunch, Google is announcing OpenSocial on Thursday and the APIs for the service will reside here (not live yet).