Apr 09

Facebook Platform Launches as the Internet’s “Social Operating System”

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on May 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yesterday was a big day for Facebook after they launched Facebook Platform. Ever since the details were announced, it’s been getting quite the attention and buzz around the Internet. With 70 different partners signing on to be part of this, Facebook is showing that they’re embracing third party applications which is a much different take than we’ve seen from their biggest competitor, MySpace.

They’ve been able to secure partnerships with major companies like Microsoft and Amazon, and developers will now have more access than previously before. For users, this means a slew of new tools and applications that can be used to spice-up profiles. 

Founder Mark Zuckerberg (who’s only 23) says that he wants his site to be a “social operating system” for the Internet, and from the looks and sounds of it, he’s on the right track.  Think of the significance that your operating system has – you rely on it on a daily basis.  Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be the center of everything that users do on the Internet, much like how your computer’s operating system is at the center of everything you do.

Facebookapplicationpage

The companies that have partnered up have nothing to lose.  They’ll have exposure to the millions of active users on Facebook, and they’ll be able to make money while they’re doing it because Facebook is not taking any of the advertising dollars that the companies will make from within the application on Facebook. They’ll also be permitted to complete transactions right from the application.

Facebook has always been known as the “clean” rather plain social network in comparison to MySpace which can sometimes look messy and cluttered.  Now Facebook profiles won’t be all uniform as users will have so many options to choose from to make their profile truly customized.  This could be seen as one potential drawback for some, but for others, a great advantage.

The following video from SplashCast (via CenterNetworks) will go through some of the companies involved:

To take a look at the applications available, click here. 

Facebook is growing, there’s no doubt about that, and clearly a lot of work has gone into the Facebook Platform. It appears to be a smart move, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes over with the community.  As of now, Facebook hasn’t made any grand announcements or posted anything that would direct people to check out the new applications from the site. Once they do, the feedback will come pouring in.  It will all be very new to the Facebook crowd who have been known to not adjust to change very well. Given the variety of services available, and the fact that they are all optional, I don’t think there will be much room to complain.

With all the buzz around the Internet regarding this, I still find it funny that Facebook has said nothing on their actual site about this. For all the millions of people who don’t follow tech news, they have not a clue what’s been going on!

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