The genius of Facebook
The genius of Facebook is that it is learning from social media.
Whuh? How? Who? It is social media ain't it?
Strictly speaking yes, but Facebook is snaring my and whole lot of other people's attention by being more than a social network. It's making itself more open as it becomes more successful not less.
As reported on - ahem - Spannerworks Search Marketing News - among others - last week, Facebook has announced its intention to be a platform for other people's applications:
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the social networking site is to open its doors to 65 different firms as it seeks to become an online platform for other applications.
Companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have signed up to the new scheme, which will also see internet services such as photo-sharing, slide shows and music players being provided by online firms such as Photobucket.
Mr Zuckerberg said that he saw the announcement as being similar to that made by Microsoft many years ago, when the software giant said that it wanted to encourage other firms to create programmes for its operating system.
Participating companies will also be permitted to make money from the services without Facebook taking a cut of the profit. Advertising will be able to be displayed on firms' central Facebook hubs, but not via the services themselves.
As soon as I get my Flickr and LinkedIn feeds I will be even happier... it's rapidly becoming my social media portal, aggregator, what-have-you...
Well the facebook boys couldn't have planned the weather better. I've been watching loads of people playing with the new gadgets all weekend. I've been doing the same and the overriding feeling so far is that they're a little bit pony. I think the potential is there but some of the user experiences are shocking.
Can't wait to see what the official Last.FM one looks like though.
Also, seems to be a different sort of widgetisation from MySpace, which is all about personalisation. This seems to be more about generating content, and at least they're mostly backend integrations, giving them some control going forward.
Posted by: Tom Hopkins | 28/05/2007 at 15:41
Yep - a wet weekend must be a significant boost to all manner of online services and shops...
It's early days and I think we'll see some more innovative and useful apps coming through for Facebook.
Posted by: Antony Mayfield | 28/05/2007 at 15:51
I've been watching Facebook grow and grow as both a service and network for weeks(!).
I also posted about Nick Carr's 'holy trinity' idea the other week too: http://simoncollister.typepad.com/simonsays/2007/05/facebook_is_the.html
Posted by: Simon Collister | 28/05/2007 at 16:45
You are indeed on the crest the Facebook wave, Mr C - I think i got my first invite from you!
Posted by: Antony Mayfield | 28/05/2007 at 17:10