The Facebook Platform

Let’s start this post with a quote that makes any jaw drop:

"More than 175 million people use Facebook. If it were a country, it would be the sixth most populated country in the world."
--Mark Zuckerberg

Following that with some stats that shows that by February 2009, Facebook has been able to register that number of people in little over 3 years. And to this, lets add that Facebook has register over half million developers in just about 6 to 8 months.

Doesn't the Facebook Social Networking THING seem unreal?

Reading and analyzing those numbers and stats over and over makes it even more unbelievable. One will wonder how much Microsoft or Google would have paid to come up with a site that congregated such big network of people. How they didn't come up with it first? Reason to believe Facebook is a platform no one expected and neither no one can deny it.

With integration with web services like CitySearch, mobile devices like the Palm Pre, client applications like Apple iPhoto, and rich internet applications running in several devices from a variety of vendors, Facebook seems like staying on our life for about a decade at least. (MySpace with no such luck!) Facebook can become (if it already isn't) the online identity of each person that gets on the web. Something Microsoft have tried over the years with multiple services, some even overlapping each other. Maybe then named Passport, and now Live Id. Facebook is a bucket of all our data, public and private. On hand the tools for everyone to make what information is public and searchable, or private. Precise target for multiple companies to shoot with stuff that really grabs our attention, due to all the information not only provided as the user profile, but with the ongoing conversations and activities we all report back to Facebook after a good long weekend, or family fun activity, or extended vacation in Europe. (Accessories for that gadget you bought over borders. Shoes after visiting a clothes store. What’s new on the topics just are just chatting about!)

Unable to see clearly what type of applications plus devices will influence even more on our online life going forward, but is The Facebook Platform the developers choice right now (Enterpri$e Developer$). And I can tell you we will all be very glad when we cross the line of crappy Facebook applications, and developers start exploiting and extending the capabilities of the platform. Those applications that will help us communicate much better, keep everyone in the loop across places and devices, and the start of a new era of online life and identity for each person that someone might call it Web 3.0! (Facebook registration is required at the moment of birth?)

Any more ideas?

(batgeek)

Think Different. Shoot More. Rock On.
Links: Facebook, iPhoto, Microsoft, Google, Palm Pre