Facebook Going Platform

from the betting-big dept

It's no secret that Facebook has big ambitions and has supposedly turned down huge buyout offers. However, at the same time, there's been a lot of talk about how, despite tons of page views, advertisers weren't entirely thrilled with the returns they got from advertising in Facebook. Still, the site is unquestionably popular, and in many ways more palatable than MySpace, which has built up a tremendously negative reputation in the eyes of many. Over the past year, Facebook has also been aggressive in rolling out a variety of new features to make it start looking like much more than "yet another social network," and the latest is that the company is going to start positioning itself much more as a platform for others to build on. It's already made some effort to allow others to build on its platform via APIs, but this sounds like they're going even further in that direction. There's certainly no guarantee that this will actually catch on, but we've long believed that the strategy to really "own" the next generation of internet users has to be based on being the platform on which apps are built. This is something Google should have done three years ago, but they continue to fall down on the job and certainly have opened up a huge opportunity for others to do it instead. Seeing Facebook as the latest such entrant isn't necessarily a huge surprise, but it again shows that Google's inability to focus on the platform side of things has opened the door for many others.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    dorpus, 21 May 2007 @ 9:56am

    More obnoxious ads you mean?

    Are they going to start making you go to click-through menus where they try to trick you into signing up for this or that?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    andy, 21 May 2007 @ 12:56pm

    the key to social networking sites

    social networking sites become successful when hot women begin to take them seriously.

    i feel like myspace and facebook built around that as their business model.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    douche, 21 May 2007 @ 1:07pm

    facebook pwns myspace... facebook doesn't have porn bots or gawdy advertising... nuf said.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Wyatt, 21 May 2007 @ 1:43pm

    yeah..

    But as Andy said, its all about the hot women.. Do they have any of those?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Google what?, 21 May 2007 @ 2:04pm

    Google

    And that had something to do with Google how?
    Social networking sites will have thier rise and fall like everyone of them before it. Xanga, Myspace, MSN Spaces, they all went to the waysiade eventually. So will Facebook.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2007 @ 2:44pm

    "And that had something to do with Google how?
    Social networking sites will have thier rise and fall like everyone of them before it. Xanga, Myspace, MSN Spaces, they all went to the waysiade eventually. So will Facebook."

    WOW! Misguided AND uninformed.

    It has to do with Google since the author was stating google should have offered their product as a platform to build upon like facebook is going to try to do. And I don't think Myspace has gone by the wayside, while Xanga and MSN Spaces were never mainstream.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    briguy, 21 May 2007 @ 3:12pm

    what do they mean platform? what makes Google and Facebook so popular are their ease of use and lack of ads. thats y they r teh winnars

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Cli Taurus, 21 May 2007 @ 6:03pm

    Doesn't surprise me....

    I've tried out my space and found it harder to navigate, it didn't interest me whatsoever. I much prefer Facebook....and hoorah for no ads!!!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Eric, 21 May 2007 @ 8:20pm

    The Real Reason FB is King

    No annoying MySpace HTML and CSS edited profiles. Everything is clean, smooth, and uniform. Theres less too look at for the ADHD kiddies, but if you're just looking to keep up with your friends, you can't beat it. The minute they open up and allow annoying ass backgrounds and profile songs, the minute they lose out.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Geeb, 22 May 2007 @ 5:14am

    Privacy settings

    Facebook has added a "Development Platform" section to the Privacy settings page, in which there are a load of "I want to share xxxxxxxxx information from my profile with anything that uses the development platform" options.

    These weren't announced with any great fanfare, and they are not very obvious from the privacy settings unless you know you need to look for them. What's more, a lot of the options are enabled by default.

    Not a brilliant start if they are trying to capitalize on a greater perceived trustworthiness than myspace...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Brad, 22 May 2007 @ 12:39pm

    API Worthless

    I've developed a bit on Facebook's API, and as it stands it's next to worthless. You're able to get fragments of information (Friends list, upload pictures, etc) but the things you'd actually care about, like having a news ticker for your friends activities, XML feeds, etc are not only unoffered, FB actively shuts down projects working to build these features.

    If they want to be taken serriously as a platform, they need to decide it's what they want to do, not offer fragments of code to small "tools"

    Though, the "Export Friend's Birthdays to iCal" tool is pretty spiffy. I do like having everyone's birthdays in my WM5 phone.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.