Facebook Becomes a Software Company with Platform Rollout

While Web platforms and tools providers over the past decade have been opining at length over the potential ubiquity of Web services that perform simple and specialized data-fetching tasks for individual customers, Facebook today tried a completely new spin on the old message: actually doing it.

In a surprisingly well-controlled and planned rollout, the social networking site that advertisers were beginning to see as yesterday's news, or so-o 2006, unveiled the next wave of its strategy to take on MySpace and its other competitors in the social space: It has engineered a Web services interface, based on an extension of HTML and well-used scripting languages such as PHP, to enable both individual customers and corporations to provide information services through the Facebook system using little pieces of software.

"People should build an application on the Facebook Platform because it provides a new kind of distribution on the Internet," said Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin in a video statement from the company this morning. "Really, what has been lacking in all of the other operating systems and platforms that have ever been created is the ability to really access people."

It is by no means an original idea; major and minor players alike in the Web and applications markets have foreseen there's a future in gadgets, somewhere. But what Facebook may bring to the table that's unique is an energized audience, perhaps full of people seeking to do more engaging things with each other than just chat and share pictures of their dorm rooms.

At the turn of the decade, the Web itself was supposed to be that audience, but the first Web services companies that played directly to the Web at large found themselves in a position similar to holding an impromptu concert on a London rooftop. You'd have to have a pretty well-established group to pull that off...and at that time, no one did.

This is Facebook's comeback gamble, and so far, it's being treated very seriously. But what kind of garden of gadgets would the company want to see emerging from this platform? Simply put, what are users supposed to do?

Once again, the question may be left up to you to decide. "The ideal developer for the Facebook Platform, I think, is someone who's willing to throw out a lot of things," stated Facebook developer James Wang in this morning's video. "Just kind of throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks."

That said, there's a lot of spaghetti already hurled at the Oscar Madison Memorial Web Services Wall this morning. Here's a sample of what beta developers have already produced, and supporting companies are already rolling out:

• A dedicated online financial institution called Lending Club has devised a mechanism where Facebook members can apply for loans...from other Facebook members. Lenders in the network contribute funds into a pool, which is essentially a savings account that Lending Club says will earn a higher rate of interest than a certificate of deposit. Borrowers may apply for loans of $1,000 - 25,000 from this pool, with Lending Club claiming up to 2% of the interest, 1% of the principal contributed to the pool, plus processing fees.
• The Washington Post has deployed a Facebook version of its online application, "The Compass," which is a survey users take to determine the wing of the American political spectrum toward which they tend to lean. Possibly, the results of the survey could be used in a tag within users' Facebook profiles, to help classify them well ahead of an ugly political spat.
• A company called Jangl will facilitate phone conversations between Facebook members through a joint arrangement between pairs of participants. When two parties agree, Jangl offers them a private phone number to continue their talk confidentially, which the company says will give anonymous members a way to communicate over the phone without handing out private information.
• Media player developer Uber is building a Platform app around its existing application, which that company promises will enable users to share their playlists.
• Jobster will be one of the first Facebook Platform developers to make use of its database query language derivative, FQL. With it, a gadget will query the Facebook user database for tags to which users have voluntarily attached job skills data. This way, prospective employers can hunt for candidates throughout the Facebook network, subcategorized by skill set and geography.

Next: More new Facebook Platform applications...