It was one year ago to the day that the Facebook Platform had its debut in San Francisco, California. And oh how far it has come.
An entire economy has emerged in the months since the launch, complete with virtually all of the ups and downs that come with development and management of a startup marketplace. Many third parties have benefited considerably from activity on the network. More have seen less of lady luck. Disputes have arisen over a myriad of things - openness and user data security and portability being perhaps the most consistently topical of all. And plenty of fun has been had along the way. Surely some tears have been shed as well. (No first-hand knowledge, there, but the sheer size of the lottery says its a definite.)
And naturally, the platform will evolve. Amendments will be made. Greater powers will be put in the hands of developers. All in the name of progress. Which is great. Who doesn’t like advancement? That’s what the Web is all about. Yes, of course, more concerns about user safety are bound to be voiced. And assurances of users’ security will be relayed. And that sort of back-and-forth will not stop. At least not for a long while. But as for the grander picture, the proverbial glass ceiling for Facebook is still well above the place where the company now finds itself. 2007-2008 was only the first series of steps for the network as far as associating with third-parties. 2008-2009 will presumably bring significantly more forward motion for developers.
As the Facebook Platform was first introduced, the word around the tech blog space was about the creation of an operating system. To some observers it may have seemed far fetched to look at it in such a way. But with hindsight, it seems that that is precisely where the company’s path is leading. Which is altogether a very good prognosis for Facebook, as the network is right in the thick of things, socially speaking. It’s ingrained in the Web as much as a company of its size can be at the moment, making connections with a potpourri of various Web services, either through partnerships or singular applications constructed for the platform, and it’s increasing its value tremendously for doing so.
It’s not as extensive as, say, Windows or Mac OS X or Linux for that matter. No, not even close. But it needn’t be so. It is not the be-all and end-all of computing. It never will be. But what it can be is a very extensive, very customizable social operating system. It has already managed to attract tens of millions of users who recognize it as relatively refined alternative to less elegant systems. And its developer platform has more or less been open enough to facilitate the creation of relatively simple applications that users have shown considerable interest. Logic would have it that the seasons ahead hold better provisions still. So whether or not you’re a fan of Facebook, whether you think it’s a great invention or a waste of time, or something which sits somewhere between those two choices, it is, along with the Facebook Platform, a chief catalyst for the social Web, and one which will only see more attention paid by inventive third parties the world over.