Facebook wants to be the Web OS
AllFacebook is reporting that Facebook has now made it even easier for developers to create Facebook apps and widgets that will run just about anywhere on the Web. According to the description at ZDNet, developers have been able to get Facebook widgets to run elsewhere since the platform launched, but it took some server-side scripting and knowledge. Now apparently all it takes is a little bit of Javascript.
Whether you think this is a good thing or not probably depends a lot on your view of Facebook widgets and apps, but what I find interesting is how Facebook is trying to straddle the line between control and the open Web — to find some middle ground between the “walled garden” approach and the totally open. The site would no doubt really like it if everyone who created an app used it only on the site, and every user of that app had to come to the site to use it. At the same time, however, Zuckerberg and his team have to recognize that’s probably not going to happen.
Can Facebook continue to be a kind of gatekeeper of the social graph, and yet still allow bits and pieces of its platform to live elsewhere on the Web? I think the fact that it is even trying to do so is worth noting — even though it seems like the site is trying to have its cake and eat it too.
license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
subscribe
grazr
TwitterCount
busted tees
Discussion
Comments for “Facebook wants to be the Web OS”
Add New Comment
Viewing 5 Comments
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
And even the type of apps that are developed for facebook may not hold its worth on the web.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Facebook bought them and they've been MIA. However, if we read the parakey stuff from Ross that's exactly what he was saying Parakey was going to be.
...things that make you go hum......
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks