Facebook: A fortified garden

The Internet world in the valley has been abuzz over the last 3 months about the Facebook (FB) announcement to give “an unprecedented amount of access to developers.” The Facebook API would permit third party developers to offer their applications to FB users. Users can browse through and use any of the third-party applications. They can even remove default FB applications and use third party solutions instead.

Besides letting these applications serve their own ads, Facebook has also added a viral element to this ecosystem. When your friend subscribes to a third-party application, it is included in the news stream of that user. So, when notified about your friend’s choice, you can decide to use the application yourself. In other words, your “social graph” (in FB parlance) – your network of friends – will push information to you.

The Implications
This strategy has been hailed for two reasons. One, it makes FB functionally richer and developers get access to the large FB user base. And two, friends can push you information that you might find useful. But, both these advantages have downsides.

To begin with this information push is fine with small groups. But as your network grows, it soon becomes information overload – often unwanted. It ends up becoming the equivalent of unsolicited mail albeit non-disruptive.

It is true that an open Facebook is unlike other social networks, which attempt to lock in users. The obvious goal here is to make available so much functionality on Facebook that users don’t feel the need to look at other platforms at all. This is very similar to the Microsoft strategy of using third-party application providers to gain competitive advantage.

This to them has been Facebook’s valiant attempt to knock walled gardens.