Facebook opens the door to outsiders

Social networking site Facebook is finally opening up to third-party software developers - a move that comes three years after rival MySpace jumped to a staggering lead in the space largely by throwing the doors open to outside services.

Facebook, the number two social-networking site, said it is allowing software developers to create applications, or "widgets", for Facebook users. MySpace executives may yawn but Facebook is also going to allow other companies to open retail services and advertise on the site, according to founder and CEO of the site, Mark Zuckerberg.

Speaking to an audience of journalists and outside developers at a media event in San Francisco, Zuckerberg said: "You can serve ads... or if you don't want to advertise, you can just sell something. You keep all the revenue."

This contrasts sharply with MySpace's philosophy. It's against MySpace rules for anyone other than MySpace to advertise on the site.

At the core of Facebook's new plans is the debut of Facebook/f8, a platform that allows anyone to build applications for social computing. The company is hoping its 23 million monthly users and the opportunity to create for-profit businesses will attract developers to build a host of new networking services on top of the f8 infrastructure.

Emily Riley, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said: "Facebook is really trying to catch up technologically. They were lucky to build a loyal audience fast but they don't have the media play that MySpace has. MySpace is the perfect combination of communication and new media."

Facebook has lagged behind MySpace in offering users a wide array of services that keep them engaged and spending more time on a site. The longer users stay logged on, the happier the site's advertisers.

MySpace was founded in November 2003, just three months before Facebook but has accumulated nearly three times the traffic.

According to comScore, MySpace - which News Corp acquired in 2005 for $500m - saw 66 million monthly visitors in April compared with Facebook's 23 million.

Facebook users can now equip their profiles with 65 new services, including photo slide shows (Slide), a music recommendation service (iLike) and a music player (Uber). A new video application will allow users to send video messages directly to friends within Facebook.

For many, Facebook has long been considered an online hangout for college kids but Zuckerberg said the company is growing up. He pointed out during the press conference that 60 per cent of Facebook's users are now out of college.

During the press conference, Zuckerberg downplayed the possibility that Facebook's new open-door policy was late. He said up until now third-parties were allowed only to "drop some widgets" into a site. "This is the first time that anyone has ever offered a platform that allows others to build full applications into a social-networking site," he said.

Nonetheless, Owen Van Natta, Facebook's chief operating officer, appeared to acknowledge Facebook needed to one-up MySpace to attract developers.

He said: "We needed a competitive edge. We want to create the most attractive site for developers to develop applications and a big part of that is to allow them to build businesses."

Facebook has long been rumoured to be for sale. Asked whether this is true, Zuckerberg said: "I've always thought that Facebook should remain independent and this just strengthens that."

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com