Get That Face Booked Now!

The FaceBook craze sucks in Microsoft's interests

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 26 Sep 2007

The social network Facebook.com seems to be getting plenty of interest from businesses and people alike, the three and half year old company has expanded from being used to help university students get to know each other to being used and loved by 40million+ people worldwide has been eyed up by Microsoft and Google. The two dragons are apparently interested in buying a 5% piece of the company, but by the general chatter it sounds like Microsoft is more interested than Google. Microsoft presumably is looking for a bigger pet than Google; and Facebook may just be it. Microsoft already has a relatively close relationship with Facebook because it has the exclusive rights to display adverts on the site, but does not appear to want to buy it yet. Microsoft wants something new to combat the rocket that is Google, if Microsoft makes a move on/with Facebook they might just get that edge.

Facebook is especially notable for the ability to add third party applications that can be displayed on the Facebook profiles as gadget/widget type things. Also little apps you can send to people - such as throwing a pie in someone's face - all of which have been built by people in their spare time to make the site a wee bit more fun to use. That kind of openness makes Facebook very attractive to regular users and programmers alike. I decided to join Facebook in order to have a wee look myself and at first glance it seems pretty plain, but unravel the layers and it’s heaving at the seams with features.

For a start you can join many different 'networks' from cities to work-places and have the ability to display events through the main page of that network to everyone who has joined, I can imagine that this makes event promotion easy it also obviously means you can chat and meet up with people from your area. Other features include an update logger (a box on your profile that lists your recent activities profile-wise, sort of like the Bebo one), a powerful network search algorithm that allows you to search for people by their gender, age, relationship status, political views, etc., an online marketplace where members can buy, sell and advertise things over the site, the ability to join miniature networks i.e. interest groups in your current networks, and many other features as well. In other words Facebook is damn polished and definitely looks like it would be a worthy investment to anyone, currently Facebook's annual profits are around $30million.