Facebook Gets Help From Its Friends - WSJ.com

Thanks to my Facebook friend Rodney Rumford and his post on FaceReviews FaceReviews.com :: Facebook Application Reviews, Facebook Widgets and Facebook News. Sharing the Facebook Blog love.

Facebook Gets Help From Its Friends - WSJ.com: "Facebook is actually borrowing a tactic pioneered by Microsoft: Rather than building every piece of technology yourself, let others build on your 'platform,' much the way Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and others built software for Microsoft's Windows operating system in the 1980s. Using this strategy, Facebook can nurture an ecosystem of developers who can create services far faster than Facebook could build them on its own."

The Facebook ecosystem now has over 50,000 application developers working to increase the user value of the Facebook platform - a number that is growing by almost 10% per day - and Rodney's Facebookreviews is providing a needed service by scanning this huge source of new applications to locate the "good stuff" for you.

If he can keep up with the rapid growth of Facebook applications to recommend the ones you can use to power your social networks , he will be in the catbird seat - with a 50,000 foot view of this amazing ecosystem, and a significant player in building brand value for Facebook and the applications it selects to review from the burgeoning developer network.

IMHO the launch of the Facebook Platform will be a watershed event in the history of the Web as it grows to become THE social network "for the rest of us". All that's needed to accelerate Facebook into sustainable orbit velocity is to become the user's choice on their mobile devices. Think Facebook on iPhones - social networking on steroids!