For many tech enthusiasts, Facebook has become the hot startup as of late. Since Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s new platform at the F8 Keynote, many other startups have gone mad making apps for the site. Standing on the outside of the Valley, it’s quite stunning to see how many startups have focused on making apps for the social networking web site. The buzz for nothing more than browser widgets has mushroomed into an all out onslaught of media attention. Even stories on mainstream media are talking about how people are joining Facebook in droves and how MySpace is becoming the old “new thing” in terms of social networking. Many startup insider sites are essentially referring to Mark Zuckerberg as “Bill Gates 2.0″ and Facebook as “Microsoft 2.0″ in terms of the startup’s perceived goals. With its recent acquisition of Parakey, you have to wonder where Zuckerberg is heading with the convenient acquisition of super geek Blake Ross , one of the developers of the FireFox web browser and founder of Parakey. All speculation aside, it’s clear that Facebook has become an important place for other startups to drive users to their products/services through the use of apps.

Speculation is extremely high in regards to Facebook taking the IPO route instead of selling out to the highest bidder. I’m sure many of the people who once said Zuckerberg was “mad” for rebuffing acquisition attempts and would end up like Friendster are now praising his brilliance. Who knew that a simple keynote address would drive Facebook’s astounding growth the way that it has? Unfortunately, there is a downside to Facebook’s newfound popularity.

Zuckerberg still has a lawsuit to contend with that alleges he stole code from ConnectU to develop Facebook. The lawsuit, once dismissed, has been revived again by the founders of ConnectU. While lawsuits are common for popular startups, this kind of press is the last thing Facebook needs with its loud rumors of an IPO exit strategy. Then there are the original users of Facebook: the university crowd. Already angered over Facebook’s decision to open up to non-university users, many of the original users are not enthusiastic about the site’s explosive growth to “outsiders.” Although Facebook has been open to users with a non .edu email address for approximately a year, the onetime air of exclusivity is a distant memory based on the site’s growth after Zuckerberg introduced the new platform. With MySpace doing strange things like filtering the vowel “I” in blog posts and replacing it with “…” as well as other words and shutting out more external applications, there is even more growth predicted as people get fed up with MySpace and ditch it for Facebook. Keeping that in mind, Facebook will probably inherit even more of MySpace’s problems: pedophiles, keeping underage users out, and spam/malicious code.

Tossing the negatives aside, one can’t help but watch Facebook’s path under Zuckerberg’s guidance. In many ways, the site has now become the Google and Microsoft of startups. In a nutshell, it’s similar to Google in that it offers a free, web-based service that has a ton of hype, and it’s similar to Microsoft in terms of Facebook’s rumored software development through its Parakey acquisition. One thing is for sure at this point. Zuckerberg’s once “outrageous” claim that he felt Facebook was worth approximately 2 billion dollars is no longer as crazy as it seems…to those buying into the hype and not bothering to look beneath the surface.

Posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 1:20 pm in the category:Commentary, In the News, Life, Play, Web 2.0. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.