Facebook is trying to leverage their huge installed based to socialize all the web.  Today, at F8 Facebook’s developer conference Mark Zuckerberg announced his vision to socialize the web with Facebook’s new changes.

This Is All About Google

It’s clear this is all about countering Google.  It’s know in the industry that Facebook has recruited all the top talent and executives from Google so they know the game that they are playing.  That game is total dominance of the web hence dominance in advertising.

Here is an example that amplifies my point above:  Google’s motto is "the faster people can search the better the user experience – and Google’s profit in search advertising keywords".  Now Facebook is saying "the faster people can be social the better the user experience."   Of course "the faster people can be social" the better it is for Facebook’s profit in social ads.

According to the keynote by Zuck, this next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web. It lets you shape your experiences online and make them more social. Facebook is making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more  social experiences for everyone.

There are now more than 400 million people on Facebook and now over 100 million mobile users – this is huge.

Key Announcements:

1. Policy changes – some policy changes for developers include a single one-click process with permissions being more permanent where you can store Facebook people data for more than 24 hours. In addition Facebook is really enabling more e-commerce with their Credits virtual currency model. Although in closed beta with only about 100 partners Facebook will be allowing sites to store credit information to do ecommerce.

2.  Social plug-ins including a Like button for partner web sites – big media sites for now.

3.  Open Graph protocol. Facebook is launching the Open Graph protocol with 30 partners.

4.  Graph API, an overhaul of Facebook’s platform code in which every object in Facebook has a unique ID.

My Angle:

Facebook is making a great move to be more social and leverage their platform. Unlike their original platform which got overrun with "crap", Facebook is rolling out real value here – access to users and distribution for developers (and sites).

For those not tracking Facebook it was only just a few years ago that Facebook launched their FB platform (2007). It quickly got littered with arbitrage type gaming and created a poor user experience. Then Facebook made a good move which allowed them to mature their platform and user base – they changed their platform strategy to be just Facebook Connect – the ability for sites to connect to Facebook for sharing.

Now the Facebook platform is going to another level – the next step – The Web.   Side note: Twitter could learn a ton from Facebook on how they quickly changed their platform model.

Also interesting in this announcement is the signal that Microsoft is sending to Google with their new Docs.com feature where users of Facebook can open Microsoft Office documents in Facebook. This new sharing Microsoft documents is a direct strike at Google since most young users don’t even use Microsoft and have been using Google docs.  The name Docs.com is big win for Microsoft and now with Facebook integration Microsoft can now got after Google docs for this new user demographic.

The open graph model is great for developers and with the recent explosion in mobile as seen with the success of Apple Facebook is really enabling developers to be even more creative.

I expect Facebook to push huge in mobile over the next year.  Their silence was a big indicator that they are coming out with a platform revamp there.

What will be interesting to see is how Facebook handles the entire Foursquare situation. Is the backing out of Andreesen Horowitz from the financing race a sign that Facebook is going to crush Foursquare and location based services? I think so. Memo to Foursquare – sell, sell, sell to Yahoo.

The big upshot in all this for Facebook is the ability to harness the data to create new "semantic" search algorithms to change the game on Google. Of course Microsoft has an angle in this with Bing.

Final Angle:  Speed and User Experience

Facebook is big enough to set new standards in a defacto way which might not be received well by some of the academics pushing for their "science projects" to be ratified.  Is Facebook going against the grain of the industry?  I don’t see it that way.  Facebook is signaling that they will use standards like OAuth as long as it delivers speed, social, and great user experience.

Speed and User Experience

This is all business for Facebook.  In their conversation Facebook sounds like Google.  Google’s motto is "the faster people can search the better the user experience – and Google’s profit".  Now Facebook is saying "the faster people can be social the better the user experience."   Of course "the faster people can be social" the better it is for Facebook’s profit.

I say that Facebook making zillions is not a bad thing as long as Facebook continues "making the market".

If Facebook can build a truly rising tide, make tons of money for the ecosystem, and deliver on a great user experience – they deserve to have that big business benefit.

The only thing we have to watch them on is their deliver on their promise.  Hearing Mark Zuckerber I feel he will deliver.

Message to Mark Zuckerberg:  make the market, deliver a great user experience, and enable creativity within developer community then everyone will make money.  If you do this you will have many Friends.