Facebook is taking a leaf out of MySpace's book and opening its door to third-party software developers.The popular social networking site has enjoyed incredible growth since becoming available to all web users last autumn, but still lags behind MySpace in terms of market share.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed at a media event that the site will be allowing developers to create applications or 'widgets' for users.
The site will also allow companies to open retail services and advertise products, unlike MySpace, which only allows itself to advertise on the site.
"You can serve ads...or if you don't want to advertise, you can just sell something," he told an audience of journalists and outside developers. "You keep all the revenue."
Among the 65 partners Facebook has signed up to build web applications are Microsoft and Amazon, while Photobucket, recently acquired by MySpace, and multimedia presentation site Slide will also be building services.
"Until now, social networks have been closed platforms. Today, we're going to end that," Zuckerberg added.
Facebook will be hoping the developments continue to bridge the gap between itself and MySpace.
Recent figures released by Hitwise showed that MySpace dominated the US social networking market with 79.7 per cent of category visits, while Facebook claimed 11.47 per cent and Bebo 1.28 per cent.
However, in the 12 months from April 2006 to last month, visits to Facebook in the US increased by 126 per cent, while MySpace only saw a 70 per cent rise in traffic during the same period .
