Facebook: Opening Up, But on Its Own Terms

This article is well-written, and the particular issue of status updates is especially pertinent considering the growth of related sites, such as Twitter.

However, the larger issue of Facebook changing the rules on people is a reality that any developer using Platform has been living with daily for months. Facebook is still searching for the balance between keeping a lock on its users' data and behavior, and opening up.

Good article indeed, especially coming from the sometimes-hysterical folks at TechCrunch.

The phrase "walled garden" comes to mind. Facebook is undoubtedly the best social networking site on the web, and I don't see why it won't continue to get better in that regard.

Their move to become a web platform, or a web OS, or whatever other buzzword is currently in favor, is a little rockier. I think they're taking the idea of an OS far too literally. A web OS won't--and shouldn't--look anything like a desktop OS. Being a web platform is about facilitating interoperability--precisely the opposite of measuring success by the number of apps that people have written for your proprietary platform.

(Is it too obvious that my startup is working in this area?)