Facebook is extending its influence across the Web in a big way, by today allowing developers to create third-party programs outside of Facebook that tap into the company's social data pool. Apps
developed using Facebook's API can now access the social network's features and its so-called "social graph" of user information from outside the site.
Silicon Alley Insider's
(link: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/another-brilliant-facebook-move-really-opens-platform-to-web.html) Henry Blodget says the "small but important step" underlines Facebook's goal of becoming
more like an operating system that links Web programs together through the social graph.
That said, Facebook still is not completely open, as users still have to go to the site to
interact with friends and software made specifically for the site.
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