• CNET News.com, Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11 AM

In a blog post last week, Facebook developer Jesse Farmer declared that the Facebook Platform Party is over, citing a 27% decline in activity in the developer forum since January, a decline in overall postings of 51% over the same time period, and his finding that the average application launched in early January was 1.5 times more successful in terms of its adoption rate than ones launched in March. Meanwhile, Farmer pointed out that there are now many more destinations for social applications, from gaming sites to initiatives like Google's OpenSocial that broaden their reach, so developers no longer feel tied to a single social networking platform. Indeed, developers are beginning to realize there's now life beyond Facebook.

CNET said the "suburbanization" of The Facebook Platform is one reason developer fatigue. The site's most popular applications are now dominated by startups like Slide and Rock You with their estimated valuations in the tens of millions. Meanwhile, new rules and regulations have made it less easy for the layman developer to compete.

Does this mark the end of Facebook? No, said CNET. Rather, these are indications that the social Web is evolving into something much broader, "and that Facebook can't be the center of attention forever." Farmer said that most developers agreed that The Facebook Platform is losing its influence, as competing platforms enter the market.

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