Facebook taps e-commerce potential with new partnerships

Social networking site Facebook is taking on MySpace's multiplatform functionality by teaming up with 65 developer partners including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Slide to integrate commercial Web sites with the Facebook network.

The new platform announcement at the Facebook f8 Event in San Francisco last Thursday comes months after the network expanded from a student-only community to a site open to the public. The first result of the partnership with Amazon.com was the development of a new application called "Book Reviews."

The application lets Facebook users write and display book reviews on their profile pages. Facebook users can then click on the "Buy at Amazon" button and be sent directly to Amazon's e-commerce site for purchase. The two companies are working on additional applications that will be announced later.

Microsoft has created an application called Popfly, a Web-based tool that lets users create applications and add them to their profiles, such as embedding mashups of Web sites directly onto profiles.

The Slide application lets users create slide shows for publishing and viewing personal photos and video clips. In addition, the platform lets friends of the profile user post their own photos and videos.

Other development partners include Digg, Dogster, Virgin Mobile USA, Warner Brothers Reocrds and FeedBurner.