I am three weeks behind the times, so I’m just catching on to how cool the Facebook Platform is. Then I read “Analyzing the Facebook Platform, three weeks in” by Marc Andreessen. It’s a must read for any social-networking entrepreneur. Facebook Platform is almost as exciting as developing Safari apps for the iPhone. :-)
Marc Andreesson Teaches about Start-ups
If you are not following what Marc has to say about starting a company, you risk not being funded. Say what you will about what happened with Netscape and AOL. Marc rode the ride and has a lot to share…
Guy,
I think the post on devshots belongs on Truemors at best. At worst it deserves a SPAM label.
Marc’s posts are always interesting aren’t they. If I ever get the chance though I want to ask him about the day in 1995 I think it was that Netscape gave up on the search page. I went there and it said – “We give up. Go see Yahoo.” Can you imagine doing that today? Oops! That is almost as bad as turning down the job of Yahoo CEO. What idiot did that?
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What post on devshots? :-)
OK, so now how is that person who turned down the Yahoo job gonna fix that? ;-)
(Hint: Start something that gets bigger…)
And can you get me the answer from Marc? It has haunted me lo these 12 years.
Facebook Platform: Cool.
iPhone App Dev: Very cool.
Facebook App that integrates with the iPhone: Ice rink cool.
I can see it now. Voice-Twitter with a Bluetooth headset: a techie walks down the street, chattering about what he’s seeing while a voice-to-text program in his iPhone uploads it to Twitter and it appears on his Mini-feed.
Yes, the kid who turned down a $1 billion buyout offer (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_features-hacker-dropout-ceo.html) is getting on the API widget bandwagon. I’m not sure how it benefits the third party developer, other than getting a culture of cool status. But developing little aps sure has been popular for the iGoogle page.
I have reservations about using the facebook API to make anything because the terms seem to give me little reason to do it. (http://www.vecosys.com/2007/05/28/working-with-facebook-f8-you-are-not-in-control-of-your-access/).
I favor transparency & third-party development access, but not when it is so limited it benefits only the main platform and leaves next to nothing for the third-party. (http://www.leahculver.com/2007/06/19/widgets-suck/)
If you were a VC & mentor to Facebook, would you have advised them not to sell?