Everyone and their dog seems to be talking about Facebook at the moment. I set up an account the other week and have an embarrasingly small friends list which I prefer to think as being a reflection on the luddite people I've associated with rather than on me.

But it does seem like this thing is going nuts and it kind of reminds me of when Friend Reunited was taking off and it seemed like there was a genuine rush to get on and find out what school friends have done.

So with any big popular subject, there's got to be a way for web entrepreneuers to cash in. One way might be to register domains for Facebook related topics, such as guides, templates, howtos, FAQs etc and incorporate Adsense etc. No doubt there will be, or is already, eBooks on the subject.

But the more interesting way is probably through developing tools and applications for Facebook, using its own API and developer's platform. Sam Harrelson has already flagged this up as a great opportunity ("Facebook is About to Explode") and it definitely seems exciting. I've had a quick scout round the Developer's site and the API is based around XML over HTTP (REST) which is very easy to work with. There's a PHP5 and Java client library to download, or unofficial client libraries for other technologies such as VB.net, coldfusion and Perl.

As long as you meet their terms of service, you are able to use the Facebook API to create commercial or non-commercial applications on websites or desktop applications and they are fine with your application being monetised. One thing to bear in mind is that you aren't allowed to register domains including the word "face" for use with the FaceBook API.

I'm checking out other people's applications at the moment to get a feel for what's possible and see how people are monetising it, if they are at all yet. I'll be brainstorming ideas over the weekend and seeing what I come up with. My first idea is "List My Friends' Religous Holidays", but I'd hope I can come up with something better than that!

Labels: facebook