Palo Alto (CA) - Social networking site Facebook has acquired Parkey, an Internet start-up designed as a proprietary Web operating system.

Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, the same duo that founded Firefox, created Parkey in the beginning of 2006.  Ross says it is an Internet-based platform "that can do everything an [operating system] can do."

Though Facebook is far behind the social networking leader Myspace, it has held its own, with 26.6 million unique visitors in the month of May.

Originally built as a network between college students, Facebook was opened up to everyone in September 2006.

Financial terms were not disclosed, and neither were the plans that Facebook has with the new acquisition.  Whatever it leads to, Facebook hopes it can help leapfrog the site into the top spot on the Web.

"Facebook knows this; what buying Parakey does is provide Facebook with a base from which it can not only become a Web OS provider, but leverage its user base to become THE Web OS provider," said industry analyst Duncan Riley in a Computerworld story.

opening up facebook to all was a mistake

Jul 20, 2007 13:18     

I have seen face book try alot of new things recently and not one has impressed me. I liked the plain and simple interface from a while ago. adding wierd applications that don't seem to do very much really clutters up the webpages. I wonder what they want with a "web OS".
c report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I agree totally. What made it good was the fact th...

Jul 20, 2007 14:35     

I agree totally. What made it good was the fact that it wasn't just a bunch of superfluous crap like MySpace and the fact that people actually just used it to stay in contact. The downward trend started awhile ago and took a huge dive when they opened it up to 3rd party "developers" earlier this year. If this acquisition has anything to do with the site, it'll be sad to see the death of Facebook.
thriftstoretee report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I agree

Jul 20, 2007 15:18     

I gotta agree with you, all the little kids who need to get their "social" on are now taking over facebook. I happen to like their layout and customization a lot better than myspace, but recently I have had a lot of application invites that are being sent out by my friends not knowingly.
James report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

The exclusivity of Facebook

Jul 20, 2007 15:33     

Was the site's biggest draw. It wasn't Myspace, or any other lame social networking site. I used to use Facebook to organize student groups at college, or attempt to recruit. Now it's just become Myspace 2.0, and has lost any interest I had in it.
Will report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

myspace was SO 2006

Jul 20, 2007 15:35     

i am surprised that facebook has not yet taken topspot. i have found most of my social networking friends gave up updating their MySpace pages months ago. Now with the addition of Application support, the "custom" look that you could achieve with HTML manipulation in MySpace has been added to Facebook, with a simple point-and-click use. I hope Facebook & Google team and take over the world!!M!UAHAHAHHAHAHA

lorddelcasa509 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Facebook falling to the status quo

Jul 20, 2007 16:00     

Facebook definately should not have opened up to the public, like it did in 2006... That was one of the things keeping it a unique site, being only for college students.. Now, anyone can join and you can play music on your page and all sorts of other useless stuff! It ha become just another chat-site.. what a waste!
Reagan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Totally agree.

Jul 20, 2007 17:34     

Instead of finding better and more inventive use of internet social site (move up market), Facebook went down-market and competes with MySpace for desperate teens, pedophiles and fetish groups. They had the opportunity to bring together undergrad/grad students, graduated professionals and anyone with a college degree, and they blew it. High school students will move in to meet college students and college students will leave once they graduated.

Pei report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It's a business

Jul 20, 2007 22:34     

I'm not surprised they opened it to the public because its a business and the more unique hits it gets, the more money they make through advertising.
James report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I have no doubt

Jul 22, 2007 19:49     

Face book I have no doubt is a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully They wont overdue it and abandone the simplicity which makes it so attractive. like ICQ did.
Chris report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Not such a bad idea.

Aug 14, 2007 13:28     

I think that opening the site to the public wasn't such a bad idea. I always thought the site was elitist when it required college affiliation. Being a college student doesn't make you THAT much better than everyone else. Get off your high horse and realize that there are great people outside of college.
Mike report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0