More Face Time for Facebook

So now we know why Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old wunderkind who created Facebook, turned down a buy-out offer from Yahoo estimated at between $900 million and $1.5 billion. It seems he has much bigger things in mind.

Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the internet's second-largest social network, said the site will allow programmers and technology companies to develop special features for Facebook subscribers to add to their pages.

"We're not about owning the content, or owning all the applications that people are using," Zuckerberg told 700 reporters and programmers on Thursday.

Among the 65 companies taking early advantage of Facebook--and hoping to captivate its 24 million members--is Amazon. The online retailer will let Facebook members write and display book or other media reviews on their pages, and then allow a user to click through to buy the merchandise.

Financially, the move is viewed more as a benefit to those creating these new features for Facebook. "You can build a real advertising business on Facebook," Zuckerberg said. It's unclear now how Facebook and its partners will share advertising revenue.

But in the long run, it could be Zuckerberg's pockets that expand significantly. The New York Times noted the move improves Facebook's "prospects for a lucrative acquisition or an eventual public offering."

Jim Breyer, a venture capitalist and Facebook board member, said not to expect the company to change hands. "Although a lot of companies continue to approach us, we are not for sale."

With such a comment, Breyer is making a not-so subtle dig at MySpace--the number one social networking site that's three times bigger than Facebook. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace two years ago for $580 million.

MySpace has long allowed its users to customize their pages and MySpace officials brushed off the competition.

"We have always offered our users a blank canvas for their creativity and self expression," the company said in a statement.

by J. Jennings Moss