Facebook as a Platform

If you aren’t a Facebook user (or don’t really know what it is) stop reading. Seek help.

Kidding aside, Facebook has become a predominant way for us to interact with the Web. Providing us insight into our friends, access to information and services, and even entertainment, it has evolved into a platform from its humble roots as a web application.

But what makes it a platform? Two things. APIs and third-party app hosting.

Although it wasn’t common practice 10 years ago to create API frameworks, i...