Bootstrapping your computer application or for that matter other services on the Internet may soon be less about building your own website then about setting up shop within inexpensive high traffic social networks like Facebook.

Why? Because as Joe McKendrick at the FastForward Blog explains, a trend may be afoot allowing entrepreneurs access to environments once reserved for social interaction.

McKendrick writes:

Essentially, Facebook has opened itself as a bazaar or online mall of sorts, in which it, starting in May, granted developers the right to hawk applications to its huge installed base of users. In exchange, Facebook becomes a richer environment.

An article on the "Facebook economy" in Business 2.0 Magazine explains:

The apps have names like FoodFight, zombies, (fluff)Friends, and Fortune Cookie, and they let users indulge in everything from scrawling graffiti and sending virtual cocktails to buying music, brokering loans, and joining charitable causes - usually without leaving their Facebook homepages. Some apps have attracted hundreds of thousands of users, and a select few have pulled in millions.

A special section for developers on the Facebook network shows beginners how to get started and there are signs additional social networks like Bebo, LinkedIn and MySpace may soon follow suit.



AT&T Tech Channel: Facebook's open development platform.