It’s no secret that the web has opened up many opportunities to make money from the long tail. Ebay, Google, and Facebook have done a great job in taking advantage of this philosophy. The cold and huddled masses that may have been cast away by the giants of industry in a prior era, are being embraced and coddled by the giants of today.

After all, it’s all about letting the little man be successful, allowing the entrepreneur to strike it rich, and giving the consumer the customization that he demands. Screw the masses. That stuff is for the old plodding giants of yesteryear like GE, Pfizer, and ExxonMobil. “Would you like premium or regular sir?” That type of customization doesn’t work anymore and if you try to create a business that operates along those lines, it just won’t work.

A while back, I promised that I wouldn’t comment on Facebook until the din had died down. Since Facebook made the announcement on May 24, it’s been a few weeks and we’ve all had time to think about it and ponder. Even before the concept of the social platform, Facebook had done a great job of reaching out to the masses. By starting with a well-defined niche, it had been commended many times over for its strategic success in capturing the college social networking market and then opening up to the broader community of web users.

Facebook then announced that it was opening up its platform to allow widgets that not only could be placed on the page, but would be promoted from within Facebook and would be allowed to utilize internal Facebook apps through an Open API. Amazing! Especially, since this is exactly the opposite of how the very successful, but waning, MySpace has approached the market landscape from a strategic perspective. I suspect that the folks over at MySpace are pulling a few all-nighters trying to figure out how to open its services in an API.

Pronto!

What happens to Facebook?

It now calls itself a “Social Utility” and has 305 applications (some Facebook created apps are included in that number), with the most popular app being used by over 5.5mm users. Amazing!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the Top 10 apps:

Top Friends: Save time and show your friends some love. Add a box of up to 24 of your BFFs to your profile. Now they are one click away, you don’t have to search every time you want to go check up on them. Now the question is… who is in your top friends box?

iLike: iLike lets you add music to your profile and find your favorite concerts (not to mention see who else is going!). Bonus: Use it to get free mp3’s that match your tastes and try to beat your friends at the Music Challenge.

Fortune Cookie: Is he the one? Does she have a crush on you? Should you take that job? The Fortune Cookie knows and tells all. May all your fortunes come true. (Zero MSG.)

Horoscopes: Whats in store for you? Will today be the day? Find out by adding a RockYou horoscope to your page and get updates every-other-day covering all zodiac signs.

Graffiti: Graffiti lets you draw on your friends’ profiles. As simple as that.

X Me: Tired of just poking? X me opens up a whole new world of action-based communication, for example ‘Hug Her, Slap Him, Tickle Them!’

Movies: Rate & review movies, share reviews with friends and meet over 14 million other film fans already on Flixster.

SuperPoke!: Why just poke when you can pinch, hug, tickle, pwn or even throw sheep?

Mobile: The Facebook Mobile application allows you to view a stream of the latest content your friends have uploaded via Facebook Mobile. It also provides a phonebook view of your friends, and allows you to subscribe to your friends’ mobile content.

Free Gifts: Allows you to send gifts for free! Gifts will be added constantly!

Enjoy!

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