It's the Platform, Stupid

If you needed proof that operating systems were really irrelevant these days, try this:

When Facebook announced its platform, a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and services that allow outside developers to inject new features and content into the Facebook user experience, Facebook, in essence, became the Social Operating System. Historically, the creation of an operating system, or a platform, has led to a new economy which includes a marketplace of applications.

The AppFactory provides funding, technical and business resources to help entrepreneurs identify, build, and monetize the next generation of applications. Since AppFactory investments are really bets on people and concepts, Bay will use an aggressive timeline and fast-track approach to awarding AppFactory funding. An entrepreneur's time is best spent developing the application and experimenting with variables that affect adoption, virality, and usage, while exploring reasonable theories about monetization.

That is, we're no longer looking at the OS-independent browser as a platform, but as a browser-independent social network as a platform - insulating the user even further from the operating system. What's next, an ecosystem based around a Facebook app? (Via TechCrunch.)