Microsoft and Facebook, a marriage made in heaven ?

Facebook, a social networking site that has grown phenomenally in the past few years, has finally succumbed to the temptation of selling a stake to Microsoft. 

Regular readers will be familiar with my excitement about Facebook as a web social media.  Since I wrote that article, over 8,000 third party applications have been produced for the platform, of which is one of ours.

However I am not so sure that this move is a good one.  There are more than a few Facebook users who have vowed to cancel their accounts when Microsoft takes a stake, amongst fears of excessive commercialisation.  Part of Facebook's appeal to generate communities is despite its promotion of open communication between social networks is its lack of "in your face" commercialisation and respect of privacy.  It will also be interesting to see exactly what Microsoft's business plan is for the site.

$240 million gives them a stake of 1.6 percent.  Not much, but significant all the same.  Still, it is a pawn in their battle against Google, who have benefitted substantially from their acquisitions of other social media sites like Blogger and YouTube.