Facebook acquires Parakey's "web OS" platf

NaijaGuy writes: As many news sites have reported, Facebook just bought Parakey for an undisclosed sum. Slashdot has previously discussed how Facebook recently opened up development opportunities for third-party developers, and with this acquisition, some observers have pointed out how it appears that Facebook might be trying to become a Microsoft or Google by providing an application development platform based on Parakey's technology. Its "web OS" has also been discussed on Slashdot, and the company has made headlines partly because of the fame of one of its founders. Blake Ross helped launch Firefox, and it was enthusiasm for helping less geeky users like his mom to thrive on the web that got him through the doors of Netscape at the age of 15. A recent interview charts how that same enthusiasm led him to start Parakey, "a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do." I write Java code for my day job, and I'm eager to see how significant this new platform could be. Also, I still haven't explored many apps on Facebook since few appear to be very amusing or helpful, and I'm curious as to whether any of you have noticed interesting possibilities for development on their existing platform.