is Facebook Platform good for the web?

When Facebook first announced its new ‘Platform’ whereby third-party
companies could built applications and set-up shop within the social
networking site, many pronounced its ‘openness’ as a good thing, since
it gives developers access to the site’s millions of users. And whilst
access to all of those users is something no web startup should
dismiss, it did, and still does, make we wonder what impact Facebook Platform will have on the rest of the web?

…where does this leave the ’small pieces, loosely
joined’ philosophy of the net? If everybody sets up shop in Facebook,
keeping all the action inside the social network site, where does that
leave the rest of the web?

Over at Read/WriteWeb, Richard MacManus wrote a great post
looking at how ‘open’ Facebook really is, since it using it’s own
version of web standards, is, by design, a closed network in terms of
privacy (you have to join the site, and be authorized to view
profiles), and it doesn’t support standards to enable users to move
their data elsewhere.

Some have gone as far as to call Facebook the new AOL.

So, is Facebook good for the web? Take my poll, but also let’s debate this in the comments.

Is Facebook Platform good for the web?