That said, I think there is some real long term value to be had from applications which leverage the social network, but are not compelling enough for users to establish and maintain yet another social network. I think there will also be a few applications that end up making a ton of money that no one sees coming.

What’s happening here is classic Porter Competitive strategy – there is a new technology, so there are LOTS of entrants, and a few of them will end up doing really well, and a lot of them will wither and die.

Facebook is following the familiar pattern set by previous social networking applications. People sign up because their friends sign up and once everybody signs up, they discover that there isn’t much to do. The first few Facebook applications are cute but they’re all variations on the same themes.

Now wonder there’s all this talk about Facebook not being for sale *cough* $10 Billions dollars *cough*…

And when it comes to ads, I’ve already gotten facebook (or any other banner-laden site) beaten. I use adblock, a Firefox extension, to completely remove any and all “ad” content from sites like facebook and myspace… it makes everything better.

A revolt against the wholesale selling of adspace on personal profiles — by a second hand party, no less — with none of it going back to the profile “owner” is another thing entirely.

Maybe that is the idea for a killer app then… one that advertises and shares revenue with those that display it on their profile.

I’m not a fan of the apps myself anyway, I only have the video one (made by Facebook). 99% of apps seem to be pointless and I have taken to blocking and reporting any app that has the cheek to email me. There could be a backlash over all of this, but Facebook users are so into trying everything (so it seems from the number of apps my friends install and uninstall in a week) that there will be some winners out of all of this, and not just Facebook themselves.