Facebook data storage

To most, it started off as another version of MySpace, another platform to interlock with friends and display your photos, but it wasn`t long before Facebook developed into something more. Soon your friend count was the big thing. Popularity was shown with the amount of friends plus being tagged in photos from the weekend from crazy parties. Questionnaire notes started getting copied and pasted along with personality tests, IQ tests and which celebrity you looked like.

Friends from ten, twenty years ago started poking you and then as applications started kicking in, they could tickle, slap, dropkick or even divorce you with a simple click of a button. Every time you logged in there was another friend request from a person who the last you knew, had barely the knowledge to turn a PC on, let alone register for an online networking system.

But it seems every time people start getting bored or start wondering what the point is, Facebook pops out something new for it`s users. Now it`s popped something out for its developers as well. Since Facebook started allowing private users to develop their own applications, they`ve had to be responsible for their own data storage. Generally most turned to Amazon`s S3 service for support, but without a press release, or even a launch, Facebook just adjusted a new system and is suggesting that soon they will be offering data storage for the developer.

Just a simple message on Facebook`s Developer Wiki promises things to come:
“Data Store API in Open BETA now. There is no need to get approved anymore. Any Application can access it now….”

Details of the costing or limitations of the storage have not been revealed as of yet, but developers are starting to wonder why this will affect Amazon S3 as well as asking if Facebook is going to do the ultimate revolution and offer free data storage.

So far, Facebook hasn`t said a word, but developers around the world are waiting in suspense.