Facebook makes a major change to its code

Today, in a blog post, Facebook announced major changes to the proprietary language in which Facebook applications are written, called Facebook Markup Language (FBML). The code will now be capable of being edited using custom tags which can be shared between multiple applications. Currently, the feature is only available on the site, but it will eventually be shared with all of the Facebook Connect supporting sites on the web. Effectively this means Facebook will now be more open. But the question is, how open?


FBML was designed to make sure that malicious applications would not be able to infect the browsers and PCs of their users. More than likely the new version of FML will take into account security measures so that code can efficiently be shared. 

Developers have built many applications on the Facebook platform, the majority of them lack in quality, however, and don’t function well after the site redesign.

With Facebook moving to a more open source platform, it will open the doors to higher quality programs.

We’ll have to wait to see how Facebook moves forward with this development, and whether or not they choose to become a more open software platform.