About to get a mite
more complex

Facebook is availing the homepage/profile stream, where users receive updates about other users, to third party developers, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter."

This means developers will be able to build offerings that "talk to" the status, links, notes and videos that users have uploaded onto Facebook.

It also enables users to change their behavior with the site. "Now, you'll be able to view your stream and publish information into it from places you never could before — like your desktop computer or your mobile phone. Your stream will appear just as it does on Facebook.com and maintain the same privacy settings," wrote Facebook's Justin Bishop in a blog post.

Two companies already using the technology include Seesmic and TweetDeck, which helps users more effectively organize their Twitter streams. Seesmic, on the other hand, enables users to message each other via online video. Now it offers an app that lets them interact with their stream much as they would on Facebook — except via the desktop instead of through their browsers.

And like with Facebook, they can add comments and "likes" to friends' posts.

"Now that Facebook app developers have easier access to more data, Facebook hopes new real-time apps will dramatically increase content sharing across the Facebook Platform," said editor Justin Smith of the Inside Facebook blog.

Last month Facebook announced it had bridged over 200 million active users worldwide. According to Commercial Director Blake Chandlee of its EMEA segment, 50% of those users log in daily and spend and average of 25 minutes on-site. Of these users, the US market composes just 30%.

Late last year Facebook announced Facebook Connect, which enables third party sites to interface with the social network. Google followed suit with Friend Connect almost immediately.