Within my extended community of bloggers, social media types, wiki geeks, accountants and entrepreneurs, use of social networking site Facebook is exploding as a result of the extra attention they got making their platform announcement. I'd love to know the actual detailed statistics, but the most recent chart from Facebook on the right says it all. They currently have over 25 million active users, where MySpace has 67 million. But Facebook registrations are happening at the rate of 200,000 a day (yes, a day!). Over on The Week in Geek, John Gallaugher writes:

"Feeds (the once-protested feature that's now almost universally accepted), coupled with the site's other features, may make Facebook the most viral software development platform in history, allowing blisteringly fast million-user acquisition rates that make MySpace and Skype adoption seem tepid. Users logging into Facebook will see a feed with a prompt like 'John Gallaugher added the iLike application', prompting others to check out what their trusted friends are geeking to."

I'm seeing this every day within my circle of friends on Facebook.

Over on TechCrunch, David Sacks discusses the evolution of the portal and importance of the social network and sharing. Today every brand needs to engage with its community, and the technology of social media comes in to play. The rise of Facebook, and the fact that a growing number of applications can now be built on the platform have changed the game for some web 2.0 players. He says:

"Not only Digg, but virtually all Web 2.0 applications which are based on the wisdom of crowds can be reconceived as Facebook apps based on the wisdom (or trust) of friends. To the extent that these services cater to publishers who seek a mass audience, such as YouTube or Flickr, the social graph will not threaten their business. But to the extent they publish content intended for friends, or if the value of their service increases with the participation of friends, these applications face only two choices: get each user to recreate his or her friendship network on their own site or migrate their service to the Facebook platform lest someone else does it first."

Facebook are currently projecting they'll reach 50 million users by the end of the year. I think they'll pass that milestone much quicker. For a few more statistics, go here but they are probably already out of date.