Lets look at what Facebook really did at their F8 Summit today. They basically came out with about 70 companies and said “here’s unfettered access to our 25 million users, enjoy” – and we’re loving them for it!

And why not? Some of these collaborations being brought about by the new Facebook Platform sound great. Mashable has a really great list of 30 of them – everything from CollegeHumor to (the soon to be Google-bound) Feedburner to Jobster to The Washington Post – it goes on and on and on…

Conventional wisdom seems to be ‘never trust anyone trying to sell something to you’ whether that be an actual item or a brand. But useful collaborations like these certainly have the capability to buck that trend. That’s not to say there is no danger of good-for-nothing spam coming to Facebook – because it most likely will come – but I think the positives in opening up the platform far outweigh the negatives.

I first mentioned Facebook on this blog 2 1/2 years ago. I had yet to sign up and was very skeptical of the service simply because many people I knew (like my girlfriend) were obsessed with it. But the second I gave in and did sign up (about 2 years ago), I immediately saw it as a huge step forward from the likes of MySpace. Since then their ascension has been pretty remarkable.

This was a service completely dominated by college students (you needed a college email address to use it remember) – a nice audience, especially for advertisers, but still a limited market. Now Facebook appears on the verge of becoming what founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “the social operating system“.

MySpace once again gave a callow response to all the hoopla surrounding their rival (who they don’t even consider their rival – a move that isn’t so much arrogant as stupid):

When asked about Facebook’s plans, MySpace painted them as nothing new. “From MySpace’s first day, our members have had the freedom to create the experiences they want,” the company said in a statement. “We have always offered our users a blank canvas for their creativity and self-expression.”

Yeah, and how’s that Digg rip-off MySpace News working out for you? I see 7 stories on the front page – including one about Facebook’s Platform – all have ZERO is busy integrating services its users want and will use, votes. While FacebookMySpace is stuck in la-la land content to live off the fat of it’s 70+ million users.

Be sure to check out the SplashCast (a Facebook Platform partner) above for a visual walk-through of some of the announcements today from F8.

Facebook seems so far removed from the Feeds incident that caused so much outrage (for the record I loved even that move back then) – and it was only 9 months ago! They’re even less removed from Yahoo’s advances to buy them for (what appears to now be a bargain) $1 billion.

That IPO is looking more and more like a sure bet everyday as Facebook is cementing itself as one of the few web properties that completely lives up to its hype. Billion$ await.

You can check out my past Facebook coverage here.