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Facebook opened its Application Directory and application "about" pages to the unwashed, unregistered masses on Sunday. You no longer have to be a Facebook member to learn about killer apps such as Top Friends, Zombies, and Food Fight. The directory and about pages will also now get indexed by search engines "like Google, Windows Live, Yahoo, etc.," Facebook said. Wonder how they came up with that short list?

One goal for the Facebook platform has always been for third-party developers to create powerful apps and attract new users. Now such an app is much more discoverable, if such an app ever gets created. But the other reason Facebook opened these pages to the public? It probably wants negotiating partners Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to index the platform and help find better ways to monetize it. Why didn't they just come to us?