Facebook took a new step into the mobile realm on Thursday, launching a platform for operators designed to make its social networking application work better on portable devices. Vodafone is the first operator to use the Facebook for Mobile Operators platform and has started services in the U.K. and Germany, said Jed Stremel, Facebook's director of mobile division. Vodafone will soon expand the program to Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal. The platform involves giving operators a set of technical specifications intended to resolve some of frustrating hang-ups when using Facebook on a mobile phone rather than a PC, such as smoothing out login problems and opening up other features, Stremel said. The move by Facebook, which ranks next to MySpace as one of the most popular social networking sites, is intended to grow its user base, which the company estimates at 64 million users. So far, the company says it has 6 million users of Facebook Mobile, an unsupported mobile version of the Web site that will now get full support, Stremel said. At the moment the mobile site does not have any advertising. Stremel would not reveal the financial details of Facebook's deal with Vodafone, although he said operators will be able to generate revenue from data services as their subscribers access Facebook.http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/07/Facebook-links-up-with-Vodafone-on-mobile-platform_1.html
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