Is Facebook the new Google of acquisition-lust?

In the past, clever [tag]entrepreneurs[/tag] (yours truly not included, alas) have built companies and products with a very specific plan or desire or hope or scheme to be acquired by some deep pocketed parent-to-be.

Perhaps create a bit of MS Windows Software that looked just like an Office App, interoperated beautifully with Microsoft apps, was written in C#, didn't run on anything but Windows, hoping to catch the eye of Microsoft (remember Visio?). Well I am sure this is still going on with Microsoft, especially since Balmer announced that MSFT will be acquiring 100 companies per year (quantity over quality?)

But lately the cool kids decided that Ajax, Web 2.0, mass market, "we'll make it up in volume" was the road to Google's pocket-heart. And if Google didn't bite, well there was also Yahoo who might (remember Flickr?)

Hey, I am not knocking it. It's a perfectly rational strategy.

Now Flock 1.0 comes out and points the new way. Facebook!

This is from a very positive review of Flock 1.0

"With the facebook inclusion, you can do virtually every action you please from pokes to giving gifts within one click. You can also have one click access to your messages, pokes, friend requests and sharing anything with facebook friends is easier than ever (you can simply drag & drop the image, video, link onto their profile pic in your sidebar…this works for both facebook & twitter)." (from Why Flock is now my Browser of Choice)

Makes a lot of sense to me. Use the Facebook API to create an application or site or product or service that looks exactly like something that they would have developed themselves. This requires you to not only learn their technical specs, but also their business strategy, their marketing, their customers. The effect you want is that Facebook folks look and say, "Hey we should have developed that."