Check out the interview 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook gave to the 60 minutes news programme in the US.

The real power of Facebook is when you link Permission Marketing to profiles of interest. Using a Facebook application like Socialistics you can see who's profile most matches yours in interests, education, hobbies, musical tastes etc. Now apply that to the concept that we trust personal recommendations more than any other form of advice and you can start to see the potential power of Facebook for individuals and businesses.

We already have 'recommendation sites'. I personally use TripAdvisor but I have no idea about the person making the comments. We may or may not have many (or any!) similar interests so how can I really trust what they say? With TripAdvisor I apply the concept of the Wisdom of the Crowds. If enough people rate it highly then it is bound to be OK. But in reality I would trust a 'reliable source' more. In Facebooks case it would be those friends and friends of friends who most match me.