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Web 2.0 - Thursday, July 19, 2007

Facebook Crazy For Young Programmers. Buys Stealth Startup Parakey

Pre-launch Parakey was founded by 20 year old Blake Ross, who gained fame for his development at Mozilla. He left to launch a web OS company called Parakey which Sequoia Capital invested in. Today we learn that Facebook has bought Parakey. Like Mozilla, Parakey is open-source so it will be interested to see how open sources react to it now that it has been bought by a fast growing proprietary software company with a big for-profit agenda.

The idea of a Web OS is a bit off-putting as a concept, but in short Parakey wants you to install software that will make managing your files on the Web much easier. download a small application. Its software turns your computer into a local server that allows you to manage all your files and photos on the web even if you’re off-line.

Parakey wants developers to create a variety of applications for Parakey so they have created a programming language for Parakey that they call JUL.

Here's how the company thinks of itself: "What separates Parakey from others in this space is that we're building not just the platform but also the first set of applications on top of it. We enjoy programming, but ultimately we started this company to make computers better for average users. When people need to call their "computer friend" in 2007 to install a program, scan a document, burn a CD or show a picture to a friend, there is a problem."

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