Web2Summit: Want a Successful Facebook Application? Make Sure You Have a Truck Handy

We're seeing good instant coverage of the Web 2.0 Summit panel on Facebook applications, and I'd like to note a great story Ali Partovi of iLike told about what happened when his company moved its Web-based music service to the Facebook platform. The initial uptake, he reported, was much faster than he expected. The application launched right before the Memorial Day weekend, and he did some calculations and realized that iLike would run out of server space that Sunday and would not be able to serve its customers. So the company rented a truck and Partovi and others drove around the Bay Area, during a long weekend when most stores were closed, desperate to find as many servers as they could before the service went down.

On another front, one question I would have liked to have asked Partovi if there had been time for questions from the floor was what happens to iLike if Facebook itself does more in the music space. I'll try to buttonhole him in the lobby and report back.

Technorati Tags: operations, facebook, web2.0, web20, web2summit