All in all, Microsoft/Facebook makes more sense than Microsoft/Yahoo or Microsoft/AOL. However, Facebook is itself under pressure to do a better job of cleaning up its third-party applications. Facebook is spam heaven. "We haven't done enough to reward the good applications or punish the applications that have just been abusive," he told a crowded hall of developers in San Francisco's South of Market district. "We're going to have to find a way to ensure the applications that provide the most long-term value are the ones that are succeeding."

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Nevertheless, if Microsoft is really serious about next-generation computing, it has to focus some serious effort into social networks like Facebook.

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