Facebook held a developer event today to announce the ‘Facebook Platform’. The new API gives developers access to Facebook’s inner workings to create innovative applications users can add to their Facebook pages. Over 70 companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Washington Post, Digg, and Snapvine have announced they’ll develop third-party applications for Facebook. This announcement is further proof that Facebook is trying top differentiate itself from the crowded social networking scene. Facebook has over 20 million users and continues to grow by 100,000 users a week. The fastest group of users are 25 or over, changing Facebook’s reputation as a digital hang out mainly made up of teenagers. The third-party plug-ins developed using the new API should further attract older Internet users and diversify Facebook’s base. Read more about Facebook’s API announcement.