FACEBOOK is an island. A most convivial island, with one’s classmates, friends, workmates and family members close at hand. An island that since May has been enlivened with entertaining fauna and flora in the form of minisoftware applications. But it’s still an island. Suppose, however, that you could leave the island compound of a social networking site and take your network of friends, and friends of friends, anywhere on the Web? This is what makes Google’s announcement last week of a new alliance of companies so enticing - the possibility that social networking will become ubiquitous. Google’s vision - ‘Social Will Be Everywhere’ - is more compelling than anything Facebook could possibly devise. Who wouldn’t prefer the unlimited freedom to take one’s own trusted circle anywhere on the Web, as opposed to the cramped confines of island life? And when has an island economy, even a well-provisioned one, ever matched the offerings of the entire Web? (Just ask AOL.) A long, long time ago - last Monday, that is - Facebook seemed a much larger land mass than it ever actually was. That was when it was celebrating its ability to command a generous $15 billion […]