Fast forward,Facebook

Facebooks growth trajectory has remained uninterrupted by the privacy concerns issue of 2010,when charges of sharing users personal information without their consent were levelled against it,inviting flak from media and other quarters. Having acquired the social networking site Friend Feed most recently among other acquisitions,the company seems to have assembled a unique talent pool to innovatively cater to its growing fans. With an exponential rise of 69 in the number of Facebook users worldwide from 2009 to 2010,revenues are expected to cross the 1-billion mark this year.

While reports about Facebook going public are doing the rounds,the company has maintained they would go public when the time is right. This fuels further speculation about the advantages and disadvantages of it going public. Supporters of the move justify it on account of better funding for the company,while

its detractors/critics say it would unnecessarily put the company under constant scrutiny and cramp its characteristic free-flowing operations.

While investors are eager to grab a share of the goldmine and track every move with a hawk-eye,experts opinions on what could be the right time for Facebook to go public are flooding the Web world and comments from the company have only compounded the mystery.

The Internet technology engine giant Googles IPO in 2004 was launched much after market speculation as well. It had options of restructuring its shareholding pattern with below 500 shareholders,remaining privately held and yet releasing financial results like a public company or going public. Irrespective of speculation about it,giving a share in its equity was foremost among Googles concerns and it went public when it felt the time was right. With Facebooks IPO shrouded in similar anticipation over the last few years,it would make sense for them to wait and watch how the ecosystem pans out.

I believe theres much more innovation in the offing before the company goes public. And Im not hinting at the claim of Facebooks recently launched social geotagging feature Places threatening to wipe out promising start-ups like Foursquare or Gowalla even before they come into their own. There is no other social media platform,including blogging,that has crossed the chasm like Facebook has. This means that the market they are creating includes everyone.

Facebook has marked a new social era where features such as Connect ,Like,and Tag have aroused the curiosity of mommies,niche interest groups,techies and arm-chair intellectuals alike and there is no denying it. At the same time,the company is armed with a suite of advertising tools that have helped even small-scale businesses get visibility across a global demography,and provides publishers perfect control over how much content they display and who follows it. So that should put any sort of mass migration to rest for a while.

In terms of competition,there are few players who would match up to Facebooks eminent expanse. While Facebooks service offering is just one product in comparison with Googles arsenal,much depends on the formers ability to make optimum use of its open,creative and agile approach towards collapsing boundaries and going beyond simply connecting people. Facebook seems to be on track so far,and it is a wait and watch game for us until they go public,which will take a while and rightly so.

The author is the CEO and co-founder of Webchutney