Social networking behemoth Facebook plans to develop more social startups, according to a report on Mashable.

Facebook announced a new partnership with Y Combinator, an investment firm for early stage startups. Y Combinator has chalked up many successes in the past, having invested early on in sites like Justin.tv, Reddit, Scribd, and one of my personal favorites, Dropbox.

Want to know more about the two protagonists, Facebook and Y Combinator in this partnership?

Facebook

““Facebook is an online social networking directory that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

“Created and launched in February 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the site began as a network strictly for Harvard University. Two months later, the site expanded to include other Ivy League schools. After that, the college network slowly grew and by the end of 2004, Facebook had registered more than one million users.” answers.com

Y Combinator

Y Combinator is a venture fund which focuses on seed investments to startup companies. It offers financing as well as business consulting along with other opportunities to 2-4 person companies looking to take an idea to a product. Y Combinator looks for companies with “good” ideas over companies with experience and a business model. The company made its first investments in Summer 2005. crunchbase

So anyway, Mashable goes on to report about the new partnership:

“Under the new partnership, Facebook ( will gain insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, an advantage that will help it build better social products and cherry pick the best startups before competitors like Google ( have a chance. On the flip side, Facebook will provide Y Combinator startups with a bevy of resources including priority access to Facebook Credits and other beta features, product and design support, and technical assistance for those interested in building social products or Facebook applications.”

Mashable also says:

“Y Combinator will use its winter 2011 class to seek out social startups looking to benefit from the Facebook partnership.

“‘In the near future, we think it will be hard to imagine a web experience that is not personalized. Startups that can build in these interactions from the beginning — not simply add them to existing products — will be the examples of transformative social experiences others will follow,” said Facebook Platform lead Carl Sjogreen.

“The strategic initiative is an interesting maneuver by Facebook and one that’s designed to help the behemoth social network stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social technologies.”