Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, envisions something much wider for the social applications today, as he revealed during the annual f8 developer conference, in front of over 1,000 attendees.

Zuckerberg offered a community of over 400,000 developers the Facebook Platform, a tool meant to extend applications across the Web and the world. Developers will be able to connect their websites with Facebook through Facebook Connect, crossing all language barriers.

The Platform will give developers means of sharing and communicating, while at the same time, offer them the resources they need in order to built meaningful applications and extend users’ ability to share information in ways that Facebook alone can’t, as Zuckerberg explained.

Facebook also opened up the Translation Application, a tool that allows developers to either translate their applications themselves, or open up translation of their application for Facebook users across the globe.

Once language barriers are broken, endless possibilities open up for both users and developers, Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook’s vice president of growth, said in a statement. “Users will have access to even more great applications than ever before built by the world’s best developers.”

With the “power of feeds,” developers will benefit from a continuous stream of relevant information in a social context wherever they are on the Web. Facebook’s new design, revealed earlier this week, is also a part of the process of giving developers means of distributing applications in ways that will prove engaging for users.

As Ben Ling, director of platform management at Facebook, pointed out, one of the goals of the new design is to “align Facebook Platform with users’ interests,” who will witness the birth of a new class of applications for a “deeper engagement and a better experience.”

The new design provides a dynamic environment, where the most relevant and recent information is provided by feeds on News Feed and the Wall. By always receiving users’ feedback, developers will be able to provide more meaningful applications and create greater opportunities for their businesses.

So far, 24 websites and applications became part of the initiative to make the Web more open and connected through Facebook Connect. Facebook announced the immediate availability of a developer “sandbox,” giving developers a starting point to begin using Facebook Connect.

Among the names featured in Zuckerberg’s initiative were Digg, with its 26 million users, Six Apart, and Citysearch. Facebook promised users that Facebook Connect will start its general availability this fall.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, said about Facebook Connect that it will help them “promote more conversations on Digg by giving Facebook’s 90 million users an opportunity to (…) become part of the active Digg community.”

Facebook Connect offers several features, such as trusted authentication, allowing users to connect on partners sites with their Facebook account; real identity, which provides a trusted environment for users to leverage their real identity across the Web; friend linking, enabling trusted social context anywhere on the Web; dynamic privacy, giving users the same privacy settings on Facebook for all the sites they decide to login to; and social distribution, which enables users to share actions on partner sites with their friends on Facebook.

Furthermore, Facebook launched new and expanded developer programs and resources for developers rely on in order to “deliver the vision” of the Facebook Platform. Among them, the Great Apps program, which includes iLike and Causes as the two inaugural apps; Application Verification program to help users identify applications they can trust; Expanded fbFund Competition, which awards $10 million in non-recourse grants to the top 25 developers; and the new Developer Website for Facebook Platform, which includes better navigation, access to blog, wiki and forum, all to encourage community involvement.

Facebook expects partners such as Amiando, CBS.com, CNET, CollegeHumor, Disney-ABC Television Group, Evite, Flock, Hulu, Kongreagate, Loopt, Plaxo, Radar, Red Bull, Seesmic, Socialthing!. StumbleUpon, The Insider, Twitter, Uber, Vimeo and Xobni to join the initiative before the official launch.