A certain social network may now trail only Google and Amazon in value when it comes to American Web companies.  Facebook’s privately traded shares have apparently appreciated to the point that the organization’s passed even eBay.

Brian Womack reported this morning, "Facebook’s stock is trading at more than $16 on SecondMarket Inc., an exchange for shares of privately held companies, said a person familiar with the latest pricing data.  That would put its worth at about $41 billion, more than EBay’s $39.3 billion valuation on the Nasdaq Stock Market."

Amazon, meanwhile, has a market cap of $74.4 billion, and Google’s in great shape with a market cap of $192.9 billion.

So Facebook has quite a ways to go before it could possibly secure second or first place, but this is still a stunning achievement.  eBay, Amazon, and Google have all refined their revenue-generating procedures over a number of years; Facebook, by comparison, has barely dabbled in monetization.

The company’s value is almost sure to continue to rise, then, as Facebook attracts more users and establishes relationships with advertisers.

An IPO could increase the value of the company, too, although the latest official word on that front is that an IPO won’t occur before 2012.