Facebook likes New York — so much that it has selected the Big Apple as the site for the company’s first engineering office outside the West Coast.

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The company hopes to tap engineering talent in New York city with the new office, which is expected to open in early 2012. Applications are now being accepted.

Mayor Bloomberg said Friday that the news is an important moment for New York in the city’s quest to become “the No. 1 hub for technology and social media.”