I just started playing it, it's cute, and better than farmville, but I wouldn't class them as the same type of game. You aren't a character for example, you just run a planet. I guess in terms of free microtransaction funded games it's the same, but the gameplay is pretty different.
Not really, like farmville is. Maybe a little less actually. (i've never played farmville)
You have a little james and the giant peach style planet. You play god, making it rain, sunshine etc. You can go to your friend's planets (their most recently saved planet) and do some minor interactions, no realtime interaction with other players though.