• About

  Facebook is a social networking Web site that connects people with friends, much like Friendster and MySpace. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University student, in 2004 and quickly grew in popularity. It is now one of the top social networking sites in the world.

  Competitors to the site include MySpace and some have even labelled Twitter and FriendFeed as well.

• Fast Facts

  1. Launched: February 4, 2004
  2. Official Site: About
  3. 2005: Paid $200,000 for domain name facebook.comMyBroadband.co.za: Facts About Facebook (August 7, 2007)
  4. Built on PHP-MySQLMyBroadband.co.za: Facts About Facebook (August 7, 2007)
  5. Second most-trafficked PHP site worldwideMyBroadband.co.za: Facts About Facebook (August 7, 2007)
  6. Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
  7. Limit: 5,000 friends
  8. Employees: Over 700Official Site: Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
  9. Users: Over 150 millionOfficial Site: Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
  10. Photos: Over 10 millionOfficial Site: Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
  11. Largest internet photo-sharing siteOfficial Site: Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
  12. Languages available: English, Spanish, Bokmal, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Polish

• History

  Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard University in 2004. It was first available only to Harvard students. Over the next two years, he opened it up first to other Ivy League colleges, then to a broader base of colleges, and then to the general public. In September of 2008 Facebook hit a record 39 million unique visitors in the United States, representing 116% growth over 2007.Mashable: Facebook Hits Record 39MM Visitors in US (October 20, 2008)

  In May 2009 Facebook moved headquarters[[1]], still staying in Palo Alto but changing to a new building.

• 2009 New Look

  On March 13, 2009, Facebook unveiled a new look, with CEO Zuckerberg appearing on Oprah Winfrey's program to explain himself. The move is widely seen as an attempt to include Twitter-like characteristics and expand Facebook's usability as a network tool. First reviews were harsh.ValleyWag: What Facebook's New Look Means (March 17, 2009) New York Times: Facebook Changes Bring Inevitable Complaints (March 16, 2009)

• Terms of Service Controversy

  On February 4, 2009, Facebook changed their Terms of Service (TOS). Under the new terms, Facebook retains the right to use the images and writings of their members for their own purposes. For example, a picture of your child 'could' be used in an advertising campaign. Additionally, if a user closes their account, Facebook will archive copies of user submitted content.FoxNews.com: Facebook Membership May Be Forever (February 17, 2009) Zuckerberg said, "We're not doing this to profit from you, it's so we are legally protected as we enable you to share content with other users and services."Consumerist: Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything..." (February 15, 2009)

  On February 18, 2009, Facebook announced they would return to their previous terms of service rules while they try to resolve issues their users have voiced their concerns about.NYT: Facebook Withdrawals Changes in Data Use (February 18, 2009)

• Founding Controversy

  ConnectU is a social networking app that was founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra at Harvard in 2002, fully two years before Facebook's founding, but launched after Facebook by a few months. The founders sued Zuckerberg, arguing that he had stolen their business plan after working for them briefly as a programmer. Zuckerberg did work for ConnectU, and he filed for thefacebook.com domain name within a few months after he started working for them. ConnectU's founders sued twice in court, because the first time dismissed on a technicality, and the suit was reinstated. Facebook filed a counter suit, accusing ConnectU of hacking into Facebook and email harvesting; and there is evidence supporting that claim.

  ConnectU's second filing was settled in ConnectU's favor in April 2008. Judgment was delayed until June 2008 because ConnectU argued that Facebook was fraudulently hiding its true value; the final settlement was undisclosed. On February 10, 2009, media sources obtained copies of a brochure published by the law firm handling ConnectU's case, claiming that the settlement was for $65 million in cash and stock.CNET: Did ConnectU's founders really get $65 million from Facebook? (February 10, 2009) VentureBeat: Winklevoss twins made $65 million on Facebook...settlement (February 10, 2009)

• Facebook Points

  On October 31, 2008 Facebook made a change to the way it processed payments for its virtual gifts, switching from dollar-based to point-based. The move was done, in part, to accommodate international users, thought Facebook also claimed the change would allow it to "introduce a wider variety of gifts."VentureBeat: In bid for international money, Facebook takes gifts off... (November 4, 2008)Facebook Blog: Gift Shop Credits Have Arrived (October 31, 2008) Unused pre-purchased gift credits were automatically converted to points, with each dollar equaling 100 points.Facebook Blog: Gift Shop Credits Have Arrived (October 31, 2008)

• Facebook vs Twitter

  In March of 2009, Facebook launched a new marketing plan to compete with Twitter, whose growing number of celebrities and large companies suggest the potential to move ahead of Facebook in the professional networking market. Thus Facebook intends to become both a private and public networking tool, and will start by implementing changes such as removing the 5,000 friend limit, eliminating the distinctions between public and private profiles and changing news updates to real time.Paste Magazine: Facebook makes some changes to compete with Twitter (March 6, 2009)

• Related Pages

  • Facebook Pages
    
  • Facebook Twitter
    
  • Klimerdon.com
    
  • Facebook
    

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