|
Facebook
Facebook, Inc.
Type Private
Founded Cambridge, Massachusetts
(February 4, 2004)
Headquarters Palo Alto, California
Key people Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and VP of Engineering
Owen Van Natta, COO
Matt Cohler, VP Strategy & Business Operations
Chris Hughes, Co-founder
Industry Internet
Revenue $50,000,000 USD[1] (2006 estimated)
Employees 200 (2007)
Website www.facebook.com
Facebook is a social networking website. As of July 2007, it is the second
most visited such website on the World Wide Web, with over 28 million
members. It is surpassed only by MySpace.
Facebook was originally restricted to members with a college or university
email address, but has since been made available to any email address.
People can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high
school, place of employment, or geographic region. As of February 2007, the
website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused
sites with over 25 million members worldwide (also from non-collegiate
networks).[2]
Facebook is one of the most visited sites on the Internet, ranked between
top 10–20 most visited websites as of June 2007[3] and is the number one
site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr,
with over 8.5 million photos uploaded daily.[4] It is also the seventh most
visited site in the United States.[5]
The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of the
campus community that colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming
students, faculty, and staff.
Operations
The site is free to users and generates revenue from advertising including
banner ads and sponsored groups (in April 2006, revenue was rumored to be
over $1.5 million per week).[6] Users create profiles that often contain
photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages,
and join groups of friends. The viewing of detailed profile data is
restricted to users from the same network or confirmed friends. According to
TechCrunch, "about 85% of students in [previously] supported colleges have a
profile [on the site]. [Of those who are signed up,] 60% log in daily. About
85% log in at least once a week, and 93% log in at least once a month."
According to Chris Hughes, spokesman for Facebook, "People spend an average
of 19 minutes a day on Facebook."[7] In a 2006 study conducted by Student
Monitor, a New Jersey-based limited liability company specializing in
research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named as the
second most "in" thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex and
losing only to the iPod.[8]
Origins and expansion
Harvard University, and Phillips Exeter Academy Mark Zuckerberg founded "The
Facebook" in February 2004, with support from Andrew McCollum and Eduardo
Saverin. By the end of the month, more than half of the undergraduate
population at Harvard were registered on the service. At that time,
Zuckerberg was joined by Dustin Moskovitz for site promotion and Facebook
expanded to MIT, Boston University, and Boston College. This expansion
continued in April of 2004, when it expanded to the rest of Ivy League and a
few other schools. The following month, Zuckerberg, McCollum, Hughes, and
Moskovitz moved to Palo Alto, California to continue work on Facebook's
development with additional help from Adam D'Angelo and Sean Parker. In
September, Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, the
owners of the social networking website ConnectU filed a lawsuit against
Facebook, alleging that Zuckerberg had illegally used source code intended
for a website they asked him to build for them.[9][10] Also at that time,
Facebook received approximately $500,000 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel
in an angel round. By December, Facebook's user base had exceeded one
million.
2005
In May 2005, Facebook raised $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel
Partners.[11] On August 23, 2005, Aboutface Corporation sold the domain name
facebook.com to Facebook for $200,000. The website moved to this new domain
name and dropped "the" from its name. As a part of the move, the site was
overhauled to make profile pages more user-friendly, according to Zuckerberg.
Afterwards, McCollum and Hughes returned to Harvard, although Hughes
remained the site's spokesperson and McCollum remained on as a consultant
and doing staff work during the summer. Then, on September 2, 2005,
Zuckerberg launched the high school iteration of Facebook, calling it the
next logical thing to do. At first, it was a completely separate entity to
which users needed to be invited to join. However, in just fifteen days,
most high school networks did not require a password to join. By October,
Facebook's expansion had trickled down to most small universities and junior
colleges in the United States, Canada, and England, in addition to having
expanded to twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom, the entire
Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) system
in Mexico, the entire University of Puerto Rico network in Puerto Rico, and
the whole University of the Virgin Islands network in the U.S. Virgin
Islands. On December 11, 2005, universities in Australia and New Zealand
were added to the Facebook network, bringing its size to more than 2,000
colleges and more than 25,000 high schools throughout the United States,
Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland,
more than 11,000,000 users worldwide.[12]
2006
On February 27, 2006, Facebook began allowing college students to add high
school students as friends due to requests from users.[13] About a month
later, on March 28, 2006, BusinessWeek reported that a potential acquisition
of the site was under negotiation. Facebook reportedly declined an offer of
$750 million, and it was rumored that the asking price was as high as $2
billion.[14] In April, Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital
Partners invested an additional $25 million in the site.[15] In May,
Facebook's network extended into India, at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The following month, Facebook
threatened to seek costs of up to $100,000 from Quizsender.com for copyright
infringement for allegedly copying the "look and feel" of Facebook.[16][17]
On July 25, new services were offered in the site that would potentially
produce additional revenue. A promotion was arranged between Facebook and
iTunes, in which members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25
song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The
promotion's purpose was to make students more familiar and enthusiastic with
each service as fall classes approached.[18] In the early half of August,
Facebook added universities in Germany and high schools in Israel, (Haifa,
Jerusalem, and Qiryat Gat) to its network. On the 22nd of that month,
Facebook introduced Facebook Notes, a blogging feature with tagging,
embedded images, and other features, also allowing the importation of blogs
from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services. This newly
added feature also included the common blog feature of allowing readers to
comment on users' entries. On September 11, 2006, Facebook became open to
all users of the Internet, prompting protest from its existing user
base.[19] Two weeks later, Facebook opened registration to anyone with a
valid e-mail address (see below).[20]
2007
On the 10th of May, Facebook announced a plan to add free, classified
advertisements to its website, making it a competitor with established
online companies such as Craigslist.[21] This feature, known as Facebook
Marketplace, went live on May 14, 2007. On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched
an API that allows the development of applications to be used on the site,
known as Facebook Platform.[22] In June, the partnership begun the previous
year between iTunes and Facebook continued, with the download service again
offering free music samplers through the Apple Students group.
Sale rumors
In 2006, with the sale of social networking site MySpace to NewsCorp, rumors
surfaced about the possible sale of Facebook to a larger media company.
Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, has said that he does not want to sell
the company and denies rumors to the contrary.[23] He has already rejected
outright offers in the range of $975 million, and it is not clear who might
be willing to pay a higher premium for the site. Steve Rosenbush, a
technology business analyst, suspects Viacom.[24]
In September 2006, serious talks between Facebook and Yahoo! took place for
the acquisition of the social network, with prices reaching as high as $1
billion.[25] In October, after Google purchased video-sharing site YouTube,
rumors circulated that Google had offered $2.3 billion to outbid Yahoo![26]
Peter Theil, a board member of Facebook, indicated that Facebook's internal
valuation is around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1
billion by 2015, comparable to that of Viacom's MTV brand[27] and based on
shared target demographic audience.
Criticisms
Lawsuit from Connectu.com
Founder of Facebook.com, Mark Zuckerberg, has been accused of illegally
using both the concept and source code from competing site Connectu.com. In
November 2003, ConnectU engaged Mark Zuckerberg, then a sophomore at
Harvard, to complete the computer programming for their website. Upon
joining the ConnectU team, Zuckerberg was given complete unfettered access
to the website code. Allegedly, Zuckerberg intentionally hampered the
development of ConnectU while using code originally intended for ConnectU in
the development of Facebook.
Since its original filing in Massachusetts the lawsuit has been dismissed
without prejudice due to lack of diversity among parties. It was refiled on
March 27, 2007[28] and is considered to be ongoing.
Privacy concerns
There have been some concerns expressed regarding the use of Facebook as a
means of surveillance and data mining. Theories have been written about the
possible misuse of Facebook[29] and privacy proponents have criticized the
site's current privacy agreement.[30] According to the policy, "We may use
information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not
limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging
services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile." However,
some features—such as AIM away-message harvesting and campus newspaper
monitoring—have been dropped and Facebook has since responded to the
concerns. Facebook has assured worried users the next privacy policy will
not include the clause about information collection and has denied any data
mining is being done "for the CIA or any other group."[31] However, the
possibility of data mining by private individuals unaffiliated with Facebook
remains open, as evidenced by the fact that two MIT students were able to
download, using an automated script, over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four
schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard) as part of a
research project on Facebook privacy published on December 14th, 2005.[32]
Another clause that some users are critical of reserves the right to sell
users' data to private companies, stating "We may share your information
with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a
relationship." This concern has also been addressed by spokesman Chris
Hughes who said "Simply put, we have never provided our users' information
to third party companies, nor do we intend to."[33] It is unclear if
Facebook plans to remove that clause as well.
Facebook staff have the authority to view profiles in the event that the
person is suspected of violating the site's terms of service.
News Feed and Mini-Feed
On September 5, 2006, Facebook introduced two new controversial features
called "News Feed" and "Mini-Feed". The first of the new features, News
Feed, appears on every Facebook member's home page, displaying recent
Facebook activities of a member's friends. The second feature, Mini-Feed,
keeps a log of similar events on each member's profile page.[34] Members can
manually delete items from their Mini-Feeds if they wish to do so, and
through privacy settings are able to to control what is actually published
in their respective Mini-Feeds.
Some Facebook members still feel that the ability to opt-out of the entire
News Feed and Mini-Feed system is necessary, as evidenced by a statement
from the Students Against Facebook News Feed group, which peaked at over
740,000 members.[35] However, according to recent news articles, members
have widely regarded the additional privacy options as an acceptable
compromise.[36]
Another problem is that the Facebook users may be under the impression that
deleting something from one's Mini-Feed deletes it from the News Feed as
well. It does not. In fact, there is no way to prevent some forms of updates
to one's profile from being broadcast over the News Feed, as Facebook offers
only a limited opt-out list. Users unaware of the News Feed function often
unintentionally broadcast profile changes. Some information may even be sent
over News-Feed without the knowledge of the user - for example, imported
notes are put into the News Feed, even though notes can be set up to import
automatically. This can automatically associate a user in the News Feed with
whoever writes on the blog that they are importing.
Concerns of higher education faculty and administrators
On January 23, 2006, The Chronicle of Higher Education continued an ongoing
national debate on social networks with an opinion piece written by Michael
Bugeja, director of the Journalism School at Iowa State University, entitled
"Facing the Facebook".[37] Bugeja, author of the Oxford University Press
text Interpersonal Divide (2005), quoted representatives of the American
Association of University Professors and colleagues in higher education to
document the distraction of students using Facebook and other social
networks during class and at other venues in the wireless campus. Bugeja
followed up on January 26, 2007 in The Chronicle with an article titled
"Distractions in the Wireless Classroom,"[38] quoting several educators
across the country who were banning laptops in the classroom. Similarly,
organizations such as the National Association for Campus Activities,[39]
the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication,[40] and
others have hosted seminars and presentations to discuss ramifications of
students' use of Facebook and other social networking systems. The EDUCAUSE
Learning Initiative has also released a brief pamphlet entitled "7 Things
You Should Know About Facebook" aimed at higher education professionals that
"describes what [Facebook] is, where it is going, and why it matters to
teaching and learning".[41]
Integration of high school users
Following the February 27, 2006 integration of the high school and college
levels, some college users began creating groups critical of the
decision.[42] Users from opposite branches could only fully interact if they
were friends and some separation did remain. The site also released the
Limited Profile privacy settings and advised students on how to hide
pictures and other features from others. However, some college users felt
that the site's former exclusivity had been key to their experience.[43]
Some expressed concerns about the ability of unknown persons to create
accounts on the high school version (since university addresses are not
required) and use them to access the college version; by default, strangers
can message and view users' friends through a simple global search. Some
made predictions that the site would soon face issues with spammers,
stalkers, or worse, and worried this would result in controversies similar
to the bad publicity seen by MySpace.[44]
Adding to the controversy around opening Facebook to younger students, four
high school students at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto,
Ontario were arrested in a Facebook-related protest on March 23, 2007.
Earlier that week, five different students had been suspended for posting
criticisms about a vice-principal of their school. About a dozen friends of
the suspendees had decided to protest in front of the school, but that
handful soon grew to over 100 students protesting for free speech. Local law
enforcement authorities were called, and a scuffle ensued, resulting in the
arrest of 4 students.[45]
Use in investigations
The information students provide on Facebook has been used in investigations
by colleges, universities, and local police. Facebook's Terms of Use[46]
specify that "the website is available for your personal, noncommercial use
only", misleading some to believe that college administrators and police may
not use the site for conducting investigations. However, there are settings
on Facebook that allow a user to make his/her profile private (only people
the user approves may see his/her profile).
Alcohol policy violations
There have been incidents where colleges and universities use Facebook to
investigate underage drinking and violations of dry campus policies or
discover them while investigating other incidents. For example, several
Residence Community Advisors at McMaster University lost their jobs when
pictures were discovered of them having casual drinks in a residence hall
one night towards the end of semester.[47] Many high schools have also begun
to use Facebook to crack down on underage drinking and other illegal
activities.
In response to the monitoring, some students have begun to submit "red
herring" party listings.[48] In one case at The George Washington
University, shown at CakeParty.org,[49] students advertised their party and
were raided by campus police. The police found only cake, no alcohol, and
later claimed the break up had been triggered by a noise complaint.[50][51]
Other investigations
* Students in sororities and fraternities at the University of Miami are
constantly put on probation because of pictures anonymously printed off
Facebook and given to the Dean. Rival sororities actually
turn each other in, hoping to disqualify them from events
such as recruitment and highly competitive Greek Week. Chapter Presidents
spend almost half of meetings talking about Facebook and what pictures are
acceptable and calling out names of members who need to remove inappropriate
pictures.
* The United States Secret Service met with a University of Oklahoma
freshman in March 2005 after he posted a joke about assassinating President
Bush. However, this investigation began after a fellow University of
Oklahoma student alerted the Secret Service to the threat and did not stem
from federal monitoring of the site as some suggested.[52]
* During student government elections held in October 2005, results at the
University of Missouri and the University of Pennsylvania were delayed due
to early campaigning violations on Facebook.[53][54]
* A student at Fisher College was expelled for suggesting that a campus
police officer be illegally "set up" and that he "needs to be
eliminated."[55]
* At the University of Mississippi, a group of students were brought before
the University's Judicial Board in April 2005 and forced to remove a
Facebook group that professed their love for a professor (Dr. Anne Quinney)
in a sexually suggestive manner.[56]
* One Miami University student was arrested after he set a composite sketch
of a rape suspect as his profile picture.[57]
* Others have been punished for rushing the football field at Penn State
(Many "I rushed the field" groups were created after the Nittany Lion
football team defeated Ohio State in October 2005, and State College Police
and Pennsylvania State Police used the groups to arrest those who they
believed rushed the field in violation of school policy),[58] hate speech
against homosexuals,[59] and harassing an instructor.[60]
* On the other hand, University of Louisville students who had created a
Facebook group to complain about a professor's teaching shortcomings helped
lead to the dismissal of their targeted instructor in February 2006, and the
students were not punished.[61]
* In February 2007, following the hit-and-run death of freshman Carlee
Wines, University of Connecticut campus police used Facebook to link the
suspected driver, Anthony P. Alvino of Lindenhurst, N.Y., to the
university.[62] By following leads via Facebook, police learned of the
connection between Alvino and his girlfriend, Michele A. Hall, a UConn
student.[63] Alvino was charged for the hit-and-run, while Hall was charged
with helping cover it up and hindering prosecution.
* In April 2007, just days after the Virginia Tech shooting, a student at
the SUNY College at Cobleskill was remanded into psychiatric care and
suspended from college after posting a photo of himself on his profile with
a vaguely threatening message underneath. This story became even more
controversial as it grew across the news.[64][65]
* During the University of Bath’s 2007 Student Union Elections, Presidential
candidate George Pappadakis was disqualified from running due to a premature
campaign on Facebook. The subsequent decision induced heavy debate and
criticism.[66]
Other uses of profile information
Some employers look at Facebook profiles of prospective employees or
interns.[67] Information posted on Facebook is potentially accessible to
employers with faculty or alumni accounts.[68]
Information posted on the site is sometimes distributed publicly. Students
who are related to politicians or other public figures have had screenshots
of their profiles or photo albums taken and shared in an attempt to
embarrass their relatives.[69] After profile information was posted on
Gawker and Wonkette, two popular weblogs, Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer,
Chris Kelly, sent the sites' publishers cease and desist notices.[70] Also,
a group calling itself Performing Politics, Inc. publicly displayed the
profiles of students at Yale who had made comments about homosexuality in an
effort to show evidence of homophobia at the school.[71]
In Wrentham, Massachusetts State Senator Scott P. Brown (R) was invited to
speak at King Philip Regional High School to talk about his position against
gay marriage. During the speech, Brown read verbatim several posts attacking
him from a Facebook group dedicated to a pro-gay rights history teacher.
Often he included both verbatim profanity and the names of the students who
wrote them.[72]
Militant members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in Britain have
threatened students at Oxford who support the university's proposed South
Parks laboratory saying they are legitimate targets for attack. A
counter-activist group called Pro-Test has warned students not to support
the lab's construction on Facebook as they believe ALF is monitoring the
site.[73]
According to Facebook's privacy policy, Facebook reserves the right to
release the information that users provide (including favorite movies,
television shows, books, music, etc.) to organizations.
Responses
Schools block access
The University of New Mexico in October 2005 blocked access to Facebook from
UNM campus computers and networks, citing unsolicited e-mails and a similar
site called UNM Facebook.[74] After a UNM user signed into Facebook from off
campus, a message from Facebook said, "We are working with the UNM
administration to lift the block and have explained that it was instituted
based on erroneous information, but they have not yet committed to restore
your access." UNM, in a message to students who tried to access the site
from the UNM network, wrote, "This site is temporarily unavailable while UNM
and the site owners work out procedural issues. The site is in violation of
UNM's Acceptable Computer Use Policy for abusing computing resources (e.g.,
spamming, trademark infringement, etc.). The site forces use of UNM
credentials (e.g., NetID or email address) for non-UNM business." However,
after Facebook created an encrypted login and displayed a precautionary
message not to use university passwords for access, UNM unblocked access the
following spring semester.[75]
The Columbus Dispatch reported on June 22, 2006, that Kent State
University's athletic director had planned to ban the use of Facebook by
athletes and gave them until August 1 to delete their accounts.[76] On July
5, 2006, the Daily Kent Stater reported that the director reversed the
decision after reviewing the privacy settings of Facebook.
Facebook memorials
A notable ancillary effect of social networking websites, particularly
Facebook, is the ability for participants to mourn publicly for a deceased
individual. On Facebook, students often leave messages of sadness, grief, or
hope on the individual's page, transforming it into a sort of public book of
condolences. This particular phenomenon has been documented at a number of
schools.[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86] Previously, Facebook had
stated that its official policy on the matter was to remove the profile of
the deceased one month after he or she has died,[87] preventing the profile
from being used for communal mourning, citing privacy concerns. Due to user
response, Facebook amended its policy. (For examples of user petitions and
discussion of the issues surrounding facebook memorialization, see the walls
for the Facebook groups "Facebook Memorialization Is Misguided: Dead Friends
Are Still People"[88] and "Write to Facebook about Memorialization"[89]) Its
new policy is to place deceased members' profiles in a "memorialization
state."[90]
Additional usage of Facebook as a tool of remembrance is expressed in group
memberships on the site. Now that groups are community-wide and available
among all networks, many users create Facebook groups to remember not only a
deceased friend or individual, but also as a source of support in response
to a great tragedy such as 9/11 or the crisis at Virginia Tech in April.
Customization and security
Facebook is often compared to MySpace but one significant difference between
the two sites is the level of customization. MySpace allows users to
decorate their profiles using HTML and CSS while Facebook only allows plain
text. However, a number of users have tweaked their profiles by using
"hacks." On February 24, 2006, a pair of users exploited a cross-site
scripting (XSS) hole on the profile page and created a fast-spreading worm,
loading a custom CSS file on infected profiles that made them look like
MySpace profiles.[91] Incidentally, both users are now employed by Facebook.
On April 19, 2006, a user was able to embed an iframe into his profile and
load a custom off-site page featuring a streaming video and a flash game
from Drawball. He has since been banned from Facebook.[92] On March 26,
2006, a user was able to embed JavaScript in the "Hometown" field of his
profile which imported his custom CSS.[93] In each case, Facebook quickly
patched the holes, typically within hours of their discovery.
Imitators
Vkontakte (В Контакте - translated as "In Contact"), is a Russian Facebook
clone made by Pavel Durov (Павел Дуров). It is one of the fastest growing
websites in the .ru community, according to Alexa Web Search. Ironically,
most Russian users are not aware of Facebook's existence and are quite
surprised to find out that English-speakers enjoy a similar social
community. Vkontakte Russian Wikipedia Article. It should be noted though
that Pavel Durov acknowledges the fact that Facebook.com served as a model
for Vkontakte.ru History Of Vkontakte.ru (In Russian)
Other Facebook clones throughout the world include German StudiVZ, Dutch
Hyves, and Australian StudentFace. All these sites share Facebook's success
in their corresponding countries to a certain extent, according to Alexa,
thus showing the efficiency of Facebook's model in other communities.
Additional features
The Wall
The Wall is a space on each user's profile page that allows friends to post
messages for the user to see. One user's wall is visible to anyone with the
ability to see their full profile, and different user's wall posts show up
in an individual's News Feed. Many users use their friend's walls for
leaving short, temporal notes. More private discourse is saved for Messages,
which are sent to a person's Inbox, and are visible only to the sender and
recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.
Gifts
In February 2007, Facebook added a new gift feature to the website. Friends
could send "gifts" (small icons of novelty items) to each other by selecting
one from Facebook's virtual gift shop and adding a message. Gifts given to a
user appear on the recipient's wall with the giver's message, unless the
giver decided to give the gift privately, in which case the giver's name and
message is not displayed to other users. Additionally, all gifts (including
private gifts) received by a user are displayed in the recipient's "gift
box" (right above their wall on their profile), marked with either the first
name of the user (for public gifts) or the word "Private." An "Anonymous"
option is also available, by which anyone with profile access can see the
gift, but only the recipient will see the message. No one will see the
giver's name, and the gift will go in the recipient's gift box but not the
wall.
Some Facebook users are given one free gift to give; each additional gift
given by a user costs US$1.00. The initial selection of gifts was
Valentine's Day themed, and 50% of the proceeds received through February
2007 were donated to the charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure. After the
month of February, the proceeds were no longer donated. Soon after, Facebook
began making one new gift available each day, most of which had a limited
supply or were available for a limited time. The daily new gift is
advertised on every user's home page.
With the advent of Applications came a way to subvert the required US$1.00
payment; however, the gifts in the "Free Gifts" application, created by
Zachary Allia, are not the same as the official gifts.
Marketplace
In May 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace allowing users to
post free classified ads within the following categories: For Sale, Housing,
Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted in either available or wanted format.[94]
The market place is available for all Facebook users and is currently free.
Pokes
Facebook includes a "poke" feature which allows one user to send a "poke" to
another. In principle this is intended to serve as a "nudge" to attract the
attention of the other user. However while many facebook users, as intended,
use the feature to attract attention or say hello,[95] some users construe
it as a sexual advance.[96] This interpretation of the feature inspired a
popular Facebook group entitled "Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have
Sex," which, as of June 2007, has more than 200,000 members.
There are several new applications such as "X Me" by Jia Shen and "SuperPoke!"
by Nikil Gandhy, Will Liu and Jonathan Hsu that allow users to do more than
just poke other users. They can do various things using these applications
such as hug, pinch, bite, kiss, bitchslap, tickle, or trip.
Status
The "status" feature allows users to inform their friends and the Facebook
community of their current whereabouts and actions. Facebook prompts the
status update with "(User name) is..." and Facebook users fill in the rest.
Status updates are noted in the "Recently updated" section of a users'
friend list. After the Virginia Tech massacre, one Virginia Tech Facebook
member updated her status to let friends and family know she was safe.[97]
Applications
In June 2007, Facebook allowed users to develop applications within the
framework of the site.
These applications include "Questionnaires, Surveys, Polls, Votes and
Petitions", which enables users to create, share and respond to
questionnaires, either for fun, to get to know friends better or for
research purposes; "RoShamBull," a Red Bull take on Rock, Paper, Scissors;
"The Filter," which gives the user the ability to display music information
on their profile; "Honesty Box," which allows people to anonymously tell
their friends what they "really" feel about them; "Food Fight!," where users
can "buy" and "throw" food at each other; "Graffiti," which lets users
"draw" on each others' profiles; and "Top Friends," which gives a Facebook
profile the same mechanism to select their "top" 4-32 friends. There are
also several gaming applications such as the ilike challenge, which is a
music trivia game that allows a user to compete against their friends.
On June 24, Facebook hit 1,000 new applications users can put onto their
profiles.
Applications for the Web site iLike and others, "received a head start on
creating their applications" weeks before the launch but others like Last.fm
did not get the same luxury, In consequence their applications for Facebook
debuted at a much later date than the other applications.
Facebook Markup Language
Facebook Markup Language is a subset of the HTML markup language. It allows
Facebook application writers to customize the "look and feel" of their
applications, to a limited extent.
Statistics
(Approximate numbers as of June 2007).[2]
* Users: Over 28 million
* Monthly new user average: 4 million
* Daily new user average: 150,000
* Page views: Over 40 billion per month
* Searches: Over 600 million per month
* RAM in memcache servers: 2 TB
* Search index size: 200GB
* Largest network: London, UK 673,900+
* Traffic rank: 17th[3]
On March 2, 2007, a poll conducted by eMarketer.com of American youths in
the United States discovered Facebook was the most viewed site among all
respondents with more females aged 17-25 (69%) visiting the site than males
(56%).[98]
References
1. ^ Arrington, Michael (2006). Yahoo’s “Project Fraternity” Docs Leaked.
TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
2. ^ a b Abram, Carolyn (2007-02-23). "Have a taste" - Facebook blog entry (blog).
3. ^ a b Related info for: facebook.com/. Alexa Internet.
Ranked 17th as of 2007-06-19
4. ^ Doug Beaver (2007). Facebook Photos Infrastructure (html). Facebook
Weblog. Facebook. Retrieved on 2007-05-30.
5. ^ Donna Bogatin (2007). Why Facebook Is Scarier than Google (html). ZDNet
Blogs - Digital Markets. CNET Networks. Retrieved on 2007-05-28. The author
is quoting facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who is cites unnamed Associated
Press reports
6. ^ Arrington, Michael (2006). Facebook Goes Beyond Colleges, High School
Markets. TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2006-08-16.
7. ^ Arrington, Michael (2005). 85% of College Students use FaceBook.
TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
8. ^ Associated Press (2006). Apple surpasses beer on college campuses. CNN.
Retrieved on 2006-06-08.
9. ^ McGinn, Timothy J.. "Lawsuit Threatens To Close Facebook", Harvard
Crimson, 2004-09-13.
10. ^ Maugeri, Alexander. "TheFacebook.com faces lawsuit", Daily
Princetonian, 2004-09-20.
11. ^ Accel Partners (2005-05-26). Accel Partners Invests in Thefacebook.com.
Press release.
12. ^ Kornblum, Janet. "Teens hang out at MySpace", USA Today, 2006-01-08.
13. ^ A series of announcements were posted on Facebook at letter.php
explaining the changes.
14. ^ Rosenbush, Steve. "Facebook's on the Block", BusinessWeek Online,
2006-03-28. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
15. ^ Teller, Sam. "Investors Add $25M to Facebook’s Coffers", The Harvard
Crimson, 2006-04-25.
16. ^ McCallum, Zoe. "Facebook sends out its lawyers", The Oxford Student,
2006-06-01.
17. ^ Romanelli, Vincent. "Facebook threaten legal action", The Cherwell,
2006-06-02.
18. ^ Cheng, Jacqui. "Infinite Loop: Apple and Facebook partner up for back
to school iTunes promo", arstechnica, 2006-07-25.
19. ^ Jesdanun, Anick. "Facebook to open to all Internet users", Yahoo News,
2006-09-11.
20. ^ Abram, Carolyn. "Welcome to Facebook, everyone", 2006-09-26.
21. ^ Brad Stone, "Facebook to Offer Free Classifieds" 2007-05-11 The New
York Times
22. ^ Kirkpatrick, David. "Facebook's plan to hook up the world". CNN Money,
May 29, 2007.
23. ^ Zuckerberg, Mark (2006-09-08). Free Flow of Information on the
Internet discussions. Facebook. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.
24. ^ Rosenbush, Steve. "Facebook's on the Block", BusinessWeek Online,
2006-03-28. Retrieved on 2006-08-14.
25. ^ Delaney, Kevin. "Facebook, Riding a Web Trend, Flirts With a Big-Money
Deal", DowJones, 2006-09-21, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2006-09-21.
26. ^ Miller, Jason (2006-10-10). First YouTube, Now Facebook? Rumors
Circulate. WebProNews. Retrieved on 2006-10-11.
27. ^ Facebook, Courted By Yahoo, Won't Sell, Director Says (Update3)
28. ^ "Connectu, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. et al", Justia.com, 2007-06-26
(filing date). Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
29. ^ Smith, Josh (2005). Big Brothers, Big Facebook: Your Orwellian
Community. The Color of Infinity. Retrieved on 2006-04-03. (mirrored on
Common Ground Common Sense Forums)
30. ^ http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
31. ^ Morse, Jacob (2006). Facebook Responds. Cogito. Retrieved on
2006-04-03.
32. ^ Jones, Harvey, & José Hiram Soltren (2005). "Facebook: Threats to
Privacy". (PDF)
33. ^ Peterson, Chris. "Who's Reading Your Facebook?", The Virginia
Informer, 2006-02-13.
34. ^ Rosmarin, Rachel (2006). Facebook's Makeover. Forbes. Retrieved on
2006-09-05.
35. ^ "Facebook CEO: 'We Really Messed This One Up'", NBC11.com, 2006-09-08.
Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
36. ^ Jesdanun, Anick (2006). Facebook offers new privacy options.
Associated Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
37. ^ Bugeja, Michael (2006-01-03). Facing the Facebook. The Chronicle of
Higher Education. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
38. ^ Bugeja, Michael J. "Distractions in the Wireless Classroom", Chronicle
Careers, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2007-01-26. Retrieved on
2007-06-26.
39. ^ National Association of Campus Activities (2006-07-12). Facing the
Facebook. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
40. ^ Association for Education in Journalism and Communication (2006).
Facing the Facebook: Administrative Issues Involving Social Networks.
Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
41. ^ EDUCAUSE Learning Institute (2006). 7 Things You Should Know About
Facebook. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
42. ^ Bunting, Jillian M. "New Facebook Feature Could Out Students", The
Harvard Crimson, 2006-03-02.
43. ^ Staff editorial. "Yeas & Nays", The Daily Barometer (Oregon State
University), 2006-03-01. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
44. ^ Schneider, Adam P. "How Much About You Is Out There?", The Harvard
Crimson, 2006-02-08.
45. ^ "Toronto high school students scuffle with police", The Globe and Mail
(registration required for full text), 2007-03-23. Retrieved on 2007-06-19.
46. ^ http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
47. ^ Chalfant, Drew. "Facebook postings, photos incriminate dorm
party-goers", The Northerner (Northern Kentucky University), 2005-11-02.
Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
48. ^ Pescovitz, David (2006). Facebook prank on police. Boing Boing.
Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
49. ^ http://www.cakeparty.org/index2.htm
50. ^ Chains, Benny (2005). Case Closed. CollegeHumor. Retrieved on
2006-04-03.
51. ^ Hass, Nancy. "In Your Facebook.com", The New York Times, 2006-01-08.
Retrieved on 2006-08-29.
52. ^ Savage, William W., III. "Secret Service questions student", Oklahoma
University Daily, 2005-03-08. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
53. ^ Freeman, Alyssa and Jamie Scott. "MSA election results postponed", The
Maneater (University of Missouri), 2005-11-11. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
54. ^ Wissner, Jennie. "18 violations delay results", Daily Pennsylvanian,
2005-09-30. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
55. ^ Schweitzer, Sarah. "Fisher College expels student over website
entries", The Boston Globe, 2005-10-06. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
56. ^ Epstein, David. "Cleaning Up Their Online Acts", Inside Higher
Education, 2005-10-03. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
57. ^ Wolfe, Graham. "Student arrested for inducing panic with Facebook
picture", Miami Student, 2006-02-10. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
58. ^ Lash, Devon. "Site used to aid investigations", The Daily Collegian
(Pennsylvania State University), 2005-11-10. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
59. ^ "Student Sanctioned For Comments On Homosexuality", WBPF News 25,
2005-10-28. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
60. ^ Pepitone, Julianne. "Freshmen claim Judicial Affairs threatened
expulsion for creation of Facebook group critical of TA", The Daily Orange
(Syracuse University), 2006-02-08. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
61. ^ Williams, Sasha. "Psychology professor replaced after complaints", The
Louisville Cardinal (University of Louisville), 2006-02-06. Retrieved on
2006-04-03.
62. ^ Merritt, Grace E.; Andrew Stricker, Zachary R. Dowdy, Bill Mason
(2007-02-16). Arrests in hit-and-run. Newsday.com (registration required).
Archived from the original on 2007-02-16.
* Full news article text available in Google Cache;
* First 2–3 paragraphs available in Access My Library (registration required
for full text);
* Free article preview at newsday.com.
63. ^ Carra, Nicholas. "Two Arrests Made", The Daily Campus, 2007-02-16.
Retrieved on 2007-06-17.
64. ^ Cobleskill student: Image wasn't threat
65. ^ Facebook, Guns & the Virginia Tech Fallout
66. ^ Elections Committee Statement
67. ^ Linhardt, David. "Employers screen applicants with Facebook",
University Daily Kansan, 2006-01-30. Retrieved on 2006-07-13.
68. ^ Morgan, Lauren. "Facebook can hurt employment chances", The Red and
Black (University of Georgia), 2005-12-05. Retrieved on 2005-12-09.
69. ^ Todd, Chuck (2006). The Facebook Oppo. Hotline On Call. National
Journal Group. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
70. ^ Douglas, Nick (2006). Facebook C&D's Gawker for showing super-secret
profiles. Valleywag. Gawker Media. Retrieved on 2006-06-08.
71. ^ Tuna, Cari. "Posters allege misogyny, homophobia", Yale Daily News,
2006-02-02. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
72. ^ "Senator repeats bad language written about him", Associated Press,
2007-09-02. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
73. ^ Goodman, Jessica. "Students will be the next target", Oxford Student,
2006-02-02. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
74. ^ Fort, Caleb. "CIRT blocks access to Facebook.com", Daily Lobo
(University of New Mexico), 2005-10-12. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
75. ^ "Popular web site, Facebook.com, back online at UNM", University of
New Mexico, 2006-01-19. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
76. ^ Loew, Ryan. "Kent banning athlete Web profiles", The Columbus
Dispatch, June 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
77. ^ Net generation grieves with Facebook postings
78. ^ On Facebook, life after death
79. ^ Suspect in Souers' Death in Maximum Security Prison
80. ^ Prott, Dylan. "Son, friend remembered as 'free spirit'", College
Heights Herald, 2006-11-14. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
81. ^ Iorg, Emily. "Student Colby McLain remembered", University News,
2005-12-05. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
82. ^ Batista, Sarah. "UVA Student Remembered", Charlottesville Newsplex,
2005-11-21. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
83. ^ Negrin, Matt. "University responds to SMG junior's death", Daily Free
Press, 2005-11-21. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
84. ^ Gardner-Quinn, Michelle. "UVM Memorializes Slain Student", Burlington
Free Press, 2006-10-15. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
85. ^ Bernhard, Stephanie. "Community mourns death of Pagan '06", Brown
Daily Herald, 2006-01-25. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
86. ^ Ohio State U.: Facebook used as a memorial to remember Ohio State U.
student..
87. ^ Kristina Kelleher, Facebook profiles become makeshift memorials, The
Brown Daily Herald, 2007-02-22
88. ^ [1]
89. ^ [2]
90. ^ "USAToday article", USAToday, 2007-05-08.
91. ^ Laverdet, Marcel (2006-02-26). Why XSS is my favorite type of
vulnerability. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
92. ^ Romero, John. The Super Facebook Saga. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
93. ^ Facelifting the Facebook (2006-03-26). Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
94. ^ Facebook Adds Marketplace of Classified Ads (2007-05-12). Retrieved on
2007-05-15.
95. ^ Arrington, J. Michael. "85% of College Students use FaceBook",
TechCrunch, 2005-09-07. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
96. ^ Facebook 'poke' leads to awkward one-nighter.
97. ^ Mayerowtiz, Scott (2006-04-16). Students Turn to Social Networking
Sites for Info. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
98. ^ "Facebook Extends Lead As Fave Young Adult Site", eMarketer,
2007-03-02.
read the
copyright
|