Facebook in brief
The popularity of social networking websites across the Web has continuously soared in the last five years. Launched in February 2004, Facebook was found by a former Harvard student. The original site was for Harvard students only but then added other Boston area schools including Boston University & Boston College, etc. In a few months, he added other Ivy League schools and over the next year, all colleges & universities were added quickly. Ultimately, anyone with a university address was allowed to join from all over the world. The Facebook has spread to include high schools as well now. Nearly 42 million members are currently joined; the facebook.com estimates that at the end of 2007, 60 million users will be actively using Facebook social networking website.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg
From its debut, facebook.com has soared to the seventh most visited website on the web. Facebook also has more photos on it then any other site including Flickr and Photobucket. Users are allowed to create multiple albums to place their photos within for all their friends to view. The name "Facebook" came from the paper face books that some campuses give students (for example, teachers) so they recognize each other by face and name when first attending class. It is estimated that 85% of students in college have a profile or have had one and nearly 85% of them log in at least once a week. A 2006 study by Student Monitor, a NJ-based research company claims that Facebook was named second most "in" behind beer and sex (beating the Ipod) for the student population amongst the globe.
Facebook is free to use, being paid for solely by advertising. Like many free sites, facebook.com can boast to advertisers about the number and demographics of their users to potential advertisers. The advertising companies then know what ads to place there in order to reach the college and more recently, high school student. The average revenue for such a site was estimated in April 2006 to be over a million and a half a week. For advertisers this is a worth while buy as many, upwards of sixty percent of users log in on a daily basis. The exposure for the ads on facebook.com is phenomenal as a result.
The Facebook hosts several features for its user. The wall is defined as the messaging option of the website (in comparison to Myspace where comments are made). Ultimately, only friends of the individual can view their wall. Gifts are also available that can be posted on friends walls for only $1 USD; there are some free gifts available as well, but in comparison most choose not to use them because they are something that can be created themselves anyhow. Classified advertisements can be placed on the Marketplace feature of the website, finding somewhere to live on campus or even to work has never been easier! Poking someone is standard etiquette on Facebook, it's simply a way to interact with other users and let them know you were thinking of them or want them to contact you back. Events can also be listed to let friends know of various happenings in the near future. Top Friends can be chosen as well. One of user's favorite portions of the profile is the relationship status option. If someone is in a relationship with someone and they have a profile, their name is listed there, and by clicking it, you can visit their profile as well. For those gossip-worthy individuals, this is added fun for using Facebook!
In 2006, a similar site, MySpace.com was sold to NewsCorp. This spawned rumors that facebook.com would be sold to a large media company in a similar fashion. Zuckerberg, who designed and owns facbook.com said that he would not sell the company and quelled rumors saying anything otherwise. He had previously turned down offers of nearly a billion dollars for the site. In 2007 Microsoft proposed an investment in return for a five percent control of the company. In addition, they would pay three hundred to five hundred million for facebook.com. In October 2007, Microsoft had bought a one point six percent share of facebook.com for two hundred and forty six million dollars.