Facebook information and history

Online community websites are becoming more and more popular as time pass by. One of which is the Facebook which was launched in the beginning of 2004. Facebook was founded by Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg, who are both from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both are former students of Harvard University. In 2006, Facebook earned as much as 50 million dollars and have at least 200 people working for the company.

Facebook was originally created only for the students of Harvard. Eventually, they added a network for schools within Bosten including Boston College as well as Boston University. After a few months, Face book added the Ivy League schools. And because of the rapidly growing popularity of this online community, almost all of the universities and colleges are already included in the network the next year. Afterwards, those who have a university address all over the world were allowed to join Facebook. This includes the universities located in Australia, Puerto Rico as well as New Zealand. As of the moment, high schools are also included in the community’s network.

The estimated number of registered members in Facebook reaches about 600 million. Because of this, there are so many photos uploaded by its members every day. It has more uploaded photos compared to Photobucket and even Flickr. It is actually considered as the 18th most browsed and visited website all over the world. And in United States, Facebook is the 7th most popular and visited website.

One of the features of this popular online community website is that it allows its registered users to create several albums so that they can organize their photos which can be viewed by their friends. If you are wondering where does the name Facebook came from, it is the paper face book that other colleges and even prep schools give to the staff as well as incoming students so that they can recognize one another by name and by face. At least 85 percent of the students that are studying in college have their profiles created in Facebook. Moreover, at least 85 percent also of these registered users log in to their Facebook accounts every week.

According to the study conducted by a research company located in New Jersey called Student Monitor, Facebook ranked second as the most” in” thing for students all around the world. It even beat the Ipod in the said study. Moreover, it is also estimated that at least 19 minutes every day, these students log on to their Facebook account.

Nobody is required to pay any amount if they want to use Facebook. Facebook earns because of the advertisements or sponsors. Just like any other online community websites that can be used for free, Facebook can boast to its advertisers the demographics as well as the number of users that they have every day. As a result, advertising companies now have an idea as to what advertisement should they place at the website of Facebook so that it can reach the college students. And because of the growing population of Facebook users, they can now even reach to the high school students at the same time.

It was estimated that the average revenue of Facebook in April 2006 alone already reached more than one million. This happened only for half a week. The advertisers were so very pleased. This just means that more than sixty percent of Facebook users log in to their accounts everyday.

On the same year, Quizsender.com has been threatened by Facebook because they copied the image of the latter online community website. Knowing how much money Facebook already had for its back up, Quizsender.com immediately backed down. Afterwards, Facebook decided to make some innovations in their online community website. They add the Facebook Notes where users can blog using other blogging services such as Xanga, Blogger, and Livejournal. As part of its expansion, Facebook also announced that they will be allowing its users to post their advertisements for free. This is their way to compete with the infamous website meant for classified ads – Craigslist. They can do this at the Marketplace section of the website. They may now find a place where they can stay near the campus or within the campus. At the Marketplace, Facebook users can also find work that does not require much travel.

Other than the features mentioned above, Facebook also hosts numerous other features for all the registered users of the online community. They can post messages and notes on the Wall. This is the same with the Comments section in Myspace. Only those who are directly connected with the user can view his or her own Wall. Friends of the Facebook users may also purchase a gift for them. For only a dollar this gift can now be posted on their friend’s wall. There are also gifts that are for free. However, most users do not opt for the one-dollar gift even for the free gift. They go for something that they personally do instead.

It is also a standard etiquette for all the Facebook users to let others know that you exist. This is what they call poking. Through the use of poking, you can interact the other registered users of Facebook. You can also give them an idea how you really feel about them. And since Facebook users log on to their accounts on a daily basis, Facebook also added the Events feature. You can post the events that will be happening for the next few days so that you and your friends will be reminded. Unlike other online community websites, you can pick the Top Friends that you have in your network. Moreover, you also have a wide variety of relationship status to choose from.

There had been rumors spreading that Viacom/Myspace is attempting to buy Facebook. But until now, there is no solid decision from Facebook regarding that rumor. The estimated value of Facebook.com has already reached eight billion dollars.