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Facebook is a social networking service for high school, college, university, corporate, non-profit, military and geographic communities primarily in English-speaking countries. As of December 2005, it has the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites (at over six million US college student accounts created with an additional 20,000 new accounts being created daily.) It is the number one site for photos, ahead of public sites such as flickr, with 1.5 million photos uploaded daily, and is the seventh most trafficked site in the United States, according to ComScore's MediaMetrix.

Anyone with access to a valid e-mail address from 2,000+ universities can register for and access the site. This includes university students, alumni, faculty, and staff, although the vast majority of Facebook’s users are students. Facebook is also available at 25,000+ American and Canadian high schools as well as 1,000+ corporations and non-profit organizations, such as Microsoft, Pepsi and Teach for America. The site is free to users and generates revenue from advertising including banner ads and sponsored groups (revenue is rumored to be over $37.5 million per week). Users create personal profiles, typically containing photos and lists of interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends. The viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same school or confirmed friends. The site boasts incredible usage statistics as, according to TechCrunch, "about 85% of students in supported colleges have a profile the site. 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." In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey based LLC specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named as the second most "in" thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and losing only to the highly popular iPod.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, California. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.

History

Origins and expansion

Facebook was founded as thefacebook in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University with financial help from Eduardo Saverin. The website spread across the Harvard campus and within a few weeks, over half the undergraduate population had registered. By the end of February, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes had joined Zuckerberg to spread the website. Within two months, Facebook had expanded to allow students from the rest of the Ivy League and other prominent universities to register. It became a network phenomenon, spreading rapidly to other schools, despite some competition from similar, local websites. By December 2004, the number of registered users exceeded one million.

As the website’s popularity rose and advertising revenue grew, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz left Harvard to run Facebook fulltime, while Hughes remained at Harvard to work as the site's spokesperson. Zuckerberg and Moskovitz moved to Palo Alto in June 2004, established an office and recruited a staff of eight, including Sean Parker and Matt Cohler.

Stories about Facebook became commonplace in online and print media. Simultaneously, several competitor sites appeared attempting to capture some of the limelight. While at Harvard, Zuckerberg's project competed with a project by Aaron Greenspan known as houseSYSTEM (Greenspan would later distribute his "FaceNet" through Think Computer's CommonRoom software). In late 2004, the owners of the website ConnectU (Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss), another social networking website targeted towards college students, filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that Zuckerberg had stolen source code intended for their website while in their employ.

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In September 2004, Facebook received around $500,000 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in an angel round. In May 2005, Facebook raised $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.

In late August 2005, it was announced on the main website that the domain name facebook.com was acquired from Aboutface Corporation, and the website moved domains and dropped the "the" from the site name effective August 23, 2005. The purchase price for the domain name was $200,000 according to people familiar with this deal. Also included in the move was a site overhaul, making profile pages more "user-friendly," according to Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has since added more universities to Facebook (with an emphasis on forgotten schools in Canada as well as in the United States), but unlike in the past, the new schools were no longer publicized on the front page.

On September 2, 2005, deeming it the "next logical thing" to do, Zuckerberg launched a high school version of Facebook, which was originally kept totally separate from the college version. Although high school students could only join via an invitation for the first weeks, by September 17, an invitation was no longer necessary for most schools. So far, high school Facebook has failed to achieve the same popularity as the college version. However, on February 27, 2006, Facebook began to allow college students to add high school students as friends, saying that "so many people requested it".A series of announcements were posted on Facebook at letter.php explaining the changes.

By October 2005, Facebook had nearly completed its expansion to smaller universities and junior colleges throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, Facebook expanded to 21 universities in the United Kingdom, and added the entire Instituto Tecnologico system in Mexico, the entire University of Puerto Rico system in Puerto Rico and the entire University of the Virgin Islands system in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On December 11, 2005, Facebook expanded further, adding universities in Australia and New Zealand. As of December 2005, the network had expanded to include 2,000+ college and 25,000+ high school institutions across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, including more than 11 million users worldwide.

On March 28, 2006, BusinessWeek reported rumors of a possible acquisition of the site. According to the article, the company declined an offer of $750 million and began asking for $2 billion. The idea that a two-year old website started by college sophomores could sell for such a price ignited massive debate and speculation in the blogosphere.

In April 2006, Facebook acquired an additional $25 million in venture capital from Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners.

In May 2006, Facebook expanded to India (Only at IITs and IIMs).

In June 2006, Facebook threatened to seek costs of up to $100,000 from QuizSender.com for copyright infringement .

Site features

The expansion of Facebook to colleges and high schools has been accompanied by a gradual increase in the number of features the site provides to its users. Originally, a user's profile consisted of little more than a picture that could be uploaded and a few fields of biographical information and favorites that could be filled in. In the spring of 2004, users were able to designate themselves as alumni for the first time, and users were also given the option of listing their summer plans.

Addition of features

In September 2004, the Groups feature was introduced and rapidly gained popularity, practically revolutionizing the way people used Facebook, which until then had frequently been seen as a way for singles to meet or, as some cynics claimed, "Facebook-stalk" one another. (Previously it had not been uncommon to see references to the site as "TheStalkerbook.")Users refer to the site as the "Stalkerbook" on posts at Radioheadfeed Forums and Gaming World Forums That autumn, many students who until then had refused to join Facebook for this reason finally relented primarily because the groups feature made Facebook a component of nearly all student groups, both official and unofficial. The Wall feature appeared that month as well.

From late 2004 to early 2006, Facebook was linked to Wirehog, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Until at earliest March 2005, Facebook officially endorsed the p2p client, saying "Thefacebook and Wirehog are integrated so that Wirehog knows who your friends are in order to make sure that only people in your network can see your files. Thefacebook certifies that it is okay to enter your facebook email address and password into Wirehog for the purposes of this integration." (cache of thefacebook.com/wirehog.php) Recording Industry Association of America spokesman Jonathan Levy commented on the use of Wirehog saying "the laws remain the same whether it's 'sharing' copyrighted works without permission to one person or to a million people."

Criticisms

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 (mirrored on Common Ground Common Sense Forums) and privacy proponents have criticized the site's current privacy agreement. According to the policy, "Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site." 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." 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 3 schools as part of a research project on Facebook privacy. (PDF)

Another clause that some users are critical of reserves the right to sell user's 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." It is unclear if Facebook plans to remove that clause as well.

Over-investment in technology

On Jan. 23, 2006, The Chronicle of Higher Education opened up a national debate on social networks, written by Michael Bugeja, director of the Journalism School at Iowa State University, and titled "Facing the Facebook." See Bugeja, author of the Oxford Univ. text Interpersonal Divide (2005), quoted representatives of the AAUP 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. Soon after a spate of articles appeared nationwide on this and other educational and administrative concerns involving social networks, with such organizations as the National Association of Campus Activities *

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. It should be noted that users from opposite branches could only fully interact if they were friends and that 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 younger siblings. However, many college users felt that the site's former exclusivity had been key to their experience. 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.

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 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.

Alcohol policy violations

It has become increasingly common for colleges and universities to use Facebook to investigate underage drinking and violations of dry campus policies. Students who violate these policies may be discovered through photographs of illicit drinking behavior, membership in drinking-related groups, or party information posted on the Facebook website. For example, four students at Northern Kentucky University were fined for posting pictures of a drinking party on Facebook. The pictures, taken inside a dormitory, were considered proof that the students were in violation of the university's dry campus policy.

In response to the monitoring, some students have begun to submit "red herring" party listings. In one case at The George Washington University, shown at CakeParty.org, students advertised their party and were raided by campus police. The police found only cake, no alcohol, and later claimed the dorm raid had been triggered by a noise complaint.

Other investigations

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 OU student alerted the Secret Service to the threat and did not stem from federal monitoring of the site as some proposed.

During student government elections held in October 2005, results at both the University of Missouri and University of Pennsylvania were delayed due to early campaigning violations on Facebook. The University of California, Oklahoma, Berkeley and Loyola Marymount University have also experienced similar problems.

Students have been expelled over suggesting that a campus police officer be illegally "set up" and that he "needs to be eliminated" and the posting of pictures showing the student in question dressed in drag. At the University of Mississippi a group of students were brought before the University's Judicial Board and forced to remove a facebook group that professed their love for a professor in a sexually suggestive manner. One student was arrested after he set a composite sketch of a rape suspect as his profile picture. Others have been punished for rushing a football field, hate speech against gays, and criticizing an instructor. At the University of Louisville, on the other hand, 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 of 2006, and were not punished.

Other uses of profile information

It has been documented that some employers look at Facebook profiles of prospective employees or interns. Whether or not this practice is common is unknown, but students looking for jobs should be aware that information posted on Facebook is potentially accessible to employers with faculty or alumni accounts. It can be argued that the use of Facebook in this manner violates Facebook's terms of service, in that this would not be classed as "non-commercial use".

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. 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. 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.

Militant members of the Animal Liberation Front in Britain appear to 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.

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. 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."

Many high schools across the United States have blocked access to Facebook on all school computers after students have started anti-school groups like the notorious School Sucks group.

As reported by the Columbus Dispatch on June 22, 2006, Kent State University's athletic director had planned to ban the use of Facebook by athletes and given them until August 1 to delete their accounts. 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, including University of Missouri - Columbia, University of Missouri - Kansas City, University of Virginia, Boston University, and Brown University. According to Facebook spokesperson Chris Hughes, "In the past, we have removed profiles as soon as we were made aware of the student's death, but we are now re-evaluating the policy in light of numerous requests to the contrary from users." (front page of the newspaper, online version is dead)

Hacks

Facebook is often compared to MySpace and one main difference between the two sites is the level of customization. MySpace allows users to decorate their profile using HTML and CSS while Facebook only allows plaintext. However, a number of users have tweaked their profiles by using 'hacks'. On February 24, 2006, a user exploited a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) hole on the site that enabled them to load a custom CSS file and make their profile look like a MySpace profile (That user has since been hired as an employee of Facebook. *)" target="_blank" > On April 19, 2006, a user was able to embed an iframe into their profile and load a custom off-site page featuring a streaming video and a flash game from Drawball. March 26, 2006, a user was able to embed JavaScript in the 'Hometown' field of his profile which imported his custom CSS. [http://www.hyalineskies.com/blog/2006/03/facelifting-the-facebook/" target="_blank" >* Facebook has since patched all found holes. The company has not discussed plans externally for user customization.

See also

Notes and references

External links

Official website

Print media

College newspapers

Online media

Information

2004 establishments | Social networking | Student culture | Virtual communities | Companies based in the Silicon Valley | 2000s fads

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Facebook".

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