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Today, 40Tech is pleased to present a guest post by Lisa from USDirect.Com.
Facebook started with a few simple ideas, mainly serving as a way to stay connected with friends. In the early stages, it was a used solely by Harvard students and then gradually became available to other college students throughout the country, eventually going worldwide. When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, he didn’t realize the billion dollar force it would create. Let’s take a look at the differences in Facebook then and now.
The Beginning of Facebook
In the beginning of Facebook, there were very few features. There were no status updates, messages, photo albums, or even the platform to create a News Feed. At that time, everyone could provide and access only basic information. It was only a simple tool to be used by some people for some virtual social interaction. However, Zuckerberg achieved instant success when he launched thefacebook.com, with over 600 students instantly joining the first day and almost 1,000 joined the following day.
Original Facebook accounts had to be from a Harvard.edu email address and user names were verified.
What it did have:
- Friends and Friend Request options, something that increased the underlying value of Facebook.
- The Invitations feature was also available but the user had to input the email addresses as there was no Import Contact option.
- A basic profile option, which only permitted uploading a single photo.
- User data lists, including gender, birthdate, favorite music and books, about me, dorm info, phone numbers, and course information.
- Search option – find users by name, courses, class year, etc.
- Privacy restrictions
- A friend graph, which was later removed
Facebook as we Know it Now
Facebook went viral, as net folks like to say. It spread like wildfire. Facebook became a public forum and social media communication tool, no longer used only by college students. Facebook became a platform for sharing an array of content for millions of people.
Because of the rising popularity in the News Feed function, people became concerned with controlling who sees their content. In 2009, Zuckerberg worked to build a better privacy model that applied to news feeds, photos and videos, and all aspects of a profile. Facebook’s settings have made it easier for users to hide information and now require users to gain permission before allowing a connection. They are also able to moderate and punish spammers.
The popularity of Facebook and relevance it has in our culture inspired the 2010 film, “The Social Network,” starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake.
The User is in Control
In 2010, Facebook launched community pages. It also started various other ways to provide users social and personalized experiences on foreign sites they used. The rest is in your hands. You can now chat with your friends, group your conversations, and communication via Facebook is easier.They say the only thing that is constant is change and this is truly applicable to Facebook.
About the Author: Lisa is an avid yoga enthusiast who enjoys writing in her spare time for USdirect.com – home of Direct TV.
Cristian Balau says:
Change its not necessarily a good thing, to much change to rapidly is bad for everybody, people don’t have the time to adjust. I personally never had any real interest in facebook, I found the idea of social networking, boring, but now after the last Facebook updates, I find it kinnda chaotic.
October 7, 2011 — 8:10 pm
Chris says:
What Facebook had was constant growth. This is one crucial thing Google+ lacks, and why it eventually fails as a social network.
Sure, that growth was not forced, it was natural, but things turned out ok for them.
October 10, 2011 — 5:36 am