Facebook turns 6 today.According to the website’s official Wikipedia page, February 4th, 2004 is marked as the launch date of Facebook. When the site first launched, it was called The Facebook, and was located at thefacebook.com.
While Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard University, he along with few of his college roommates and fellow computer students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes founded Facebook.
The idea was to create a place where students could communicate and share photos with their friends and membership was limited initially limited to Harvard students, which was well received. Within a month, TheFacebook popularity grew, prompting its founders to include students from other well-respected colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include business organizations, university students, high school students and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and above. In 2005, TheFacebook was officially called Facebook and the domain facebook.com was reportedly purchased for $200,000.
Now Facebook is the No. 1 social-networking site in the world with more than 350 million users worldwide.
From a small college dorm to the whole world, Facebook have achieved a lot and come a long way. But this unbelievable story of Facebook isn’t all fairy tale. Facebook has had its share of hiccups in the form of lawsuits, bans in places like Syria, China, Vietnam, Iran and at many work places. Privacy policies have also been a major issue. But, Facebook have risen above all that and continues to rise and spread and has become a household name in many places of the world.
Equally surprising is the way Facebook users use it. There are many unexpected ways and results of the way Facebook have been used by its users over the years and around the world. Some examples are:
1. Facebook users have made the word “friend” into a verb and also propelled the word “unfriend” to be the “Word of the year”.
2. Whether the earth rumbles in Palo Alto or the earthquake at Haiti, status updates send the news across the world even before most of the news organizations.
3. Facebook users also have shown how to used it for a good cause by coming together for victims of natural disasters, and in spreading awareness on lot of subjects and problems.
4. Though Facebook have been used as a place of prey by many cyber-criminals, Facebook has also contributed in nabbing a lot of offenders in the real world, connect long-lost siblings and families, and pets and their owners.
Facebook has, in its 6 years, exceeded a lot of expectations, became an indispensable part of millions of people and the story of Facebook itself is a source of inspiration for many young entrepreneurs around the world.
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