Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, or in a treehouse without access to the Internet or any form of mainstream media, you've probably heard of a website called facebook -- the social-networking site that is the hottest thing on the Internet right now. But what is it exactly? And what is it good for (if anything)?
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and a couple of friends started the social network as a personal project while they were at Harvard University in 2004. Originally called Thefacebook.com, it was designed as a tool to let students at Harvard -- and, eventually, other universities -- get to know each other, and the faculty at the school.
- Do you belong to a social networking site? Answer our poll question on the Globetechnology main page
Zuckerberg has said that the idea was based on the "facebooks" that many universities hand out to incoming students and faculty, with photos and profiles of those on campus. In addition to letting students see each other's interests -- as described on their profile pages -- it also allowed them to upload photos and to send friends private messages by posting them on a person's virtual "wall."
Facebook branched out from Harvard to other universities, eventually allowing anyone with an email address ending in ".edu" to become a member, and last year the network opened up and allowed anyone to join. Although some industry watchers criticized the move and said Facebook would likely suffer as a result, the site has seen an explosion of interest and now gets about 1.5 billion page views a day, making it one of the most visited websites on the Internet.
In Canada in particular, Facebook is becoming the default social network, even for older users. According to an interview that Globe reporter Keith McArthur did with the advertising manager for the site, Canada is the fastest-growing country in Facebook's user base -- and Toronto already has more users per capita than other major metropolitan cities such as New York, Boston and even Los Angeles.
When you sign up to Facebook, the first thing you do is fill out your profile, which includes whatever information you choose to include about yourself -- name, age, married status (which includes the choice "it's complicated"), location and political views (which includes the choice "apathetic"). You can upload a photo of yourself, which others see when you post a comment on their "wall."
You can also set up a "mini-feed" of items from a blog, if you have one, which will be displayed to anyone who visits your profile page. And you can upload photos and create a photo gallery and slideshow. You can also join a network -- which started with universities, but now includes major cities -- and you can join groups, which anyone can set up.
After you set up an account, when you login to Facebook you get your home page, which has a number of elements, including a box where you can update your "status" -- in other words, what you are doing and/or thinking and/or feeling. This is very similar to the way that young people use instant messaging tools such as MSN or Yahoo or AIM: it's a way of broadcasting your current mood or activity to your friends.
Your profile page also includes your "wall," where anyone you add as a friend can post comments. And when you join or leave a group or network, or post a comment on someone's wall, or post a photo to a gallery, that gets broadcast to your friends -- if you turn that "news feed" feature on. There was some controversy when Facebook first introduced the news-feed, because some people were concerned about privacy issues, so the site made it possible to opt out.
Probably the best way to think about Facebook is as a kind of cross between MySpace -- a site that also features profile pages, photos and video (something Facebook doesn't offer yet) and personal messages -- and instant messaging. The status updates in Facebook are a way of sending quick messages to all of your friends without bugging them by email, and the groups are a way of finding others who might either be in your neighbourhood or have similar interests.
If you're not that interested in tracking your friends' moods or activity -- or having them track yours -- and you're not looking for anyone who shares your interests, then you're probably not going to enjoy Facebook.
14
