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Happy Birthday Facebook!

On February 4, 2004 Mark Zukerberg along with a few of his Harvard classmates created TheFacebook.com.  A social network which was exclusively for Harvard students.  It was so popular that 1,200-1,500 students joined within the first 24 hours of the site being launched. And in less than a month, more than half the students had joined the social network.  Zukerberg and his classmates decided to expand the network to other Ivy League schools, along with college’s in the Boston area.  Soon after it was an exclusive college social network.  The site later changed to invitation only registrants.  But in the fall of 2005, Facebook users were upset after the company had decided to open the site to everyone over the age of 13. 

In the past 6 years, Facebook has seen a number of face lifts.  Normally after any change there was an uproar from the community, but looking back at some of the designs on Facebook’s wikipedia page, the changes have definatly been worth it.

The social network, has been used to stay in contact with friends and family, to connect consumers with businesses, and even help us stay in contact with the latest headlines across the globe.  And the number of Facebook Users has more than doubled within the past year alone, while both CNN & AllFacebook.com are reporting that the site now has more than 375 million users.  The company hit 350 million at the beginning of December.

Thinking back on my own personal experience on Facebook, I remember joining the site back in 2005, thinking what a lame site it was, and that MySpace was totally better.  I then began to love Facebook and the simplicity of it.  I became a Poking addict, unlike now where some of my friends are Farmville addicts.  But it’s part of what makes Facebook, Facebook.  It’s hard to imagine life without the social media site now.  It houses all my photos, some of my blog posts, and it’s the easiest way to stay in contact with the friends and family members I want to stay in contact with.  It will be interesting to see what happens with Facebook in the next year!