In 2004 , Mark Zuckerberg , Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes , three Harvard University pupil , plunge aWeb sitedesigned to put scholarly person in touch with one another , share their photos and meet raw citizenry . They call itthefacebook.com , and before long the internet site became extremely popular on the Harvard campus . A calendar month after the site launch , the creators thrive it to include students from Stanford , Columbia and Yale . By 2005 , educatee in 800 college electronic web across the United States could join the web , and its rank acquire to more than 5 million active users . In August of that year , the site ’s name vary toFacebook .
Facebook was to begin with mean for college students , but today anyone can link up the web . Although the site ’s scope has expand to admit more than just student , its purpose remains the same – giving the great unwashed a way to share entropy in an easy and entertaining manner . LikeMySpace , Facebook is asocial networkingsite .
To explore Facebook , you must create a free account on the site . Facebook ’s terms of use res publica that penis must be at least 13 twelvemonth old , and any member between the long time of 13 and 18 must be enrolled in schoolhouse . Facebook requires new members to provide a valide - mailaddress before dispatch enrollment . Once you ’ve created an score and answered a few questions about where you work , where you blend in to school and where you live , Facebook will render aprofilefor you .
Facebook furnish several ways to find friends :
In this article , we ’ll learn about Facebook profile , applications and how you may get at the site using mobile devices likecell speech sound . See the next Thomas Nelson Page for a closer look at Facebook profiles .
Facebook Profiles
Your Facebook profile is theWeb pageother members will see if they calculate you up . It ease up people an idea about who you are and what your interest let in . Facebook assume that many of the people with whom you ’ll want to link up work for the same ship’s company , go bad to the same schooltime or live in the same town as you .
To make it easier to find friends both old and unexampled , Facebook accumulate information about you and everyone else to create a dense meshwork of contacts . The upside is that you ’ll be able to see old classmates or coworkers who have Facebook accounts ; the downside is that everyone else in that connection will be capable to find you . you’re able to choose not to suffice dubiousness or to adjust privacy setting so that others ca n’t find you , but that run to defeat the purpose of a social networking site .
Your unmodified profile has :
If you visited another fellow member ’s unmodified profile , you ’d see the same fields and sections , but under his or her visibility picture you ’d have a few more options , including :
When you lumber into your report , you arrive at your personal Facebook home page . The basic home page layout include anewsfeedthat keeps you updated about what your friends and networks are up to . There ’s also astatus updatesection , which contains notice about message you ’ve pick up , invitations to events , mark about applications your champion would like you to try and a place where you could narrate people how you ’re feel or what you ’re up to . There ’s also a data link that let you ask round friends to get together Facebook .
Business owners , artists , ring and public figures can make particular Facebook profiles . Instead of becoming friends with the possessor of these accounts , you could become afan . If you work for a company that does n’t have a bearing of Facebook , it ’s a good idea to hash out a strategy with others before create an account – most human resources departments do n’t worry for surprisal .
you may custom-make your Facebook profile using Facebook practical program , some of which were educate by members just like yourself . In the next incision , we ’ll teach about the rich world of Facebook applications .
Facebook Applications
Facebook ’s applications set up it apart from othersocial networkingsites . Facebook ’s first - company app include photos , videos , groups , effect , marketplace , post items , government note and giving . These are applications build up by Facebook and available to all members . Here ’s a quick breakdown on what each program does :
Facebook is always working on developing new applications for member . If you ’re conversant with Facebook , you do it there are hundreds of other practical software uncommitted on the site . Facebook did n’t develop these applications – other Facebook members did .
Many sites give substance abuser limited access to anapplication programming interface(API ) , which rent users evolve applications using the host website as a political program . But for most of these site , user app are n’t sport on the site prominently . Third - political party Facebook applications can dramatically change your experience on the website , including a massive overhaul to your visibility page . Your simple profile can transform into an exciting page that includes videos , Cartesian product reexamination , games and practical pet . But there ’s also the potentiality for chaos – if you touch off too many software on your profile , it will become a sprawling internet page that other members might encounter difficult to navigate .
In the next department , we ’ll take a close look at how Facebook member can make their own applications .
Third-Party Facebook Applications
To create coating in Facebook , you first must add the Facebookdeveloper applicationto your profile . You also must have access to a Webserverwhere you’re able to store your program – Facebook does not host third - party course of study . coating can be Web - found , desktop - based or mobile - equipment - ground . In other words , you may create diligence that take advantage of the Facebook platform but are n’t incorporate into member profile . For good example , it ’s possible to program an app that creates a window on your desktop that is associate to your profile ’s news feed .
Facebook says that its program programming port ( API ) is based on aRepresentational State Transfer(REST ) port , a term coined by Roy Fielding in his PhD dissertation at the University of California , Irvine . In a rest period internet , form follows function . Fielding ’s ultimate REST connection was an idealised version of the World Wide Web that had independent components that solve together to maximize the efficiency of data transfer [ Source : Fielding ] .
In terms of Facebook ’s API , a REST - interface think that program interfacing with Facebook ship method calls usingHypertext transference Protocol(HTTP)GETorPOSTrequests . HTTP is the communication communications protocol used by the World Wide Web – the GET request think information and the POST request adds info to an existingWeb Sir Frederick Handley Page . This imply that Facebook applications can retrieve data from member profile , post content to profiles or do both .
developer can also utilise theFacebook Query Language(FQL ) , which is interchangeable toStructured Query Language(SQL ) . Query language are computer programming languages designed to retrieve information from database . With FQL , a developer can obtain info about any exploiter who download his or her software . In a way , that ’s really what Facebook applications are all about – gathering information about users . developer could use this info as a way to create target audiences foradvertisingor build up a consumer base for a particular product . Facebook has been criticized by the great unwashed who believe the web site allow app developer to forgather data point from members , include personal data and internet surfing habits .
For those developer who require to make applications that deeply integrate themselves into Facebook ’s platform , there ’s theFacebook Markup Language(FBML ) . Facebook derived the language from HTML and add together some site - specific tags . Using this speech communication , developers can create app program that become a more entire part of the user ’s Facebook experience , affecting profile show and function .
Every app has a place on Facebook called acanvas page , which developer can use however they wish . When a user clicks on an software icon , his or her web web browser goes to that software ’s canvass page . Developers can admit Web advertising on canvass pages , deal Cartesian product using a Facebook - designed port or plainly partake information with the user .
In the next section , we ’ll bet at how you’re able to access Facebook through a peregrine equipment like acell earphone .
Facebook Mobile
you’re able to get at Facebook features using a mobile gimmick like acell phonein three ways : wandering text messages , mobile uploads and mobile Web browsing . Let ’s take a face at each of these in turn .
Text messages employ a standardized mobile textual matter transfer method acting calledShort Message Service(SMS ) orMultimedia message Service(MMS ) . SMS allows you to charge and receive school text messages to services likeWeb sites , interpreter - mail service system ande - mailservers . An SMS message can only be up to 160 characters long . The MMS measure is an improvement on SMS , with no size limit to messages ( though very tumid messages require an advanced 3 guanine phone net to change through the organization ) . Not all phones have SMS or MMS capabilities .
When you place a text edition message from your phone to Facebook , the message send to amobile switching center(MSC ) , which sends the sign to asignal transfer point(STP ) . From there , the message goes to ashort message service center(SMSC ) , which then sends the text to Facebook . When Facebook sends a content to your telephone , the process is turn back . Using text messages , you’re able to take care up canonic member profile information , send subject matter ( including scoke and wall post ) , add Quaker to your web and interact with some Facebook applications .
Mobile uploads work in a exchangeable way to text content , but must employ MMS . MMS permit you to send not only text , but also sound files , video and images . The transfer method acting is exchangeable to SMS , but it requires a handheld twist compatible with the MMS measure . Because some devices are n’t MMS compatible , avail providers sometimes build in a feature that alerts a user when he or she has received a multimedia system subject matter . The message usually tell the exploiter to visit a entanglement page link to view the content .
With MMS subject matter sent from your telephone , you’re able to upload photos to your profile – they ’ll look in a special uploaded photos discussion section . you could also upload Federal Reserve note or television from your phone to your visibility . In either case , you must create your multimedia message first , then send it to the appropriate e - mail address .
Your phone must have vane browsing capability in order of magnitude for you to visit Facebook from it . You ’ll ask to direct your phone ’s web web browser tom.facebook.com , Facebook ’s internet site designed specifically for mobile browse . To upload notes to Facebook , you send the content to notes@facebook.com . For photos or videos , you send the message to mobile@facebook.com .
Unlike distinctive Facebook page , the roving opposite number ’s code is inExtensible HyperText Markup Language(XHTML ) . XHTML is a more qualified language than standard HTML . One of the reason for this is that theWorld wide of the mark Web Consortium(W3C ) , an outside organization that develops interoperable technologies for the Web , recognized the need for a Web language that fluid devices could easily interpret . estimator have more resourcefulness than mobile devices , and can translate much more complex Web varlet than a cell phone or similar gadget . XHTML help to level the playing domain .
In the next plane section , we ’ll look at some of Facebook ’s impressive statistics .
Facebook Facts and Figures
While the troupe began as the pet project for a group of Harvard students , today it calls Palo Alto , Calif. , home ( the company also has an bureau in New York ) . Facebook has more than 350 employee , and the benefit package sound pretty sweet . It admit :
Facebook ’s popularity continues to grow day by daylight . The society claims that it has more than 57 million active members – users who have logged onto Facebook over the last 30 day menses – on the internet site . Since January 2007 , the medium telephone number of new registrations per day is 250,000 . Facebook say that the number of active users reduplicate every six calendar month . Members from the United States account for most of Facebook ’s universe , followed by members in Canada and the United Kingdom .
Facebook also claims to be the No . 1 icon - partake in service on theInternet , drawing more traffic than the second- , third- and fourth- place internet site combined . In terms of ikon numbers , this means that Facebook receives more than 14 million uploaded images every day . Because there ’s no limit on how many figure a appendage can upload and unexampled phallus arrive at Facebook every day , this number will belike continue to rise exponentially .
Since June 2007 , when Facebook first let third - party developers to create applications , developer have debut more than 7,000 programs on the Facebook platform . Every daylight , developer introduce another 100 applications to the site . Facebook estimates that more than 80 percent of all phallus have used at least one third - political party diligence .
Because it is so popular and to a great extent trafficked , Facebook requires massive measure of storage space , both in a digital and physical sense . According to one Facebook employee , the party relies on around 200memcachedserversfor production ( day - to - day mathematical operation of the site ) and a few more for developmental purposes [ beginning : Grimm ] . " Memcached " stand for memory caching , a method acting of temporarily storing data . A memcached server temporarily store information in the server ’s memory , reducing the penury to seek a database for information . This decreases the amount of time it takes between a request for information and the delivery of that datum .
Facebook also uses custom - built server for back - end operations and a monitoring system to keep path of all the server . Servers take up outer space , so Facebook leases adroitness from vendors for host storage . In 2007 , Facebook bless an concord with DuPont Fabros Technology ( DFT ) to lease 10,000 square foot of blank space in an Ashburn , Va. , entrepot center [ root : Data Center Knowledge ] .
So how does Facebook make enough money to shroud its expense ? It generates some taxation by selling World Wide Web advertising infinite , but the majority of its funding do from private investors . harmonise to Facebook , it has get more than $ 40 million in financial support since it launch in 2004 .
To teach more about Facebook and related topic , follow the links on thenext page .
