Facebook, by some measurements the most popular social network with 175 million active users worldwide, is one of the fastest-growing and best-known sites on the Internet today. The company, founded in 2004 by a Harvard sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, began life catering first to Harvard students and then to all high school and college students. It has since evolved into a broadly popular online destination used by both teenagers and adults of all ages.
Like other social networks, the site allows its users to create a profile page and forge online links with friends and contacts. It has distinguished itself from rivals, partly by imposing a Spartan design ethos and limiting how users can change the appearance of their profile pages (Armstrong, 2006). That has cut down on visual clutter and threats like spam, which plague rival social networks. In May 2007, Facebook unveiled an initiative called Facebook Platform, inviting third-party software makers to create programs for the service and to make money on advertising alongside them (Wilber, 2008). The announcement stimulated the creation of hundreds of new features or "social applications" on Facebook, from games to new music and photo sharing tools, which had the effect of further turbo-charging activity on the site (Wilber, 2008).
As a result, estimates of Facebook's valuation soared during the summer of 2007. In October, Microsoft outbid its archrival Google to invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, which valued the company at a startlingly rich $15 billion (Armstrong, 2006).
Just like every other social network, Facebook has something called ‘groups.’ Users can create new ones or join and participate in existing ones. This is also displayed in their profile and is a good indication of hobbies and interests a person might have. There are two kinds of groups, a normal group and a secret group, which isn’t shown on the profile. A normal group is just like any other, but users can also create and invite others into secret groups. These can be used for collaborating on university projects, and provide a way to have closed discussions. According to Wilber (2008), about 80% of the groups are ‘fun-related’ and companies can even sponsor groups - as is the case with, for example, the Apple users group.
Armstrong, Z. (2006). Why people use Facebook, and how they use Facebook. Retrieved May 22, 2009 form www.findarticle.com
Wilbert, F. (2008). Facebook compared with other social networks. Retrieved May 22, 2009 from www.findarticle.com/facebook23/43
Melita,
ReplyDeleteNice Job!!!
I found your analysis to clearly state the population of interest. I particularly appreciated the operation definition supplied in your writing for the Face book Platform. Not every reader is “tech-savvy”, even with the social networks we access regularly!
Finally, I found your examination enlightening to the variables of interest this type of website can be used for. I personally was not aware that secret groups existed on Face book!
What a great way to collaborate!
~ Jo
I didn't really realize how similar Facebook and all these other blog sites were. I really learned something new from reading your blog. I think you handle getting the right information in your blog to tell us what we needed to know. Thanks for your time.
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