Facebook (formerly [thefacebook]) is an online social networking service. Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to students at some American universities. Facebook was founded in 2004. The founders had initially limited the website’s membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities and later to their high-school students. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old worldwide to become a registered user of the website, although proof is not required.
Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, post status updates and photos, and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Facebook had over one billion active users as of September 2012 (of which approximately 9% were fake). Facebook held its initial public offering in 2012 and reached a peak market capitalization of $104 billion.
Video app Vine celebrated its second anniversary Saturday, prompting product head Jason Toff to share new metrics. The company is now seeing 1.5 billion loops, or plays, a day of its… Read more »
Facebook is serious about spreading its service to people in countries without fast cellular networks or cutting-edge smartphones. Its new Android app, Facebook Lite, which isn’t available in the United States… Read more »
In countless movies that depict our future digital lives, larger-than-life dashboards loom, delivering whatever information you seek at the touch of a screen. Every data point is visually compelling, easily digestible,… Read more »
Creating web content is incredibly easy — but filtering content is really hard. In late 2014, I realized I was reading too much bad content. I felt enraged by some of… Read more »
I don’t think Microsoft is going to make real inroads in the mobile device market, but in other markets the company is finally making solid moves. Last week, Nadella’s Microsoft finally… Read more »
After leaving the Huffington Post, former CTO Paul Berry built a social-content management platform called RebelMouse to help media make their content more viral — and now RebelMouse wants to help… Read more »
“Is Ford cool?” asked a curt tech reporter during the auto company’s grand opening of its new computing-focused Silicon Valley center in Palo Alto, California on Thursday. The reporter likely meant:… Read more »
Product Hunt’s happy hour starts in 20 minutes, and the line stretches far down the street. As I stroll through Geary, blocks from the bar, I’m convinced the crowds must be gathering… Read more »
Four U.K. Lords have proposed amendments to an anti-terror bill that would revive much of the dormant Communications Data Bill, a.k.a the “Snooper’s Charter”. In particular, the amendments would let British authorities… Read more »
WhatsApp is now capturing a good deal of the world’s texting traffic, so an Italian company figured it was time to create a WhatsApp data plan for the world. The people… Read more »