Related topics: social networking , twitter , myspace , social networking sites , google



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Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of a book given to incoming students at Zuckerberg's high school alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy. The book shows the faces and names of the school's students and faculty.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 250 million active users worldwide.

Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria, China and Iran, although Iran later unblocked Facebook in 2009. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's former classmates, who claim that Facebook had stolen their source code and other intellectual property.

A February 2009 Compete.com study has ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace.

For more information about Facebook, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with facebook

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AOL integrates Facebook chat with AIM

Technology / Internet

created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- As part of an ongoing effort to improve its user experience, Internet company AOL Inc. is letting users of its AIM instant-messaging service chat with friends on Facebook.


Handling emergencies online

Technology / Internet

created 17 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Online social networking sites could solve many problems plaguing information dissemination and communications when disaster strikes, according to a report from US researchers in a recent issue of the International Journal of ...


GMail logo

Google gives Gmail social-networking 'Buzz' (Update)

Technology / Internet

created 23 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Google is giving its free email service a "Buzz" by adding social-networking features which could challenge the supremacy of platforms like Facebook and Twitter.


MySpace Music experiments with audio ads

Technology / Internet

created Feb 08, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Hoping to boost revenue, MySpace Music has begun experimenting with audio advertisements that users must hear before listening to music for free online.


Microsoft's Roger Wong (2nd R) demonstrates maps using Bing

Facebook gets more Bing -- and control of display ads

Technology / Internet

created Feb 05, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Microsoft said Friday that Bing will power Internet searches for Facebook's 400 million members in an arrangement that returns control of display advertising to the social-networking service.


An Australian nun is spreading the message of saint-in-waiting Mary MacKillop on Twitter

Australian saint-to-be tweets from beyond the grave

Technology / Internet

created Feb 05, 2010 | popularity 1.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0

An Australian nun has taken to Twitter on behalf of saint-in-waiting Mary MacKillop, bringing the late sister's messages of hope and forgiveness to a new audience a century after she died.


Facebook marked its sixth birthday on Thursday

Facebook marks sixth birthday with new home page

Technology / Internet

created Feb 05, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Facebook marked its sixth birthday by simplifying its home page and holding an all-night "hackathon" to craft new software for the social networking website.


New Motorola Android phone on Verizon: the Devour (AP)

New Motorola Android phone on Verizon: the Devour

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Feb 03, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Verizon Wireless has a second handset from Motorola Inc. that uses Google Inc.'s Android software: The Devour.


Data defenders: Researchers try to ward off increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks

Data defenders: Researchers try to ward off increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cyber attackers were busy last year. In July, a coordinated "denial of service" assault was launched on computers at the White House, Federal Trade Commission and departments of Treasury, ...


Senator seeks information on tech firms in China

Technology / Other

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

(AP) -- A top Senate Democrat is asking 30 leading technology, Internet and communications companies to provide detailed descriptions of their operations and human rights practices in China.


Use of Twitter, Facebook rising among gang members

Technology / Internet

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a police informant.


A "Social Security" investigation revealed an "explosion" of spam messages targeting users of social networks

'Alarming' rise in cyberattacks at social networks: Sophos

Technology / Internet

created Feb 01, 2010 | popularity 1.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

There has been an "alarming" rise in spammers and hackers hunting for victims at online social networks, according to a report released Monday by computer security firm Sophos.


European legislation covering the protection of private data is being dragged into the digital age

Rewriting European privacy law for digital age

Technology / Internet

created Jan 31, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

European legislation covering the protection of private data is being dragged into the digital age in a potential threat for social networking sites like Facebook where users display foibles, often without ...


Canada privacy office launches new Facebook probe

Technology / Internet

created Jan 27, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Canada's privacy commissioner is once again probing Facebook over the online social network's privacy policies.


Facebook friends

After 150, Facebook friends are meaningless

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jan 27, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (19) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

(PhysOrg.com) -- According to Oxford University's professor of evolutionary anthropology, Robin Dunbar, after you have amassed 150 friends on Facebook, any more are meaningless because the human brain can ...