The Demise of Facebook… Part 1 of 3
Everyone has seen the Facebook train-wreck a-coming. I’ve been doing a lot of research on Facebook and will now throw my hat into the ring: Facebook needs to shape up, or they’ll lose users with dumb mistakes, just like MySpace.
Facebook started as a social networking website with a clean interface that helped its users [...]
Everyone has seen the Facebook train-wreck a-coming. I’ve been doing a lot of research on Facebook and will now throw my hat into the ring: Facebook needs to shape up, or they’ll lose users with dumb mistakes, just like MySpace.
Facebook started as a social networking website with a clean interface that helped its users navigate efficiently3. Headed by college-dropout2 Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook blossomed into the monstrosity that it is today. Facebook is the host of nearly 58 million profiles, with an expected beyond-60-million-member milestone set for the end of 20071.
Mark ZuckerbergFacebook’s beginning started in February 20043 when Zuckerberg created it to host profiles for Harvard University, where he was then attending. Soon, Zuckerberg opened Facebook to allow any college student with a collegiate email address.
Facebook slowly opened membership to younger audiences. On September 2, 2005, high schools, also subject to exclusivity restrictions, began appearing on Facebook2. No big deal. By February 27, 2007, high-school members were allowed to network with college members1.
Facebook has slowly been opening to more demographics. Now, if you’re alive, older than 13, in school 4 and able to read, you can join Facebook. This greatly enriches the so-called “social graph” a term used by Zuckerberg and Facebook to illustrate the vast amount of connections people make with each other using Facebook3.
Facebook’s success shadowed that of networking behemoth MySpace. Watching MySpace’s failures, especially the “pedophile era” that everyone remembers, was beneficial for Facebook. They quickly learned that privacy, most of all, was the priority, in fact, Facebook’s homepage still touts privacy as a “top 6″ feature.
The Facebook Signup Spiel - Screen captured from Facebook.com
Facebook has had a blessed history. They had a successful beginning, a great run so far, but it’s coming to an end. Part 2 of my three-part series will focus on the social graph’s potential, and how the greed associated with a gigantic community drove Facebook to create Facebook Platform, a way for developers to connect their own application development into Facebook’s gigantic “social graph.”
And so the fun begins.
Citations
- Facebook - From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
- Mark Zuckerberg - From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
- Facebook | Factsheet - From Facebook Press Page
- Terms of Use - From Facebook
About Brad
Brad Kovach is an award-winning web developer from Afton, Wyoming. In his spare time, he enjoys drumming on Rock Band, and playing with this website.
2 Responses to “The Demise of Facebook… Part 1 of 3”
Brad Kovach - The Demise of Facebook: Part 3 of 3
On January 15th, 2008
4:55 pm
[...] Parts One and Two of my series on The Demise of Facebook, I looked at Facebook’s background in general, [...]
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Brad Kovach - The Demise of Facebook… Part 2 of 3
On December 27th, 2007
9:52 pm
[...] Part 1 of The Demise of Facebook, I looked at several facets of Facebook that have helped it become popular. People have always been [...]