>
Facebook is a popular free
social networking website that
allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in
touch with friends, family and colleagues. The site, which is available in 37 different languages,
includes public features such as:
- Marketplace - allows members to post, read and respond to classified ads.
- Groups - allows members who have common interests to find each other and interact.
- Events - allows members to publicize an event, invite guests and track who plans to
attend.
- Pages - allows members to create and promote a public page built around a specific topic.
- Presence technology - allows members to see which contacts are online and chat.
Within each member's personal profile, there are several key networking components. The
most popular is arguably the Wall, which is essentially a virtual bulletin board. Messages left on
a member's Wall can be text, video or photos. Another popular component is the virtual Photo Album.
Photos can be uploaded from the desktop or directly from a
smartphone camera.
There is no limitation on quantity, but Facebook staff will remove inappropriate or copyrighted
images. An interactive album feature allows the member's contacts (who are called generically
called "friends") to comment on each other's photos and identify (tag) people in the photos.
Another popular profile component is status updates, a
microblogging
feature that allows members to broadcast short Twitter-like announcements to their friends. All
interactions are published in a news feed, which is distributed in real-time to the member's
friends.
Facebook offers a range of
privacy options to its
members. A member can make all his communications visible to everyone, he can block specific
connections or he can keep all his communications private. Members can choose whether or not to be
searchable, decide which parts of their profile are public, decide what not to put in their news
feed and determine exactly who can see their posts. For those members who wish to use Facebook to
communicate privately, there is a message feature, which closely resembles email.
In May 2007, Facebook opened up its developers' platform to allow third-party developers to
build applications and
widgets that,
once approved, could be distributed through the Facebook community. In May 2008, Facebook
engineers announced Facebook Connect, a cross-site initiative that allows users to publish
interactions on third-party partner sites in their Facebook news feed.
figar of facebook