It's Facebook's 6th birthday today and it's been a very big year. On February 4th, 2004 then 20-year old Mark Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook.com from his Harvard dorm-room.
At this time last year Facebook reported having more than 140 million users. We were awed then that the social network was doubling its membership every 12 months. Since then the numbers have more than doubled and the site may have already passed 400 million users. The world is on Facebook, but just 6 weeks ago the company changed what that meant with a fundamental shift in its privacy policy. Check out these 7 articles below for a big picture of the good and the bad about the incredible phenomenon that is Facebook.
Facebook as living census. Facebook is changing peoples' lives by making it easy to share thoughts and keep in touch. Facebook could change the world by offering us a better picture of ourselves as a society than we've ever had before.
The Big Z puts it all on the table.
We've covered the Facebook privacy debate in and out. Here's a summary of the key points.
It's the question everybody wants to know. Here's our take on it.
Incredible, horrifying story. Fortunately Facebook is taking action to prevent this kind of thing in the future, but an important read none the less.
Days after we put this post up explaining why it could happen, new traffic numbers proved that it already has happened.
Yes, this really is serious stuff. More than 350 million people use Facebook, many every single day. It's a major cultural force.
So Facebook is taking over the world. What do you think about that? Send Facebook some birthday wishes in comments below and let us know what all this means to you.