Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we're re-publishing some of our best posts of 2011. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2012. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

What is below is a direct transcript with photos from Fetterman's f8 presentation. A few things to note:

Facebook mobile has its backbone in its mobile website. Everything that is built into the native applications actually comes from the mobile Web. Think of the way PhoneGap wraps a browser-based website and that is how Facebook approached the problem. And then some.

HTML5 is the future. The fourth page gets into how all of this history is leading Facebook to a precipice of change with HTML5 and the so-called Project Spartan.

Also note that Fetterman talks fast and occasionally swears. He is the classic Facebook engineer: kind of young, pretty brash and supremely confident. The transcript is as true to his actual words as possible.

Changing Mobile Standards Through The Past Five Years

We took an extreme HTML-based approach to this. So we will go into how we do this so you can learn how HTML5 is the way out of a lot of these problems.

Because, it wasn't really always this way for us. We have had the same mobile problems that you guys have. We are following the same mobile ecosystem that you guys are following to develop for your users.

So, we have the same problems of cross-platform development that you have and we are hoping that you can learn a little bit from us. So, we have been learning to deal with these issues with what we call "FaceWeb" and learning a new opportunity to get out of this that is emerging as we speak called HTML5.

So, in 2006, building a mobile presence meant that you had a WAP deck that was based on an HTML application with SMS and all of that. But, as you all know, mobile changed fundamentally in 2007. What happened then?

[Crowd] - The iPhone.

The iPhone! Great. What else happened in 2007, perhaps unveiling in the room that you are sitting in right now?

[Crowd] - The Platform.

Yes, the Facebook Platform API. So, what changed for us is that we had to develop a second user experience for the iPhone. A computer in your pocket that no longer sucked. So, it could have Javascript, a CSS and a really rich interaction model. In addition there was Facebook for BlackBerry, Facebook for Windows phone, for Nokia, for Samsung, for everyone now available through the Facebook API.

How about 2008? What was the big thing that happened in 2008?

[Crowd] - Ummm ... Android?

I will pretend that I heard the iPhone App Store. What most developers don't realize is that the first version of the iPhone, you could build websites but the App Store was not available to later. So, in 2008, the App Store enables us to build Facebook for iPhone. The flagship, the vanguard, the best substantiation of Facebook. Based off the API, the same way that you guys are building apps off the API now.

In 2009, what changed in 2009?

[Crowd] Ummm ... Android?

Android, yes. I will pretend that I heard Android. Android was the new player in 2009 and really started taking off. So, all of a sudden we have all of these users on all these devices using Facebook mobile in the wide rainbow of lovely different experiences across Android, iPhone, Windows, the Web. That was great from a user perspective. What sucks? The environment for my developers, essentially. You have the bad old days. You have four different platforms to build for something essentially. You want to build for all of those groups? You are going to have to build the sucker four times. Then there are all of the features - groups, deals, the new profile. All of this stuff and the matrix got really bad. So, we have to build things four times which means that the code gets slow. The code gets old. There are different versions of parity and things just don't work together which makes it extremely difficult for a fast moving company like Facebook.

Next page: Fetterman describes how Facebook reconciled M.Sites and Touch