Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States, corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address.
Facemash, the Facebook’s predecessor, opened on October 28, 2003. Initially, the website was invented by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, and three of his classmates – Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz. Zuckerberg wrote the software for the Facemash website when he was in his second year of college. The website was set up as a type of “hot or not” game for Harvard students. The website allowed visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them choose who was “hot” and who was “not”.
That night, Zuckerberg wrote the following blog entries:
I'm a little intoxicated, not gonna lie. So what if it's not even 10 pm and it's a Tuesday night? What? The Kirkland dormitory facebook is open on my desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.
—9:49 pm
Yea, it's on. I'm not exactly sure how the farm animals are going to fit into this whole thing (you can't really ever be sure with farm animals...), but I like the idea of comparing two people together.
—11:10 pm
Let the hacking begin.
—12:57 am
According to The Harvard Crimson, Facemash "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person". To accomplish this, Mark Zuckerberg hacked the "facebooks" Harvard maintained to help students identify each other and used the images to populate his Facemash website.
Harvard at that time did not have a student directory with photos and basic information, and with the initial site generated 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. That the initial site mirrored people’s physical community—with their real identities—represented the key aspects of what later became Facebook.
"Perhaps Harvard will squelch it for legal reasons without realizing its value as a venture that could possibly be expanded to other schools (maybe even ones with good-looking people...)," Zuckerberg wrote in his personal blog. "But one thing is certain, and it’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually..." The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers. However, the website was shut down by Harvard executives a few days after it opened. Mark Zuckerberg faced charges of violating copyrights, breach of security, and violating individual privacy for stealing the student pictures that he used to populate the website. He later faced expulsion from Harvard University for his actions. However, all the charges were eventually dropped.
Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section. He opened the site up to his classmates and people started sharing their notes. "The professor said it had the best grades of any final he’d ever given. This was my first social hack. With Facebook, I wanted to make something that would make Harvard more open," Zuckerberg said in a TechCrunch interview.
On October 25, 2010, entrepreneur and banker Rahul Jain auctioned off FaceMash.com to an unknown buyer for $30,201.
Facemash, the Facebook’s predecessor, opened on October 28, 2003. Initially, the website was invented by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, and three of his classmates – Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz. Zuckerberg wrote the software for the Facemash website when he was in his second year of college. The website was set up as a type of “hot or not” game for Harvard students. The website allowed visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them choose who was “hot” and who was “not”.
That night, Zuckerberg wrote the following blog entries:
I'm a little intoxicated, not gonna lie. So what if it's not even 10 pm and it's a Tuesday night? What? The Kirkland dormitory facebook is open on my desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.
—9:49 pm
Yea, it's on. I'm not exactly sure how the farm animals are going to fit into this whole thing (you can't really ever be sure with farm animals...), but I like the idea of comparing two people together.
—11:10 pm
Let the hacking begin.
—12:57 am
According to The Harvard Crimson, Facemash "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person". To accomplish this, Mark Zuckerberg hacked the "facebooks" Harvard maintained to help students identify each other and used the images to populate his Facemash website.
Harvard at that time did not have a student directory with photos and basic information, and with the initial site generated 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. That the initial site mirrored people’s physical community—with their real identities—represented the key aspects of what later became Facebook.
"Perhaps Harvard will squelch it for legal reasons without realizing its value as a venture that could possibly be expanded to other schools (maybe even ones with good-looking people...)," Zuckerberg wrote in his personal blog. "But one thing is certain, and it’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually..." The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers. However, the website was shut down by Harvard executives a few days after it opened. Mark Zuckerberg faced charges of violating copyrights, breach of security, and violating individual privacy for stealing the student pictures that he used to populate the website. He later faced expulsion from Harvard University for his actions. However, all the charges were eventually dropped.
Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section. He opened the site up to his classmates and people started sharing their notes. "The professor said it had the best grades of any final he’d ever given. This was my first social hack. With Facebook, I wanted to make something that would make Harvard more open," Zuckerberg said in a TechCrunch interview.
On October 25, 2010, entrepreneur and banker Rahul Jain auctioned off FaceMash.com to an unknown buyer for $30,201.
thefacebook.com / thefacebook.us
In Jan 2004, Level Zuckerberg started composing the value for a new web page, known as 'thefacebook'. He said in an article in The Stanford Violet that he was motivated to make Facebook or myspace from the occurrence of Facemash: "It is obvious that the technological innovation required to make a central Website is easily obtainable ... the advantages are many."[9] On Feb 4, 2004, Zuckerberg released "Thefacebook", originally situated at thefacebook.com.[18] He informed The Violet, "Everyone’s been discussing a lot about a worldwide experience guide within Stanford. I think it’s kind of foolish that it would take the School many years to get around to it as I can do it better than they can, and I can do it weekly."[19] Zuckerberg also his objective to make a worldwide web page that can get in touch with individuals around the university. According to his partner, Dustin Moskovitz, "When Level completed the web page, he informed a number of buddies ... then one of them recommended placing it on the Kirkland House online subscriber list, which was ... three number of individuals." Moskovitz ongoing to say that, “By the end of the night, we were ... definitely viewing the signing up process. Within twenty-four hours, we had somewhere between 12 number of and 15 number of registrants."
Just six days after the release of the web page, three Stanford School elderly people, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, charged Zuckerberg of deliberately deceiving them into knowing that he would help them develop a online community known as HarvardConnection.com, but instead using their idea to develop a competitive product. The three reported to the Violet, and the paper started an research. Zuckerberg realized about the research so he used TheFacebook.com to find associates in the web page who determined themselves as associates of the Violet. He analyzed a record of unsuccessful logins to see if any of the Violet associates have ever signed up with an wrong security password into TheFacebook.com. In the situations in which they had did not sign in, Level tried to use them to accessibility the Violet members' Stanford e-mail options, and he was effective in obtaining two of them. In the end, three Violet associates authorized a court action against Zuckerberg which was later resolved.
Membership was originally limited to learners of Stanford School. Within the first 30 days, more than 50 percent the undergrad inhabitants at Stanford was authorized on the service. Zuckerberg was soon signed up with in the marketing of the web page by Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Phil McCollum (graphic artist), and Frank Gaines. In April 2004, Facebook or myspace extended to Stanford, Mexico, and Yale.[2] This development ongoing when it started out to all Ivy Group and Boston-area educational institutions. It progressively achieved most colleges in North america and the U. s. Declares. Facebook or myspace was integrated during summer time time season of 2004, and the business owner He Parker, who had been informally suggesting Zuckerberg, became the organization's chief executive. In July 2004, Facebook or myspace shifted its platform of functions to Palo Alto, Florida.The company decreased ‘The’ from its name after buying the sector address facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[28] Thefacebook circa 2004 has been cut back in 2013 and is on show at http://www.thefacebook.us/. Customers can sign-up on it with their regular Facebook or myspace consideration.
