Jump to content

List of Facebook features: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Pokes: removed "teabagging" reference - uncited, unverified, untrue
Line 65: Line 65:


===Chat===
===Chat===
On [[April 5]], [[2008]], Facebook pre-released Facebook [[Online chat|Chat]].<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-03-15|url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/06/facebook-chat-enters-pre-release-beta/|title=Facebook Chat at TechCrunch |publisher=[[Facebook]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-03-15|url=http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=713|title=Facebook Chat at Facebook's support sites |publisher=[[Facebook]] }}</ref> As of [[April 23]], [[2008]], Facebook Chat was released to the entire Facebook user base. Users are only able to chat with their Facebook friends and on a one-to-one basis. Instant messaging clients that currently support Facebook Chat include [[Digsby]], [http://www.faceoffim.com/ faceoffIM], [[Adium]], [[Palringo]] (Windows Mobile), and [[Scrapboy]], [[Tokbox]] with a [[Firefox]] plugin as well as [[Pidgin (software)|Pidgin]] with a cross-platform plug-in. Facebook Chat can also be run on the desktop using Gabtastik, a dedicated web chat browser. On [[May 13]], [[2008]], a Facebook developer announced that they are working on [[XMPP]] support, allowing [[List of Jabber client software|hundreds of instant messaging clients]] to interoperate with the service.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-14|url=http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=110|title=Using Facebook Chat via Jabber |publisher=[[David Reiss]] }}</ref>
On [[April 5]], [[2008]], Facebook pre-released Facebook [[Online chat|Chat]].<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-03-15|url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/06/facebook-chat-enters-pre-release-beta/|title=Facebook Chat at TechCrunch |publisher=[[Facebook]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-03-15|url=http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=713|title=Facebook Chat at Facebook's support sites |publisher=[[Facebook]] }}</ref> As of [[April 23]], [[2008]], Facebook Chat was released to the entire Facebook user base. Users are only able to chat with their Facebook friends and on a one-to-one basis. Instant messaging clients that currently support Facebook Chat include [[Digsby]], [http://www.faceoffim.com/ faceoffIM], [[Adium]],[http://www.mosko.mobi/ Fim] (Windows Mobile), [[Palringo]] (Windows Mobile), and [[Scrapboy]], [[Tokbox]] with a [[Firefox]] plugin as well as [[Pidgin (software)|Pidgin]] with a cross-platform plug-in. Facebook Chat can also be run on the desktop using Gabtastik, a dedicated web chat browser. On [[May 13]], [[2008]], a Facebook developer announced that they are working on [[XMPP]] support, allowing [[List of Jabber client software|hundreds of instant messaging clients]] to interoperate with the service.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-14|url=http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=110|title=Using Facebook Chat via Jabber |publisher=[[David Reiss]] }}</ref>


=== Public Profiles ===
=== Public Profiles ===

Revision as of 21:10, 14 May 2009

Main article: Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website. This is a list of features that can be found on the website. Basic features include friend networking with others and posting on a "wall".

Features

News Feed

On 6 September 2006, Ruchi Sanghvi announced a new home page feature called News Feed.[1] Originally, when users logged into Facebook, they were presented with a customizable version of their own profile. The new layout, by contrast, created an alternate home page in which users saw a constantly updated list of their friends' Facebook activity. News Feed highlights information that includes profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays, among other updates. News Feed also shows conversations taking place between the walls of a user's friends. An integral part of the News Feed interface is the Mini-Feed, a news stream on the user's profile page that shows updates about that user. Unlike in the News Feed, the user can delete events from the Mini-Feed after they appear so that they are no longer visible to profile visitors.

Initially, the addition of the News Feed caused some discontent among Facebook users. Many users complained that the News Feed was too cluttered and full of undesired information. Others were concerned that the News Feed made it too easy for other people to track activities like changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users.[2] In response to this dissatisfaction, creator Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Thereafter, users were able to control what types of information were shared automatically with friends.[3] Currently, users may prevent friends from seeing updates about several types of especially private activities, although other events are not customizable in this way.

With the introduction of the "New Facebook" - a total redesign of the pages and the implementation of several new features - News Feeds were changed. On their personal Feeds (now integrated with Walls), users were given the option of removing updates from any application as well as choosing the size they show up on the page. Furthermore, the community feed (containing recent actions by the user's friends) contained options to instantly select whether to hear more or less about certain friends or applications.[4]

Wall

The Wall is a space on each user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see while displaying the time and date the message was written. One user's wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see his or her full profile, and different users' wall posts show up in an individual's News Feed. Many users use their friends' walls for leaving short, temporal notes. More private discourse is saved for Messages, which are sent to a person's inbox, and are visible only to the sender and recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.

In July 2007, Facebook allowed users to post attachments to the wall,[5] whereas previously the wall was limited to text content only. In May 2008, the Wall-to-Wall for each profile was limited to only 40 posts.

Photos

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums of photos, tag friends, and comment on photos. According to Facebook,[6] there are

  • 1.7 billion user photos
  • 2.2 billion friends tagged in user photos
  • 160 terabytes of photo storage used with an extra 60 terabytes available
  • 60+ million photos added each week which take up 5 terabytes of disk space
  • 3+ billion photo images served to users every day
  • 100,000+ images served per second during peak traffic windows

Notes

Facebook Notes was introduced on 22 August 2006, a blogging feature that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.[7]

A recent use of Notes includes the Internet meme - "25 Random Things About Me" which involves writing 25 things about the user that their friends don't already know about them and using the tag function to ask 25 friends to also do so. Nearly 5 million "25 Random Things" notes were written on Facebook profiles in the first week of February 2009. [8]

Gifts

File:Facebook gifts.png
Some of Facebook's gifts, as displayed in the website's gift shop.

In February 2007, Facebook added a new gift feature to the website. Friends could send gifts - small icons of novelty items designed by former Apple designer Susan Kare - to each other by selecting one from Facebook's virtual gift shop and adding a message. Gifts given to a user appear on the recipient's wall with the giver's message, unless the giver decided to give the gift privately, in which case the giver's name and message is not displayed to other users. Additionally, all gifts (including private gifts) received by a user are displayed in the recipient's gift box (right above their wall on their profile), marked with either the first name of the user (for public gifts) or the word "Private." An Anonymous option is also available, by which anyone with profile access can see the gift, but only the recipient sees the message. None will see the giver's name, and the gift goes in the recipient's gift box but not the wall.

Facebook users are given one free gift to give upon registering their account. Each additional gift given by a user costs US$1.00. The initial selection of gifts was Valentine's Day themed, and 50% of the net proceeds (after credit card processing fees were taken out, etc.) received through February 2007 were donated to the charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure. After the month of February, the proceeds were no longer donated. Soon after, Facebook began making one new gift available each day, most of which had a limited supply or were available for a limited time.

On 8 November 2008, Facebook changed the $1.00 per gift model to a micro-payment model of 100 points per $1.00, with the existing gifts costing 100 points. They plan to allow a wider variety of gifts in the future.

With the advent of Applications came a way to subvert the required US$1.00 payment; however, the gifts in the Free Gifts application, created by Zachary Allia,[9] are not the same as the official gifts, as they are displayed in a different manner.

Marketplace

In May 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace allowing users to post free classified ads within the following categories: For Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted in either available or wanted format.[10] The market place is available for all Facebook users and is currently free.[11]

Pokes

The poke feature allows one user to virtually poke another. Some users believe that the poke feature is some sort of Facebook flirting. However, according to Facebook's FAQ section on the feature, "a poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings." In principle, this is intended to be a "nudge" to attract the attention of the other user. However, while many Facebook users, as intended, use the feature to attract attention or say hello,[12] some users[who?] construe it as a sexual advance.

There are several applications on Facebook which extend the idea of the poke feature by allowing users to perform other actions to their friends (such as "kick" or "wave to"). People often reciprocate pokes back and forth until one side gives up, an event known as a "Poke War."

Status

Facebook has a micro-blogging feature called "status updates" which allows users to inform their friends of their current whereabouts, actions, or thoughts. For example "Billy visited Jen," "Sam called Jen," "Matt dated Jen," or "Jen is a total idiot." Facebook originally prompted the status update with "User name is..." and Facebook users filled in the rest. However, on December 13 2007, the requirement to start a status update with "is" was removed. [13]

Status updates are noted in the "Recently updated" section of a user's friend list. Upon the recent facelift in late March, the status update question changed from " What are you doing?" to " What's on your mind?".

Events

Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings.[14] Events require an event name, network, host name, event type, start and end time, location, and a guest list of friends invited. Events can be open, closed, or secret. When setting up an event the user can choose to allow friends to upload photos, video, and posted items.

Networks and groups

Facebook allows different networks and groups to which many users can join. It also allows privacy settings on basis of networks. Groups are used for discussions and events etc. Groups are a way of enabling a number of people to come together online to share information and discuss specific subjects. They are increasingly used by clubs, companies and public sector organizations to engage with stakeholders - be they members of the public, employees, members, service users, shareholders or customers. A group is comprised of but not limited to the following: the members who have joined, recent news contents, discussion board contents, wall contents, photos, posted items, videos and all associated comments of such items.

Video

During the time that Facebook released its platform, it also released an application[15] of its own for sharing videos on Facebook. Users can add their videos with the service by uploading video, adding video through Facebook Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature. Additionally, users can "tag" their friends in videos they add much like the way users can tag their friends in photos. Users also have the option of video messaging. The maximum video length is 20 minutes and the maximum size is 1 GB.

Chat

On April 5, 2008, Facebook pre-released Facebook Chat.[16][17] As of April 23, 2008, Facebook Chat was released to the entire Facebook user base. Users are only able to chat with their Facebook friends and on a one-to-one basis. Instant messaging clients that currently support Facebook Chat include Digsby, faceoffIM, Adium,Fim (Windows Mobile), Palringo (Windows Mobile), and Scrapboy, Tokbox with a Firefox plugin as well as Pidgin with a cross-platform plug-in. Facebook Chat can also be run on the desktop using Gabtastik, a dedicated web chat browser. On May 13, 2008, a Facebook developer announced that they are working on XMPP support, allowing hundreds of instant messaging clients to interoperate with the service.[18]

Public Profiles

Individuals or companies can create "Public Profiles" (Formerly known as "Pages") which allows users to "become a fan" of the individual, product, service, or concept. Public Profiles look and behave much like a user's personal private profile, with some significant differences. Public Profiles are integrated with Facebook's advertising system, allowing Public Profile owners to easily advertise to Facebook's users. Owners can send updates to their fans, which shows up on their home page. They also have access to insights and analytics of their fan base.[19]

Platform applications

On May 24 2007, Facebook launched the Facebook Platform,[20] which provides a framework for third party developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. Even games such as chess are available. As of January 31 2008, there are more than 14,000 applications.[21]

Third-party websites such as Adonomics, which provides application metrics, and blogs such as AppRate, Inside Facebook and Face Reviews have sprung up in response to the clamor for Facebook applications. On July 4 2007, Altura Ventures announced the "Altura 1 Facebook Investment Fund," becoming the world's first Facebook-only venture capital firm.[22]

On August 29 2007, Facebook changed the way in which the popularity of applications is measured, to give attention to the more engaging applications, following criticism that ranking applications only by the number of users was giving an advantage to the highly viral, yet useless applications.[23] Tech blog Valleywag has criticized Facebook Applications, labeling them a "cornucopia of uselessness."[24] Others have called for limiting third-party applications so the Facebook "user experience" is not degraded.[25][26]

Primarily attempting to create viral applications is a method that has certainly been employed by numerous Facebook application developers. Stanford University even offered a class in the Fall of 2007, entitled, Computer Science (CS) 377W: "Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook". Numerous applications created by the class were highly successful, and ranked amongst the top Facebook applications, with some achieving over 3.5 million users in a month.[27]

APIs

Different APIs are available for a third party application including authorizing APIs. Facebook offers "API calls" to third party to access Facebook information, and Facebook Query Language (FQL) functions to fetch data.[28] Other than fetching user data, APIs for access to Facebook core features like notifications, invites, feeds and adding profile boxes available.

Facebook Markup Language

Facebook Markup Language ("FBML") is a variant-evolved subset of HTML with some elements removed. It allows Facebook Application developers to customise the "look and feel" of their applications, to a limited extent. It is the specification of how to encode content so that Facebook's servers can read and publish it, which is needed in the Facebook-specific feed so that Facebook's system can properly parse content and publish it as specified.[29] FBML set by any application is cached by Facebook until a subsequent API call replaces it.

Facebook also offers specialised Facebook Javascript (FBJS) and library.[28]

Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect was announced on 23 July 2008 at Facebook's annual conference for developers and made available to users on 4 December 2008 [30]. A single sign-on service that competes with OpenID[31], the service enables Facebook users to login to affiliated sites using their Facebook account and share information from such sites with their Facebook friends.[32]

See also

References

  1. ^ Sanghvi, Ruchi (2006-09-06). "Facebook Gets a Facelift". The Facebook Blog. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  2. ^ Zuckerberg, Mark (2006-09-06). "Calm down. Breathe. We hear you". The Facebook Blog. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  3. ^ Zuckerberg, Mark (2006-09-08). "An Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg". The Facebook Blog. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  4. ^ "Feed - Facebook Developers Wiki".
  5. ^ Der, Kevin. "Facebook is off-the-wall". Retrieved 2007-07-30.
  6. ^ "The Facebook Bifts". facebook.com. Retrieved 2008-03-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ Abram, Carolyn (2006-09-26). "Welcome to Facebook, everyone". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  8. ^ Quenqua, Douglas (2009-02-4). "Ah, Yes, More About Me? Here Are '25 Random Things'". NY Times.com. Retrieved 2009-02-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "facebook gifts". insidefacebook.com. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  10. ^ "Facebook Adds Marketplace of Classified Ads". 2007-05-12. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  11. ^ "Marketplace". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  12. ^ Arrington, J. Michael (2005-09-07). "85% of College Students use FaceBook". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  13. ^ "Facebook is... reconsidering the word "is"". Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  14. ^ "Events". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  15. ^ Cashmore, Pete (2007-05-24). "Facebook Video Launches: YouTube Beware!". Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  16. ^ "Facebook Chat at TechCrunch". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  17. ^ "Facebook Chat at Facebook's support sites". Facebook. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  18. ^ "Using Facebook Chat via Jabber". David Reiss. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  19. ^ Facebook. "Facebook Pages". {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  20. ^ "Facebook Platform Launches". Facebook. 2007-05-27. Retrieved 2007-09-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Facebook. "Application Directory". Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  22. ^ "Altura Ventures news". Altura Ventures. 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2007-09-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Morin, Dave (2007-08-29). "A shift to engagement". Facebook. Retrieved 2007-08-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "Can a Facebook app possibly be useful?". Valleywag.com. 2005-09-26. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Timmons, Zack (2007-12-03). "Useless applications plague Facebook". The Lantern. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  26. ^ Lee, Tim (2007-11-30). "Irritating Your Customers Is Almost Never A Good Business Strategy". Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  27. ^ Kamil Dada (2007-11-30). "Kamil Dada from Stanford University explains the success of Facebook applications developed in a class at Stanford University". Retrieved 2007-12-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ a b "Facebook developers wiki".
  29. ^ "Facebook Markup Language - A "Reverse API"" (Press release). Mashery. 2007-05-26.
  30. ^ http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=174
  31. ^ http://www.techcrunchit.com/2008/10/22/facebook-connect-and-openid-relationship-status-%E2%80%9Cit%E2%80%99s-complicated%E2%80%9D/
  32. ^ New Tool From Facebook Extends Its Web Presence - NYTimes.com

{{Facebook}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Facebook_features&oldid=289962187"