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| company_name = Smartwaiver
| company_name = Smartwaiver
| company_type = [[Privately held company|Private]]
| company_type = [[Privately held company|Private]]
| foundation = ({{Start date|2004}})
| foundation = ({{Start date|2012|06}})
| location = [[Bend, Oregon|Bend]], [[Oregon]], U.S.
| location = [[Bend, Oregon|Bend]], [[Oregon]], U.S.
| area_served = Worldwide
| area_served = Worldwide
| founder(s) = {{Unbulleted list|Andy Laakmann|Mark Silliman}}
| founder(s) = {{Unbulleted list|Andy Laakmann|Mark Silliman}}
| industry = [[Internet]]
| industry = [[Internet]]
| url = {{URL|smartwaiver.com}}
| url = {{URL|Smartwaiver.com}}
| launch_date = {{Start date|2004|06}}
| launch_date = {{Start date|2012|06}}
| current_status = Active
| current_status = Active
</div>
</div>
}}
}}
'''Smartwaiver''' is a privately held software company that offers online liability waiver software for businesses. Its aim is to digitize the paper liability waiver signing process.
{| class="infobox" style="width: 9em;"
|+ Facebook
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[History of Facebook|History]]'''
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[Timeline of Facebook|Timeline]]'''
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[Facebook statistics|Statistics]]'''
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[List of mergers and acquisitions by Facebook|Acquisitions]]'''
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[Criticism of Facebook|Criticism]]'''
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''[[Facebook features|Features]]'''
|}
[[File:Ad-tech London 2010 (5).JPG|thumb|Facebook on the Ad-tech 2010]]
'''Facebook''' is an online [[social networking service]], whose name stems from the [[Facebook (directory)|colloquial name for the book]] given to students at the start of the academic year by some university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other.<ref name="Growth">{{Cite news |accessdate =December 19, 2008 |url=http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-in-better-position-to-make-money/ |title=2008 Growth Puts Facebook In Better Position to Make Money |work=VentureBeat |location =San Francisco |date=December 18, 2008 |author=Eldon, Eric}}</ref> It was founded in February 2004 by [[Mark Zuckerberg]] with his college roommates and fellow [[Harvard University]] students [[Eduardo Saverin]], [[Andrew McCollum]], [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and [[Chris Hughes]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3#we-can-talk-about-that-after-i-get-all-the-basic-functionality-up-tomorrow-night-1 |title=At Last&nbsp;– The Full Story Of How Facebook Was Founded |work=Business Insider |first=Nicholas |last=Carlson |date=March 5, 2010}}</ref> 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 [[Stanford University]]. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows any users who declare themselves to be at least 13 years old to become registered users of the site.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/help/parents|title=Information For Parents and Educators|accessdate=November 22, 2011}}</ref>

Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a [[User profile|personal profile]], add other users as [[friending|friends]], and exchange messages, including automatic notifications<!-- of whom? --> when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". As of September 2012, Facebook has over [[List of virtual communities with more than 100 million active users|one billion active]] users,<ref>{{cite news|title=Facebook Tops Billion-User Mark|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443635404578036164027386112.html|date=October 4, 2012|work=The Wall Street Journal|publisher=Dow Jones|accessdate=October 4, 2012}}</ref> of which 8.7% are fake.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Facebook: About 83 million accounts are fake
|publisher=[[USA Today]]
|url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-08-03/cnbc-facebook-fake-accounts/56759964/1
|accessdate=2012-08-04}}</ref> According to a May 2011 ''[[Consumer Reports]]'' survey, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts and 5 million under 10, violating the site's terms of service.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2011/05/five-million-facebook-users-are-10-or-younger.html |title=Five million Facebook users are 10 or younger |work= ConsumerReports.org |date=May 10, 2011 |accessdate =May 15, 2011}}</ref>

In May 2005, Accel partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and [[Jim Breyer]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/47387334/Jim_Breyer_via_Accel_Partners |title= Accel partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook |date=Dec 29, 2012}}</ref> added $1 million of his own money to the pot. A January 2009 [[Compete.com]] study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.<ref name=Kazeniac>{{Cite news |author=Kazeniac, Andy |title=Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs |url=http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/09/facebook-myspace-twitter-social-network/ |date=February 9, 2009 |work =Compete Pulse blog |accessdate=February 17, 2009}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of [[Lexulous|Scrabulous]] before Facebook?"<ref>{{Cite news |author=Geier, Thom |coauthors=Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; ''et al.'' |date=December 11, 2009 |title=THE 100 Greatest Movies, TV Shows, Albums, Books, Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music Videos, and Trends that entertained us over the 10 Years |work=Entertainment Weekly | location = New York |issue=(1079/1080):74–84}}</ref> Facebook eventually filed for an [[initial public offering]] on February 1, 2012, and was headquartered in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], [[California]].<ref name="sec.gov">{{cite web | url=http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AFB&fstype=ii&ei=000LUahGxqaVBfunAQ | title=Facebook, Inc. Financial Statements | publisher=Securities and Exchange Commission | date=February 1, 2013 | accessdate=February 1, 2013 | author=SEC}}</ref> Facebook Inc. began selling stock to the public and trading on the [[NASDAQ]] on May 18, 2012.<ref>[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Facebook-CEOs-big-birthday-gift-100bn/articleshow/13131192.cms/ Facebook CEO's big birthday gift: $100bn]{{dead link|date=April 2013}}</ref> Based on its 2012 income of USD 5.1 Billion, Facebook joined the [[Fortune 500]] list for the first time, being placed at position of 462 on the list published in May of 2013.<ref>{{cite web|author=Post to Facebook |url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/06/facebook-fortune-500-2013/2139223/ |title=Facebook squeaks onto the Fortune 500 |publisher=Usatoday.com |date=2013-05-06 |accessdate=2013-05-19}}</ref>


==History==
==History==
{{Main|History of Facebook|Timeline of Facebook}}
=== Pre-IPO ===
Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending [[Harvard University|Harvard]] as a [[sophomore]]. According to ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'', the site was comparable to [[Hot or Not]], and "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"<ref name="autogenerated2007"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=357292 |title=Hundreds Register for New Facebook Website |first=Alan J. |last=Tabak |date=February 9, 2004 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |location =Cambridge, MA |accessdate=November 7, 2008 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20050403215543/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=357292 |archivedate=April 3, 2005}}</ref>


Smartwaiver was founded in 2012 by former [[Webshots]] co-founder, Andy Laakmann, and the founder of Spadout, Mark Silliman. The [[National Football League|NFL]] used Smartwaiver during the [[National Football League Experience|NFL Experience]] at [[Super Bowl XLVI|SuperBowl XLVI]], collecting over 200,000 digital waivers in three days.<ref name="Bend startup gets tech ticket to Super Bowl"/>{{cite AV media |url = http://www.ktvz.com/news/Bend-startup-gets-tech-ticket-to-Super-Bowl/-/413192/18347108/-/12up7cfz/-/index.html |date = January 30, 2013 |title = Bend startup gets tech ticket to Super Bowl |medium = News Video |publisher = KTVZ |time= 0:30}} Smartwaiver is headquartered in Bend, Oregon and has 7 employees.
[[File:MarkZuckerberg.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Mark Zuckerberg]] co-created Facebook in his [[Harvard University|Harvard]] dorm room.]]


===Features===
To accomplish this, Zuckerberg [[Hacker (computer security)|hacked]] into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied the houses' private dormitory [[Identity document|ID]] images. Harvard at that time did not have a student "[[Facebook (directory)|facebook]]" (a directory with photos and basic information), though individual houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.<ref name="autogenerated2007">{{Cite news |author=Locke, Laura |url= http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1644040,00.html |title= The Future of Facebook |newspaper =Time |location =New York |date= July 17, 2007 |accessdate=November 13, 2009}}</ref><ref name="fastcompany.com">{{cite news |author= McGirt, Ellen |url= http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_features-hacker-dropout-ceo.html |title= Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Hacker. Dropout. CEO |work= Fast Company |location =New York |date=May 1, 2007 |accessdate=November 5, 2009}}</ref>
The company has created numerous applications that convert the process of signing paper liability waivers into an interactive, digital process. Patent pending technology from Smartwaiver includes Auto Photo Capture, an application that automatically takes photos of participants while signing a digital liability waiver and attaches the individual’s photo to the signed copy of the digital liability waiver.


==External Links==
The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating [[copyright]]s, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.<ref name="facemash survives">{{cite news |accessdate=February 5, 2009 |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=350143 |title= Facemash Creator Survives Ad Board |work=The Harvard Crimson |location =Cambridge, MA |date=November 19, 2003 |author=Kaplan, Katherine}}</ref> Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an [[art history]] final, by uploading 500 [[History of Rome|Augustan]] images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section.<ref name="fastcompany.com"/> He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.
{{Official website|www.smarwaiver.com}}
{{Riding Crest of a Waive|http://www.cascadebusnews.com/news-pages/business-a-industry/2877-riding-crest-of-a-waive}}
{{NFL Experience|http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/47/events/nfl-experience}}


[[Category:Companies based in Bend, Oregon]]
The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He was inspired, he said, by an editorial in ''The Harvard Crimson'' about the Facemash incident.<ref name="Hoffman, Claire">{{Cite news |accessdate=February 5, 2009 |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21129674/the_battle_for_facebook/ |title=The Battle for Facebook | newspaper=Rolling Stone | location = New York |date=June 28, 2008 |author=Hoffman, Claire |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080703220456/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21129674/the_battle_for_facebook/ |archivedate = July 3, 2008 |deadurl=yes}}</ref> On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.<ref name="skepticism">{{Cite news|accessdate=April 30, 2008 |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118539991204578084.html?mod=googlenews_wsj |title=Judge Expresses Skepticism About Facebook Lawsuit |work=The Wall Street Journal | location = New York |date=July 25, 2007 |author=Seward, Zachary M. }}</ref>
[[Category:Companies established in 2012]]

Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors, [[Cameron Winklevoss]], [[Tyler Winklevoss]], and [[Divya Narendra]], accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called [[ConnectU|HarvardConnection.com]], while he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.<ref name="zuckerberghacked">{{Cite news |first= Nicolas |last=Carlson |title= In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg Broke Into A Facebook User's Private Email Account |date=March 5, 2010 |url= http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-into-the-harvard-crimson-2010-3 |work=Business Insider |accessdate =March 5, 2010}}</ref> The three complained to the ''Harvard Crimson'', and the newspaper began an investigation. The three later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling.<ref name=nytb>{{Cite news |work=New York Times blog |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/judge-ends-facebooks-feud-with-connectu/index.html |date=June 28, 2008| title=Judge Ends Facebook's Feud With ConnectU |author=Stone, Brad}}</ref> The agreed settlement was for 1.2m shares which were worth $300m at Facebook's IPO.<ref>{{cite web|author=Dominic Rushe |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/02/facebook-ipo-winklevoss-300m-fortune |title=Facebook IPO sees Winklevoss twins heading for $300m fortune |publisher=Guardian |date=2012-02-02 |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>

Membership was initially restricted to students of [[Harvard College]], and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=March 7, 2008 |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia |title= A brief history of Facebook |work=The Guardian |location= London |date=July 25, 2007 |author=Phillips, Sarah}}</ref> Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), [[Andrew McCollum]] (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, [[Columbia University|Columbia]], and Yale.<ref name="timeline">{{Cite press release |accessdate=March 5, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline |title= Company Timeline |publisher=Facebook |date= January 1, 2007}}</ref> It soon opened to the other [[Ivy League]] schools, [[Boston University]], [[New York University]], [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=June 13, 2008 |url=http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/11/facebook-opens-up-cx_rr_0911facebook.html |title=Open Facebook |work=Forbes |location =New York |date= September 11, 2006 |author=Rosmarin, Rachel}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.tuftsdaily.com/2.5541/1.600318 |title= Online network created by Harvard students flourishes |work =[[The Tufts Daily]] |first = Lananh |last= Nguyen |date= April 12, 2004 |location= Medford, MA |accessdate=August 21, 2009}}</ref>

In mid-2004, entrepreneur [[Sean Parker]], who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president.<ref name="NYT_260505">{{Cite news | author=Rosen, Ellen | title = Student's Start-Up Draws Attention and $13&nbsp;Million | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/26/business/26sbiz.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=thefacebook+parker&st=nyt | newspaper=The New York Times | date = May 26, 2005 | accessdate =May 18, 2009 }}</ref> In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to [[Palo Alto, California]].<ref name="timeline" /> It received its first investment later that month from [[PayPal]] co-founder [[Peter Thiel]].<ref name="beware">{{Cite news |accessdate=April 30, 2008 |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/general/beware-facebook/2008/01/18/1200620184398.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 |title=Why you should beware of Facebook |work=The Age |location=Melbourne |date=January 20, 2008}}</ref> The company dropped ''The'' from its name after purchasing the [[domain name]] facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=June 13, 2008|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/facebook_domain_dispute/| title=Facebook wins Manx battle for face-book.com |work =The Register | location = London |date=October 1, 2007|author=Williams, Chris }}|</ref>
{{facebook growth}}

Facebook launched a high-school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Facebook is the go-to Web site for students looking to hook up |work=[[Dayton Daily News]] |location = Ohio |date=August 3, 2006 |author=Dempsey, Laura}}</ref> At that time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=May 13, 2011 |url=http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20080602081817/http://www.forbes.com/security/2007/01/25/myspace-security-identity-tech-security-cx_ll_0124myspaceage.html|title=Why MySpace Doesn't Card |work=Forbes |location =New York |date=January 25, 2007 |author=Lerer, Lisa }}</ref> Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including [[Apple Inc.]] and [[Microsoft]].<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=March 9, 2008 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-09-11/facebook-opening-the-doors-wider |title=Facebook: Opening the Doors Wider |work=BusinessWeek |location = New York |date=September 12, 2006 |author=Lacy, Sarah }}</ref> Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid [[email address]].<ref name="welcome">{{cite web |first=Carolyn |last=Abram |url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2210227130 |accessdate=March 8, 2008 |publisher=The Facebook Blog |title=Welcome to Facebook, everyone | date=September 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name="tos">{{cite web|accessdate=March 5, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/terms.php |title=Terms of Use |publisher=Facebook |date=November 15, 2007}}</ref>

Late in 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages, allowing companies to attract potential customers and tell about themselves. These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned.<ref>{{cite news|title=Enterprise: Facebook, a Marketer's Friend; Site Offers Platform To Tout Products, Interact With Users|last=Richmond|first=Riva|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]|date=27 Nov 2007|page=B4}}</ref>

On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240&nbsp;million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15&nbsp;billion.<ref name="MSPR1">{{Cite press release |url=http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-24FacebookPR.mspx |title=Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance |accessdate=November 8, 2007 |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |date=October 24, 2007 }}</ref> Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international ads on Facebook.<ref name="BW-6Aug08">{{Cite news |url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_33/b4096000952343.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5 |title=Facebook Stock For Sale |accessdate=August 6, 2008 |work=BusinessWeek | location = New York}}</ref> In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in [[Dublin]], Ireland.<ref>{{Cite press release |accessdate=November 30, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=59042 |title=Facebook to Establish International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland |publisher=Facebook |date=October 2, 2008}}</ref> In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/16/tech-facebook-300-million-users.html |title=Facebook 'cash flow positive,' signs 300M users |work=CBC News | location = Toronto |date= September 16, 2009 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref> In November 2010, based on [[SecondMarket]] Inc., an exchange for shares of privately held companies, Facebook's value was $41&nbsp;billion (slightly surpassing [[eBay]]'s) and it became the third largest U.S. Web company after [[Google]] and [[Amazon.com|Amazon]].<ref>{{Cite news | title = Facebook Becomes Third Biggest US Web Company | url = http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/technology/facebook-becomes-third-biggest-us-web-company/406751 | newspaper=The Jakarta Globe | date = November 15, 2010 | first = Brian | last = Womack }}</ref>

Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-dougherty/2010/03/facebook_reaches_top_ranking_i.html |title=Facebook Reaches Top Ranking in US |author=Dougherty, Heather |date= March 15, 2010 |work=Experian Hitwise (blog) }}</ref>

In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook removes approximately 20,000 profiles from the site every day for various infractions, including spam, inappropriate content and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Facebook deletes 20,000 underage profiles daily |url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/facebook-deletes-20000-underage-profiles-daily/146972-11.html| date = March 24, 2011 | accessdate=March 24, 2011 | work=IBN Live | agency=Press Trust of India | location = Noida, Uttar Pradesh}}</ref>

In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former [[Sun Microsystems]] campus in [[Menlo Park, California]].<ref name="parr_ben_facebooks_new_offices_feb_2011">Parr, Ben (February 7, 2011). [http://mashable.com/2011/02/07/facebook-menlo-park-pics/ "These Are Facebook's New Offices &#91;PHOTOS&#93;"]. ''[[Mashable]]'' (New York). Retrieved April 6, 2011.</ref><ref>Brundage, Sandy (February 8, 2011). [http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=8270 "Facebook moving headquarters to Menlo Park: Social-networking giant to move into former Sun/Oracle campus"]. ''The Almanac'' (Menlo Park, CA).</ref>

Release of statistics by [[DoubleClick]] showed that Facebook reached one [[10^12|trillion]] page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website of those tracked by DoubleClick.<ref>{{cite news|last=Titlow|first=John Paul|title=Facebook Hits 1 Trillion Pageviews|url=https://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_hits_1_trillion_pageviews.php|accessdate=November 17, 2011|newspaper=ReadWriteWeb|date=August 24, 2011}}</ref>

According to the Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the second most accessed website in the US (behind Google).<ref>{{cite web |author=Fernandes, Rossi |date=December 31, 2011 |url=http://tech2.in.com/news/web-services/facebook-second-most-accessed-site-behind-google-in-the-us/268862 |title=Facebook second most accessed sit behind Google in the US}}</ref>

In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, an online mobile store which sells applications that connect to Facebook. The store will be available to [[iPhone]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]] and mobile web users.<ref>{{cite news |date=May 10, 2012 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18017379 |title=Facebook app store launches amid mobile revenue worries | work=BBC News}}</ref>

Facebook, Inc. [[Facebook IPO|held an initial public offering]] on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-pricing-20120518,0,3426310.story |title=Stakes are high on Facebook's first day of trading |author=Andrew Tangel and Walter Hamilton |date=17 May 2012 |work=The Los Angeles Times |accessdate=17 May 2012}}{{dead link|date=November 2012}}</ref>

===Initial public offering===
{{main|Facebook IPO}}
[[File:Facebook on Nasdaq.jpeg|upright|thumb|An electronic billboard on the [[Thomson Reuters]] building welcomes Facebook to the Nasdaq.]]Facebook filed their S1 document with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] (SEC) on February 1, 2012. The company filed for a {{US$|link=yes}}5 billion [[initial public offering]] (IPO), making it one of the biggest in tech history and the biggest in Internet history.<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=February 1, 2012 |date=February 1, 2012 |title=Facebook Officially Files for $5 Billion IPO |agency=KeyNoodle
|url=http://www.keynoodle.com/facebook-officially-files-for-5-billion-ipo/}}</ref> Facebook valued its stock at $38 a share, pricing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly public company.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-pricing-20120518,0,3426310.story |title=Stakes are high on Facebook's first day of trading |author=Andrew Tangel and Walter Hamilton |date=17 May 2012 |work=The Los Angeles Times |accessdate=17 May 2012}}</ref> The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third largest in U.S. history.<ref name=NYT517>{{cite web |url=http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/facebook-raises-16-billion-in-i-p-o/?hp |title=Facebook Raises $16 Billion in I.P.O. |author=Evelyn M. Rusli and Peter Eavis |date=May 17, 2012 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=May 17, 2012}}</ref><ref name=USN517>{{cite news |url=http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2012/05/17/questions-and-answers-on-blockbuster-facebook-ipo |title=Questions and answers on blockbuster Facebook IPO |author=Bernard Condon |date=May 17, 2012 |work=U.S. News |agency=Associated Press |accessdate=May 17, 2012}}</ref> The shares began to be traded on May 18, and though the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, it set a new record for trading volume of an IPO, 460 million shares.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120518-710783.html |title=Facebook Sets Record For IPO Trading Volume |date=May 18, 2012 |work=The Wall Street Journal |accessdate=May 18, 2012}}</ref> The first day of trading was marred by numerous technical glitches that prevented orders from going through.<ref name="forbes 2012/05/20">[http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/05/20/tepid-honeymoon-of-facebook-and-nasdaq-does-not-deliver-the-big-bang/ Tepid honeymoon of facebook and nasdaq does not deliver the big bang]. forbes.com</ref> Only the aforementioned technical glitches and artificial support from underwriters prevented the stock price from falling below the IPO price on the first day of trading.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/regulators-probe-banks-role-facebook-ipo-040840829--finance.html Regulators probe banks role Facebook IPO]. news.yahoo.com</ref>

Later, it was revealed that Facebook's lead underwriters, [[Morgan Stanley]] (MS), [[JPMorgan Chase|JP Morgan]] (JPM), and [[Goldman Sachs]] (GS) all cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow.<ref name="yahoo 133648905">[http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/facebook-bankers-secretly-cut-facebook-revenue-estimates-middle-133648905.html Facebook bankers secretly cut facebook revenue estimates middle]. finance.yahoo.com</ref> The stock continued its freefall in subsequent days, closing at 34.03 on May 21 and 31.00 on May 22. A [[trading curb|'circuit breaker']] was used in an attempt to slow down the decline in the stock price.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304019404577420093138995160.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs Another Facebook First: Tripping a Circuit-Breake]. WSJ Online</ref> Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman [[Mary Schapiro]] and [[Financial Industry Regulatory Authority]] (FINRA) Chairman Rick Ketchum called for a review of the circumstances surrounding its troubled initial public offering.<ref name="yahoo 134021024">[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-shares-fall-valuation-doubts-134021024.html Facebook shares fall valuation doubts]. finance.yahoo.com</ref>

Facebooks' IPO is now under investigation and has been compared to [[pump and dump]] schemes.<ref name="forbes 2012/05/20"/><ref name="yahoo 133648905"/><ref name="yahoo 134021024"/><ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/22/BU3K1OLCV5.DTL Facebook IPO underscores shutting out the masses]. sfgate.com</ref> In the meantime, a class-action lawsuit is in the works due to the trading glitches, which led to botched orders.<ref name="yahoo 005837771">[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-finra-review-facebook-issues-005837771.html SEC-FINRA review Facebook issues]. finance.yahoo.com</ref><ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-morgan-stanley-sued-firm-125616633.html Morgan Stanley sued firm]. yahoo.com</ref> Apparently, the glitches prevented a number of investors from selling the stock during the first day of trading while the stock price was falling - forcing them to incur bigger losses when their trades finally went through.

Additional lawsuits have been filed due to allegations that an underwriter for Morgan Stanley selectively revealed adjusted earnings estimates to preferred clients. The remaining underwriters (MS, JPM, GS) and Facebook's CEO and board are also facing litigation.<ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/fury-over-facebook-ipo-grows-lawsuits-mount-150039330.html Fury Over Facebook IPO Grows. Lawsuits Mount]. finance.yahoo.com</ref> It is believed that adjustments to earnings estimates were communicated to the underwriters by a Facebook financial officer, who in turn used the information to cash out on their positions while leaving the general public with overpriced shares.<ref>[http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-heres-the-inside-story-of-what-happened-on-the-facebook-ipo-2012-5?op=1 Heres the inside story of what happened on the Facebook IPO] www.businessinsider.com</ref>

By the end of May 2012, the stock lost over a quarter of its starting value, which led to the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' calling the IPO a "fiasco."<ref>{{cite news | url = http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304821304577436873952633672.html | title = Facebook IPO Facts, Fiction and Flops}}</ref>

=== After IPO ===
On July 2012, Facebook added a [[Same-sex marriage|gay marriage]] icon to its timeline feature.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/facebook-gay-marriage-timeline-icons-couples_n_1643183.html |title=Facebook Adds Gay Marriage Timeline Icons For Same-Sex Couples |publisher=Huffingtonpost.com |date= |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>

On August 23, 2012, Facebook released the much anticipated update to its iOS app, version 5.0. The app, which did not receive positive sentiments from its users, was rebuilt from the ground up; the app no longer uses page views which made it slow in the past but now utilizes code that uses native elements of iOS.<ref>{{cite web|last=Protalinski |first=Emil |url=http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/08/23/facebook-2/ |title=Facebook Launches Native App for iPhone and iPad, Rebuilt From Ground Up |publisher=Thenextweb.com |date=2012-08-23 |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>

On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced their new product ''[[Facebook Graph Search|Graph Search]]'', which provides users with a “precise answer” rather than a link to an answer by leveraging the data already present on its site.<ref>{{cite web|title=Facebook introduces social search feature|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/facebook-introduces-social-search-feature/2013/01/15/599c6f7e-5f3d-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost|publisher=The Washington Post|accessdate=15 January 2013}}</ref> Facebook emphasized that the feature would be "privacy-aware," returning only results from content already shared with the user.<ref>Thomas Claburn, "[http://www.informationweek.com/security/privacy/meet-facebooks-graph-search-tool/240146350 Meet Facebook's Graph Search Tool]" Information Week, January 16, 2013</ref>

The company is subject of a lawsuit by Rembrandt Social Media which is also suing [[AddThis]] for the use of patents belonging to deceased Dutch Programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer which involve the "Like" button.<ref name="BBCLikeButtton">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21411622|title=Facebook sued over 'like' button|publisher=BBC|date=February 11, 2013|accessdate=February 11, 2013}}</ref>

On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled [[Facebook Home|Home]], a user interface layer for Android devices offering heavy integration with the service, for an initial release on April 12, 2013. [[HTC]] also announced a new [[smartphone]] with Home pre-loaded, the [[HTC First]].<ref name=verge-firstlaunch>{{cite web|title=HTC and Facebook announce the First smartphone with AT&T, arriving April 12th for $99.99|url=http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4182302/htc-and-facebook-announce-the-first-smartphone|publisher=The Verge|accessdate=4 April 2013}}</ref>

On April 15, 2013 Facebook teamed up the Attorneys General, announcing it's alliance with the National Association of Attorneys General to help provide teens and parents more information on tools that can help manage profiles on Facebook. The partnership between Facebook and the Attorneys General will take place in 19 states.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/facebook-links-up-with-attorneys-general-in-19-u-s-states-for-teen-online-safety-program/ |title=Facebook Links Up With Attorneys General In 19 U.S. States For Teen Social Networking Safety Program |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2013-04-15 |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>

On April 19, 2013 Facebook officially updated their logo. Facebook's new logo no longer includes the faint blue line at the bottom of their "F" icon. The letter is also pulled closer to the edge of the box.<ref>{{cite web|author=Samantha Murphy |url=http://mashable.com/2013/04/19/facebook-logo-update/ |title=New Facebook Logo Made Official |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2011-11-18 |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>

==Corporate affairs==
===Management===
The ownership percentages of the company, {{As of|2012}} are: Mark Zuckerberg: 28%,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whoownsfacebook.com/#Zuckerberg |title=Facebook's $5bn IPO falls short of expectations |publisher=WhoOwnsFacebook.com |accessdate= Sept 17, 2012}}</ref> [[Accel Partners]]: 10%, [[Digital Sky Technologies]]: 10%,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Facebook's friend in Russia |url=http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/04/facebooks-friend-in-russia/?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin |accessdate=December 18, 2010 |work =Fortune |date=October 4, 2010}}</ref> [[Dustin Moskovitz]]: 6%, [[Eduardo Saverin]]: 5%, [[Sean Parker]]: 4%, [[Peter Thiel]]: 3%, [[Greylock Partners]] and [[Meritech Capital Partners]]: between 1 to 2% each, [[Microsoft]]: 1.3%, [[Li Ka-shing]]: 0.8%, the [[Interpublic Group]]: less than 0.5%. A small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including [[Matt Cohler]], Jeff Rothschild, [[Adam D'Angelo]], Chris Hughes, and [[Owen Van Natta]], while [[Reid Hoffman]] and [[Mark Pincus]] have sizable holdings of the company. The remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, an undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Facebook effect: the inside story of the company that is connecting the world |author= Kirkpatrick, David |url= http://books.google.com/?id=RRUkLhyGZVgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Facebook+Effect#v=onepage&q=outside%20investors&f=false |isbn=978-1-4391-0980-9 |publisher =Simon & Schuster |location =New York |year=2010}}</ref> [[Adam D'Angelo]], former chief technology officer and friend of Zuckerberg, resigned in May 2008. Reports claimed that he and Zuckerberg began quarreling, and that he was no longer interested in partial ownership of the company.<ref>{{Cite news |title=As Facebook goes corporate, Mark Zuckerberg loses an early player |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9941488-36.html| work =[[CNET.com]] |date=May 11, 2008 |last=McCarthy |first=Caroline |accessdate=July 12, 2010}}</ref>

Key management personnel comprise [[Chris Cox (Facebook)|Chris Cox]] (VP of Product), [[Sheryl Sandberg]] (COO), and Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and CEO). {{As of|2011|4|df=US}}, Facebook has over 2,000 employees, and offices in 15 countries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Facebook Factsheet|url=http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet |accessdate=April 10, 2011}}</ref> Other managers include chief financial officer David Ebersman and public relations head [[Elliot Schrage]].<ref>[[Michael Wolff (journalist)|Wolff, Michael]], [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/01/facebook-ipo-billion-user-ambition "The Facebook IPO: billion-user ambition at a $1bn price"], ''The Guardian'', February 1, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-01.</ref>

===Revenue===
Most of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising.<ref>{{cite web|author=January 17, 2011 by Jolie O'Dell 203 |url=http://mashable.com/2011/01/17/facebooks-ad-revenue-hit-1-86b-for-2010/ |title=Facebook's Ad Revenue Hit $1.86B for 2010 |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2011-01-17 |accessdate=2011-12-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Womack |first=Brian |url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-20/facebook-revenue-will-reach-4-27-billion-emarketer-says-1-.html |title=Facebook Revenue Will Reach $4.27 Billion, EMarketer Says |publisher=Bloomberg |date=2011-09-20 |accessdate=2011-12-21}}</ref>
{{Facebook revenue}}

Facebook generally has a lower [[clickthrough rate]] (CTR) for advertisements than most major Web sites. According to BusinessWeek.com, banner advertisements on Facebook have generally received one-fifth the number of clicks compared to those on the Web as a whole,<ref>{{cite web |accessdate= July 18, 2010 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071128_366355_page_2.htm |title= Facebook May Revamp Beacon |work=BusinessWeek |location =New York |date=November 28, 2007}}</ref> although specific comparisons can reveal a much larger disparity. For example, while [[Google]] users click on the first advertisement for search results an average of 8% of the time (80,000 clicks for every one million searches),<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=July 18, 2010 |url=http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/adwords-clickthrough.php |title= Google AdWords Click Through Rates Per Position |publisher= AccuraCast |date= October 9, 2009}}</ref> Facebook's users click on advertisements an average of 0.04% of the time (400 clicks for every one million pages).<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=July 18, 2010 |url= http://valleywag.gawker.com/242234/facebook-consistently-the-worst-performing-site |title= Facebook 'consistently the worst performing site' |work= Gawker |date=March 7, 2007 |author=Denton, Nick}}</ref>

Sarah Smith, who was Facebook's Online Sales Operations Manager, reports that successful [[advertising campaign]]s on the site can have clickthrough rates as low as 0.05% to 0.04%, and that CTR for ads tend to fall within two weeks.<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=July 18, 2010 |url=http://techpulse360.com/2009/08/12/facebook-says-its-click-through-rates-do-not-match-those-at-google/ |title=Facebook Says Click Through Rates Do Not Match Those At Google |work= TechPulse 360 |date= August 12, 2009}}</ref> By comparison, the CTR for competing social network [[MySpace]] is about 0.1%, about 2.5 times better than Facebook's rate but still low compared to many other Web sites. The cause of Facebook's low CTR has been attributed to younger users enabling [[ad blocking]] software and being better at ignoring advertising messages, as well as the site being used more for the purpose of social communication as opposed to viewing content.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=July 18, 2010 |url=http://www.bizreport.com/2007/07/advertisers_disappointed_with_facebooks_ctr.html |title=Advertisers disappointed with Facebook's CTR |work= BizReport |date=July 16, 2007 |author=Leggatt, Helen}}</ref>

On pages for brands and products, however, some companies have reported CTR as high as 6.49% for Wall posts.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate= July 18, 2010 |url= http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=138442 |title=Facebook's Click-Through Rates Flourish ... for Wall Posts |work=Advertising Age |location =New York |date=August 13, 2009 |author=Klaassen, Abbey}}</ref> A study found that, for video advertisements on Facebook, over 40% of users who viewed the videos viewed the entire video, while the industry average was 25% for in-banner video ads.<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=July 18, 2010 |url= http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=130217 |title=Study: Video Ads On Facebook More Engaging Than Outside Sites |work= MediaPost |location =New York |date=June 15, 2010 |author=Walsh, Mark}}</ref>

===Mergers and acquisitions===
{{Main|List of acquisitions by Facebook}}
On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the [[American Farm Bureau Federation]] for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5&nbsp;million in "domain sales income", making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history.<ref>{{cite news |title=FB.com acquired by Facebook |url=http://namemon.com/news/1-latest-news/115-fbcom-acquired-by-facebook |date=January 11, 2011 |work=NameMon News}}</ref>

===Offices===
[[File:Facebook Headquarters Menlo Park.jpg|thumb|Entrance to Facebook headquarters complex in [[Menlo Park, California]]]]
[[File:1601californiaavelobby.jpg|thumb|Entrance to Facebook's previous headquarters in the [[Stanford Research Park]], [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]], [[California]]]]
In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former Sun Microsystems campus in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], [[California]].

All users outside of the US and Canada have a contract with Facebook's Irish subsidiary "Facebook Ireland Limited". This allows Facebook to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Facebook is making use of the [[Double Irish arrangement]] which allows it to pay just about 2-3% corporation tax on all international revenue.<ref name="bloom2010">{{cite web
|url= http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html/
|title=Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes - Bloomberg
|work=www.bloomberg.com
|accessdate=
}}</ref>

In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]]<ref>{{cite web|author=PTI |url=http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article804734.ece?homepage=true/ |title=Facebook opens office in India |work=The Hindu |date=September 30, 2010 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/young-business-leaders-kirthiga-reddy-facebook/1/15083.html/ |title=Kirthiga Reddy: The face behind Facebook |publisher=Businesstoday.intoday.in |date=May 15, 2011 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Nikhil Pahwa |url=http://www.medianama.com/2010/07/223-facebook-appoints-kirthiga-reddy-as-head-of-indian-operations/ |title=Facebook Appoints Kirthiga Reddy As Head Of Indian Operations |publisher=Medianama.com |date=July 16, 2010 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref> and the first in [[Asia]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Facebook's India face-Meet Kirthiga Reddy, Head and Director Online Operations, Facebook India. |url=http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5592317 |date=November 14, 2011 |work=MSN India}}</ref>

Facebook, which in 2010 had more than 750 million active users globally including over 23 million in India, announced that its [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]] centre would house online advertising and developer support teams and provide round-the-clock, multi-lingual support to the social networking site's users and advertisers globally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.watblog.com/2010/08/30/facebooks-hyderabad-office-inaugurated-google-vs-facebook-battle-india/ |title=Facebook’s Hyderabad Office Inaugurated – Google vs Facebook Battle Comes To India |publisher=Watblog.com |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref> With this, Facebook joins other giants like [[Google]], [[Microsoft]], [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]], [[Dell]], [[IBM]] and Computer Associates that have already set up shop.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-19/hyderabad/31076680_1_hyderabad-headcount-deloitte-amazon/ |title=City back as investors’ top pick |publisher=Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com |date=February 19, 2012 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref> In Hyderabad, it is registered as 'Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-02-29/news/31110820_1_fatwaonline-internet-users-objectionable-content/ |title=Not responsible for user-generated content hosted on website: Facebook India |publisher=Articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com |date=February 29, 2012 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Facebook-India-to-court-Not-responsible-for-user-generated-content/articleshow/12080208.cms?prtpage=1/ Facebook India to court: Not responsible for user-generated content]{{dead link|date=May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/12080208.cms/ |title=Facebook India to court: Not responsible for user-generated content |publisher=M.timesofindia.com |date=February 29, 2012 |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref>

Though Facebook did not specify its India investment or hiring figures, it said recruitment had already begun for a director of operations and other key positions at Hyderabad,<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/careers/department.php?dept=hyderabad Hyderabad, India]: "At the tech epicenter of India, our Hyderabad office is where we help support the region's growing users base, advertisers, and developers."</ref> which would supplement its operations in [[California]], [[Dublin]] in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] as well as at [[Austin]], [[Texas]].

A custom-built [[data center]] with substantially reduced ("38% less") [[IT energy management#Server and data center power management|power consumption]] compared to existing Facebook data centers opened in April 2011 in [[Prineville, Oregon]].<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=April 16, 2011 |date=April 16, 2011 |title=Zuckerberg at Ore. Facebook data center |agency=Associated Press
|url=http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/04/16/zuckerberg_at_ore_facebook_data_center/ |newspaper=''[[The Boston Globe]]''}}</ref>

In April 2012 Facebook opened a second data center in [[Forest City, North Carolina]].

On October 1, 2012, CEO Zuckerberg visited Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook’s position in the Russian market.<ref>{{cite web |title=Zuckerberg in Moscow to boost Facebook's presence |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20121001-zuckerberg-moscow-boost-facebooks-presence-0 |publisher=France24.com | date=1 October 2012}}</ref> Russia's communications minister tweeted that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged the social media giant's founder to abandon plans to lure away Russian programmers and instead consider opening a research center in Moscow. Facebook has roughly 9 million users in Russia, while domestic clone VK has around 34 million.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russia pushes Facebook to open research center |url=http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/10/01/russia-pushes-facebook-to-open-research-center/ |publisher=FoxNews |date=1 October 2012}}</ref>

===Open source contributions===
Facebook is both a consumer of and contributor to [[Free and open-source software|free and open source software]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.developer.com/features/article.php/3894566/Inside-Facebooks-Open-Source-Infrastructure.htm |title=Inside Facebook's Open Source Infrastructure |publisher=Developer.com |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref> Facebook's contributions include: [[HipHop for PHP]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/100505.html |title=HipHop Compiler for PHP? Transforming PHP into C++ |publisher = [[Stanford University]]}}</ref> Fair scheduler in [[Apache Hadoop]],<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Tom |title=Hadoop: The Definitive Guide |publisher=[[O'Reilly Media]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4493-8973-4}}</ref> [[Apache Hive]], [[Apache Cassandra]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.cornell.edu/projects/ladis2009/papers/lakshman-ladis2009.pdf |title=Cassandra - A Decentralized Structured Storage System |format=PDF |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref> and the [[Open Compute Project]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/120215.html |title=Facebook's Open Compute Project |publisher = [[Stanford University]]}}</ref>

Facebook also contributes to other opensource projects such as [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]]'s [[MySQL]] database engine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.facebook.com/MySQLatFacebook |title=MySQL at Facebook (Maintained by software developers who work on MySQL at Facebook) |publisher=Facebook.com |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://launchpad.net/mysqlatfacebook |title=MySQL at Facebook |publisher=Launchpad.net |accessdate= May 5, 2012}}</ref>

==Website==
{{Main|Facebook features|Facebook Platform}}
[[File:Original-facebook.jpg|thumb|280px|Profile shown on Thefacebook in 2005]]

===User profile===
Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information, and other personal information. Users can communicate with friends and other users through private or public messages and a chat feature. They can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" (called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=March 7, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/profile.php |title=Edit Your Profile |publisher=Facebook |archiveurl =http://web.archive.org/web/20080227212605/http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/profile.php <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = February 27, 2008}}{{Dead link|date=October 2012}}</ref> Facebook has been prompted to add a "[[third gender]]", "other", or "[[intersex]]" tab in the gender option which contains only male and female.<ref>{{cite web|author=Torsten Højer |url=http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/facebook-warned-over-third-gender-option300312 |title=Facebook warned over 'third gender' option |publisher=Gay Star News |date=2012-03-30 |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref> Facebook refused and said that individuals can "opt out of showing their sex on their profile".<ref>http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-doesnt-add-third-sex-gay-activist-disables-account/11167</ref> A 2012 Pew Internet and American Life study identified that between 20–30% of Facebook users are "power users" who frequently link, poke, post and tag themselves and others.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/media-society/facebook-engagement-patterns/ |title = Why Most Facebook Users Get More Than They Give |publisher = Journalist's Resource.org }}</ref> The user page is set up in a minimal fashion with blue as the main color. This was done because Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-why/?pagination=false |title = Generation Why? |publisher = The New York Review of Books}}</ref>

On June 13, 2009, Facebook introduced a "Usernames" feature, whereby pages can be linked with simpler [[Uniform resource locator|URLs]] such as <code>[http://www.facebook.com/facebook http://www.facebook.com/facebook]</code> instead of <code>[http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=20531316728 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=20531316728]</code>.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=June 13, 2009 |url= http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130 |title=Coming Soon: Facebook Usernames |author=DiPersia, Blaise |date=June 9, 2009 |publisher=The Facebook Blog}}</ref> Many new [[smartphone]]s offer access to Facebook services through either their Web browsers or applications. An official Facebook application is available for the operating systems [[Android (operating system)|Android]], [[iOS]], and [[webOS]]. [[Nokia]] and [[BlackBerry (company)|Research In Motion]] both provide Facebook applications for their own mobile devices. More than 425 million active users access Facebook through mobile devices across 200 mobile operators in 60 countries.<ref name="friendingfacebook2">{{Cite news| url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-has-over-425-million-mobile-users/8384 | work=[[ZDNet]] | title=Facebook has over 425 million mobile users | date=February 1, 2012 | accessdate=February 4, 2012 | author=Protalinski, Emil}}</ref>

===Comparison with Myspace===
The media often compares Facebook to [[Myspace]], but one significant difference between the two Web sites is the level of customization.<ref>{{Cite news|accessdate=March 8, 2008 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/technology/25social.html |title=Facebook Expands Into MySpace's Territory |work=The New York Times |author=Stone, Brad |date=May 25, 2007 }}</ref> Another difference is Facebook's requirement that users give their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not make.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=September 10, 2010 |url=http://mobilitytoday.com/news/009500/facebook_connect_mt |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20101024033731/http://mobilitytoday.com/news/009500/facebook_connect_mt |archivedate=2010-10-24 |title=Facebook Connect fully integrated into Mobility Today |publisher=Mobility Today Fitness |date=May 7, 2009 |author=Ciccone, David }}</ref> MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using [[HTML]] and [[Cascading Style Sheets]] (CSS), while Facebook allows only [[plain text]].<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=April 30, 2008 |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134635-c,categories/article.html |title=Is Facebook the New MySpace? |work=[[PC World]] |location =San Francisco |date=July 24, 2007| author=Sullivan, Mark }}</ref> Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the [[Facebook features#Wall|Wall]], a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see;<ref name="off">{{cite web |last=Der |first=Kevin |url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=3532972130 |title=Facebook is off-the-wall |accessdate=July 30, 2007|publisher=The Facebook Blog}}</ref> [[Super Poke|Pokes]], which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification then tells a user that they have been poked);<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=March 9, 2008|url= http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=210552142308915&ref_query=pok|title=Inbox, Messages and Pokes |publisher=Facebook }}</ref> [[Facebook features#Photo and video uploads|Photos]], where users can upload albums and photos;<ref name="gifts">{{cite web|url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2406207130|accessdate=March 5, 2008|title=The Facebook Gifts|publisher=Facebook}}</ref> and [[Facebook features#Status updates|Status]], which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,22822400-5014108,00.html |title=Facebook is&nbsp;... reconsidering the word "is" |accessdate=March 8, 2008 |work=news.com.au Technology blog |first=Andrew |last=Ramadge |date=November 26, 2007 |location =Sydney}}</ref> Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user's profile can also view that user's Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only.<ref name="off" />

===News feed===
On September 6, 2006, a [[News Feed (Facebook)|News feed]] was announced, which appears on every user's homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user's friends.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2207967130 |title=Facebook Gets a Facelift|accessdate=February 11, 2008 |last=Sanghvi |first=Ruchi |date=September 6, 2006 |publisher=The Facebook Blog}}</ref> This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.colnect.com/2010/03/facebook-celebrate-your-birthday-every.html |title=Facebook: Celebrate Your Birthday Every Day |publisher=Colnect blog |accessdate=March 9, 2010}}</ref> Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and conversations with other users).<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=June 28, 2008 |url= http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060908_536553.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech |title=Facebook Learns from Its Fumble |work=BusinessWeek |location =New York |date=September 8, 2006 |author=Lacy, Sarah |authorlink= Sarah Lacy}}</ref>

In response, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=June 28, 2008 |url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192700574 |title=Facebook Founder Apologizes In Privacy Flap; Users Given More Control |work=[[InformationWeek]] | location = New York |date=September 8, 2006 |author=Gonsalves, Antone }}</ref>

On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=7669123 |status=patent}}</ref> on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in which links are provided so that one user can participate in the same activity of another user.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://themelis-cuiper.com/22/us-patent-no-7669123.html |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110515155132/http://themelis-cuiper.com/22/us-patent-no-7669123.html |archivedate=2011-05-15 |title=US Patent No. 7669123 |accessdate=March 9, 2010|publisher=Social Media|date=March 1, 2010}}</ref> The patent may encourage Facebook to pursue action against websites that violate its patent, which may potentially include websites such as [[Twitter]].<ref>{{Cite news |url= http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/26/facebook.patent/index.html |title= Facebook's news-feed patent could mean lawsuits |work=CNN |date= February 26, 2010 |accessdate =July 12, 2010}}</ref>

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the [[Facebook features#Photo and video uploads|Photos]] application, where users can upload albums and photos.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=June 28, 2008 |url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/24/facebook-launches-facebook-platform-they-are-the-anti-myspace/ |title=Facebook Launches Facebook Platform; They are the Anti-MySpace |work=[[TechCrunch]] |date=May 24, 2007 |author=Arrington, Michael |authorlink=Michael Arrington}}</ref> Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other [[image hosting service]]s such as [[Photobucket]] and [[Flickr]], which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60&nbsp;photos per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200&nbsp;photos per album.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=87157517130 |title=Share More Memories with Larger Photo Albums |accessdate=January 4, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2305272732&topic=7363 |title=Upload: 60 or 200 photos in the same album? |accessdate=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Facebook}} {{Dead link|date=April 2012|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2305272732&topic=4947 |title=How can I add more than 60 photos to an album? |accessdate=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Facebook}} {{Dead link|date=April 2012|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003726&l=5f3c8&id=1352160452 |title=Example of album from a regular user with a 200-photo limit |accessdate=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Facebook}}</ref>

Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user's friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to "[[tag (metadata)|tag]]", or label, users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user's friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=March 15, 2008|url=http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=7|title=Photos |publisher=Facebook }}{{dead link|date=October 2011}}</ref>

On 7 June 2012, Facebook launched its App Center to its users. It will help the users in finding games and other applications with ease.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Facebook-to-launch-App-Center/articleshow/13920641.cms | title=Facebook to launch App Center| date=8 June 2012 | work=The Times Of India}}{{dead link|date=November 2012}}</ref> Since the launch of the App Center, Facebook has seen 150M monthly users with 2.4 times the installation of apps.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/14/facebook-says-it-now-has-235m-monthly-gamers-app-center-hits-150m-monthly-users/ |title=Facebook Says It Now Has 235M Monthly Gamers, App Center Hits 150M Monthly Visitors |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2012-08-14 |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>

The sorting and display of stories in a user's News Feed is governed by the algorithm [[EdgeRank]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edgerank.net/ |title=EdgeRank |publisher=EdgeRank |date=2007-10-29 |accessdate=2013-02-16}}</ref>

===Facebook Notes===
Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import blogs from [[Xanga]], [[LiveJournal]], [[Blogger (service)|Blogger]], and other blogging services.<ref name="welcome" /> During the week of April 7, 2008, Facebook released a [[Comet (programming)|Comet]]-based<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=June 2, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=14218138919&id=9445547199&index=0|title=Facebook Chat |publisher=Facebook|date=May 14, 2008|author=Eugene }}</ref> [[instant messaging]] application called "Chat" to several networks,<ref>{{Cite press release | title = Announcement: Facebook Launches Facebook Chat | publisher=Facebook | date = April 6, 2008 | url = http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=27681 | accessdate =April 11, 2008 }}</ref> which allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based [[instant messengers]].

Facebook launched [[Facebook features#Gifts|Gifts]] on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient's profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=March 15, 2008|url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2234372130 |title=Give gifts on Facebook! |publisher=Facebook }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=March 15, 2008 |url=http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=16|title=Gifts |publisher=Facebook }}{{dead link|date=October 2011}}</ref> On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched [[Facebook features#Marketplace|Marketplace]], which lets users post free classified ads.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=March 15, 2008|url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2383962130 |title=The Marketplace Is Open.. |publisher=The Facebook Blog |author=Morgenstern, Jared |date=May 14, 2007}}</ref> Marketplace has been compared to [[Craigslist]] by [[CNET]], which points out that the major difference between the two is that listings posted by a user on Marketplace are seen only by users in the same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be seen by anyone.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=March 15, 2008 |url= http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9718779-7.html |title=Hands-on with Facebook Marketplace |work=CNET |date=May 13, 2007 |author=McCarthy, Caroline }}</ref>

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a "cleaner" look.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938800025748D0064C292.html?ref=technology |title= Facebook Facelift Targets Aging Users and New Competitors |work= The New York Times |author=Havenstein, Heather |date= July 21, 2008}}</ref> After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://blog.new.facebook.com/blog.php?post=30074837130 |title=Moving to the new Facebook |publisher=The Facebook Blog |accessdate=September 12, 2008 |author=Slee, Mark |date=September 10, 2008}}</ref> On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/11/facebook-testing-even-simpler-sign-up-closing-the-gap-with-myspace-in-the-us/ |title= Facebook Testing Even Simpler Sign Up; Closing The Gap With MySpace In The U.S |work= [[TechCrunch]] |date= December 11, 2008}}</ref>

===Messaging===
A new Messaging platform, codenamed "Project Titan", was launched on November 15, 2010. Described as a "[[Gmail]] killer" by some publications, the system allows users to directly communicate with each other via Facebook using several different methods (including a special [[email address]], text messaging, or through the Facebook website or mobile app){{emdash}}no matter what method is used to deliver a message, they are contained within single [[Threaded discussion|threads]] in a unified inbox. As with other Facebook features, users can adjust from whom they can receive messages from{{emdash}}including just friends, friends of friends, or from anyone.<ref>{{Cite news |url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/15/facebook-mail-gmail-killer-email |location= London |work=The Guardian |first1=Adam |last1=Gabbatt |first2=Charles |last2=Arthur |title=Facebook mail: it might kill Gmail, but 'it's not email' |date= November 15, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16619072 |title=Facebook adds 'social inbox'&nbsp;– with E-mail |work= San Jose Mercury News |date= November 16, 2010 |accessdate=January 13, 2011}}</ref>

Aside from the Facebook website, Messages can also be accessed through the site's [[mobile app]]s, or a dedicated [[Facebook Messenger]] app,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/SocialMedia-Updates/Facebook-Messenger-for-Windows-launched/SP-Article1-821699.aspx |title=Facebook Messenger for Windows launched |publisher=Hindustantimes.com |date=2012-03-06 |accessdate=2012-04-29}}</ref>

===Voice calls===
Since April 2011, Facebook users have had the ability to make live voice calls via Facebook Chat, allowing users to chat with others from all over the world. This feature, which is provided free through T-Mobile's new Bobsled service, lets the user add voice to the current Facebook Chat as well as leave voice messages on Facebook.<ref>{{cite news |last=Swartz |first=Jon |title= Facebook hops aboard T-Mobile's Bobsled Service |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/04/facebook-hops-aboard-t-mobiles-voip-service/1|newspaper=USA Today |location =Washington DC|date=April 19, 2011}}</ref>

===Video calling===
On July 6, 2011, Facebook launched its video calling services using [[Skype Technologies|Skype]] as its technology partner. It allows one-to-one calling using a [[Skype]] [[Representational state transfer|Rest]] [[Application programming interface|API]].

===Following===
On September 14, 2011, Facebook added the ability for users to provide a "Subscribe" button on their page, which allows users to subscribe to public postings by the user without needing to add them as a friend.<ref>{{cite web|author=Meghan Peters|url=http://mashable.com/2011/09/15/facebook-subscribe-users/ |title=Facebook Subscribe Button: What It Means for Each Type of User |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2011-09-15 |accessdate=2012-04-29}}</ref> In conjunction, Facebook also introduced a system in February 2012 to verify the identity of certain accounts. Unlike a similar system used by Twitter, verified accounts do not display a special verification badge, but are given a higher priority in a user's "Subscription Suggestions".<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=March 3, 2012|url=http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/15/facebook-verified-accounts-alternate-names/|title= Facebook Launches Verified Accounts and Pseudonyms|publisher=TechCrunch}}</ref>

In December 2012, Facebook announced that due to user confusion surrounding its function, the Subscribe button would be re-labeled as a "Follow" button{{emdash}}making it more similar to other social networks with similar functions.<ref name=verge-fbfollow>{{cite web|title=Facebook snubs 'Subscribe' button in favor of Twitter-esque 'Follow' on all profile pages|url=http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/5/3731986/facebook-like-follow|publisher=The Verge|accessdate=6 December 2012}}</ref>

===Privacy===
To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of their profile.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=June 13, 2009 |url=http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?view=search |title=Search Privacy |publisher=Facebook}}</ref> The website is free to users, and generates revenue from advertising, such as [[Web banner|banner ads]].<ref name="tc">{{Cite news |accessdate=March 9, 2008 |url=http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6066533.html |title=Facebook goes corporate |work=[[ZDNet]] News |date=April 28, 2006 |author=Barton, Zoe |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080526001748/http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6066533.html |archivedate = May 26, 2008 |deadurl=yes}}</ref> Facebook requires a user's name and profile picture (if applicable) to be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through their privacy settings.<ref name="Choose Your Privacy Settings">{{cite web |url=http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy |title=Choose Your Privacy Settings |publisher=Facebook |accessdate=September 10, 2009}}</ref>

According to [[comScore]], an internet [[marketing research]] company, Facebook collects as much data from its visitors as Google and Microsoft, but considerably less than [[Yahoo!]].<ref>{{Cite news|author=Story, Louise|title=To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10privacy.html|work=The New York Times|date=March 10, 2008|accessdate=March 9, 2008}}</ref> In 2010, the security team began expanding its efforts to reduce the risks to users' [[privacy]],<ref name="revealed">{{cite web|title=Revealed: Which social networks pose the biggest risk?|url=http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/02/01/revealed-social-networks-pose-biggest-risk/|publisher=[[Sophos]]|last=Cluley|first=Graham|date=February 1, 2010|accessdate=July 12, 2010}}</ref> but [[Criticism of Facebook#Privacy concerns|privacy concerns]] remain.<ref name="liebertpub1">{{cite web|url = http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2012.0323 |title = Who Commits Virtual Identity Suicide? Differences in Privacy Concerns, Internet Addiction, and Personality Between Facebook Users and Quitters |publisher = Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking }}</ref> On November 6, 2007, Facebook launched [[Facebook Beacon]], which was an ultimately failed attempt to advertise to friends of users using the knowledge of what purchases friends made. As of March 2012, Facebook's usage of its user data is under close scrutiny.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Sengupta, Somini|title=Risk and Riches in User Data for Facebook|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/technology/for-facebook-risk-and-riches-in-user-data.html?ref=facebookinc|work=The New York Times|date=February 26, 2012|accessdate=February 29, 2012}}</ref>

====FTC settlement====
On November 29, 2011, Facebook agreed to settle US [[Federal Trade Commission]] charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=November 29, 2011|url=http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm|title=Facebook Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers By Failing To Keep Privacy Promises|work=[[Federal Trade Commission|FTC]]|date=November 29, 2011 }}</ref>

===Technical aspects===
Facebook is built in [[PHP]] which is compiled with [[HipHop for PHP]], a source code transformer built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into [[C++]]. The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.<ref name="arstechnica">{{cite web|last=Paul|first=Ryan|title=Exclusive: a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook release engineering|url=http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/exclusive-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-facebook-release-engineering.ars/1|publisher=Ars Technica|accessdate=April 19, 2012}}</ref>

Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in 2012 with Chuck Rossi, a build engineer at Facebook, Facebook compiles into a 1.5&nbsp;GB binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom [[BitTorrent]]-based release system. Rossi stated that it takes approximately 15 minutes to build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process is zero downtime and new changes to Facebook are rolled out daily.<ref name="arstechnica" />

Facebook used a combination platform based on [[HBase]] to store data across distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, new events are stored in log files, and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them into storage. The User Interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users. Facebook handles requests as [[Ajax (programming)|AJAX]] behavior. These requests are written to a log file using [[Scribe (log server)|Scribe]] (developed by Facebook).<ref name="high scalability">{{cite web|author=Tuesday |url=http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/3/22/facebooks-new-realtime-analytics-system-hbase-to-process-20.html |title=Facebook's New Realtime Analytics System: HBase To Process 20 Billion Events Per Day |publisher=Highscalability.com |date=2011-03-22 |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>

Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data out (thus the name). Ptail data is separated out into three streams so they can eventually be sent to their own clusters in different [[data center]]s (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data flow (Input/Output or IO). Data is processed in batches to lessen the amount of times needed to read and write under high demand periods (A hot article will generate a lot of impressions and news feed impressions which will cause huge data skews). Batches are taken every 1.5 seconds, limited by memory used when creating a [[hash table]].<ref name="high scalability"/>

After this, data is output in PHP format (compiled with [[HipHop for PHP]]). The backend is written in [[Java]] and Thrift is used as the messaging format so PHP programs can query Java services. Caching solutions are used to make the web pages display more quickly. The more and longer data is cached the less realtime it is. The data is then sent to [[MapReduce]] servers so it can be queried via Hive. This also serves as a backup plan as the data can be recovered from Hive. Raw logs are removed after a period of time.<ref name="high scalability"/>

===Like button===
The [[like button]] is a social networking feature, allowing users to express their appreciation of content such as status updates, comments, photos, and advertisements. It is also a [[Facebook Platform#Social plugins|social plug-in of the Facebook Platform]]&nbsp;– launched on April 21, 2010<ref name="1-billion-likes">{{cite news
|title=Facebook: We'll Serve 1 Billion Likes on the Web in Just 24 Hours
|last=Siegler
|first=MG
|work=[[TechCrunch]]
|url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/21/facebook-like-button/
|date=April 21, 2010
|accessdate=December 19, 2011
}}</ref><ref name="time-open-graph">{{cite news
|last=Fletcher
|first=Dan
|title=Facebook Looks to Get Personal
|work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]
|url=http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1983721,00.html
|date=April 22, 2010
|accessdate=December 19, 2011
}}</ref>&nbsp;– that enables participating Internet websites to display a similar like button.

Continuously liking any contents of one's friend will cause flooding of notifications on his/her part and Facebook will display message to the liker stating that (s)he must slow down; (s)he must wait for five minutes in order for him/her to continue liking.

====Lawsuit====
Patents relating to the "Like" button and other social features held by deceased Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer are subject of a lawsuit brought against Facebook by Rembrandt Social Media.<ref name="BBCLikeButtton"/>

==Reception==
[[File:Facebook popularity.PNG|thumb|300px|Facebook popularity. Active users of Facebook increased from just a million in 2004 to over 750 million in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics |title=Facebook Statistics |publisher=Facebook.com |accessdate=December 21, 2011}}</ref>]]
[[File:Facebook users by age.PNG|thumb|300px|Registered Facebook users by age as of 2010.]]

According to [[comScore]], Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Facebook_Largest_Fastest_Growing_Social_Network/551-92134-643.html |title=Facebook: Largest, Fastest Growing Social Network |accessdate=August 14, 2008 |date=August 13, 2008 |work=Techtree.com}}</ref> ComScore reports that Facebook attracted 130&nbsp;million unique visitors in May 2010, an increase of 8.6&nbsp;million people.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/07/privacy-facebook-visitors/ |title=Privacy, Schmivacy: Facebook Is Attracting Near-Record Numbers Of New Visitors |accessdate=September 8, 2010 |date=June 7, 2010 |work= TechCrunch}}</ref> According to [[Alexa Internet|Alexa]], the website's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in worldwide traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007, and is currently 2nd.<ref name="alexatrafficrank">{{cite web |title=Related info for: facebook.com/ |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]] |url= http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/facebook.com?q=facebook |accessdate=December 10, 2012}}</ref> [[Quantcast]] ranks the website 2nd in the U.S. in traffic,<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=September 9, 2010 |url=http://www.quantcast.com/facebook.com |title=Facebook.com Web Site Audience Profile |publisher=[[Quantcast]]}}</ref> and [[Compete.com]] ranks it 2nd in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=September 9, 2010|url=http://blog.compete.com/2010/02/17/we%E2%80%99re-number-two-facebook-moves-up-one-big-spot-in-the-charts/|title=We're Number Two! Facebook moves up one big spot in the charts |publisher=[[Compete.com]] }}</ref> The website is the most popular for uploading photos, with 50&nbsp;billion uploaded cumulatively.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=September 9, 2010 |url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-07-21-facebook-hits-500-million-users_N.htm |title=Status update: Facebook logs 500&nbsp;million members |work=USA Today |location =Washington DC |date=July 22, 2010 |author= McGrath, Kristin}}</ref> In 2010, [[Sophos]]'s "Security Threat Report 2010" polled over 500 firms, 60% of which responded that they believed that Facebook was the social network that posed the biggest threat to security, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter, and [[LinkedIn]].<ref name="revealed" />

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several [[List of countries where English is an official language|English-speaking countries]], including Canada,<ref name="canada">{{cite news |accessdate=April 30, 2008 |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2007/05/18/facebook-says-thanks-canada.aspx |title=Facebook says 'Thanks, Canada' |work=National Post |location=Toronto |date=May 18, 2007 |author=Yum, Kenny}}{{dead link|date=October 2011}}</ref> the United Kingdom,<ref name="uk">{{Cite news |accessdate=April 30, 2008 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/25/nface125.xml |title=Facebook is UK's biggest networking site |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=September 26, 2007 |author=Malkin, Bonnie |location= London}}</ref> and the United States.<ref>{{cite news |first=Doug |last=Caverly |title=comScore: Facebook Catches MySpace in U.S |url=http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/06/16/comscore-facebook-catches-myspace-in-us |work=WebProNews |publisher=iEntry Network |date=June 16, 2009 |accessdate=September 24, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Facebook grows as MySpace cuts back |url=http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/06/15/daily47.html |work=Atlanta Business Chronicle |date=June 17, 2009 |quote=The Conference Board report on first quarter online users in the U.S. showed Facebook with an even larger lead, with 78 percent of social network participants, followed by MySpace (42 percent), [[LinkedIn]] (17 percent) and Twitter (10 percent). |accessdate=September 24, 2009 |first=Steven E.F. |last=Brown}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Drew |last=Hasselback |title=Comscore says Facebook has surpassed MySpace for U.S. users |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2009/06/17/comscore-says-facebook-has-surpassed-myspace-for-u-s-users.aspx |work=National Post |location =Toronto |date=June 17, 2009 |quote=Comscore says Facebook surpassed MySpace among U.S. users in May, while Nielsen figures that actually happened back in January. |accessdate=September 24, 2009}}{{dead link|date=October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Cara |last=Wood |title=Keeping pace with mainstream social media |url=http://www.dmnews.com/keeping-pace-with-mainstream-social-media/article/147429/ |work=Direct Marketing News |location =New York |date=August 31, 2009 |quote=The giant in the space remains Facebook, which gets 87.7&nbsp;million unique viewers per month, according to ComScore. MySpace, with nearly 70&nbsp;million unique monthly visitors, has seen growth stagnate over the past year. |accessdate=September 24, 2009}}</ref> In regional Internet markets, Facebook penetration is highest in North America (69 percent), followed by Middle East-Africa (67 percent), Latin America (58 percent), Europe (57 percent), and Asia-Pacific (17 percent).<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=September 23, 2008 |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20011158-36.html|title=Who will be Facebook's next 500&nbsp;million? |work=CNET |date=July 21, 2010 |author=McCarthy, Caroline |location=New York}}</ref> Some of the top competitors were listed in 2007 by [[Mashable]].<ref>{{cite web
| last = Ostrow
| first = Adam
| authorlink =
| title = Copycats: Top 10 International Facebook Clones
| publisher = [[Mashable]]
| url = http://mashable.com/2007/07/11/10-facebook-clones/
| date = 2007-07-11
| accessdate = 2012-11-14}}</ref>

The website has won awards such as placement into the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by ''[[PC Magazine]]'' in 2007,<ref>{{cite news|accessdate=May 9, 2008|url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2169354,00.asp|title= Social Networking |work=[[PC Magazine]]|date=August 13, 2007 }}</ref> and winning the "People's Voice Award" from the [[Webby Award]]s in 2008.<ref name="webby">{{cite web|accessdate=May 6, 2008|url=http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12|title=12th Annual Webby Awards Nominees |publisher=[[International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences]] }}</ref> In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a [[New Jersey]]-based company specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named the second most popular thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and only ranked lower than the [[iPod]].<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=March 10, 2008 |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198632,00.html |title=Survey: College Kids Like IPods Better Than Beer |work =Fox News |date=June 8, 2006}}</ref>

On March 2010, Judge Richard Seeborg issued an order approving the class settlement in ''[[Lane v. Facebook, Inc.]]'', the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook's Beacon program.

In 2010, Facebook won the [[Crunchie]] "Best Overall Startup Or Product" for the third year in a row<ref>{{cite news |last=Kincaid |first=Jason |url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/08/crunchies-winner/ |title=Facebook Takes Best Overall For The Hat Trick |work=Techcrunch |date=January 8, 2010 |accessdate=July 8, 2010}}</ref> and was recognized as one of the "Hottest [[Silicon Valley]] Companies" by Lead411.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lead411.com/silicon-valley-companies.html |title=Lead411 launches "Hottest Silicon Valley Companies" awards |publisher=Lead411.com |date=May 25, 2010 |accessdate=July 8, 2010}}</ref> However, in a July 2010 survey performed by the [[American Customer Satisfaction Index]], Facebook received a score of 64 out of 100, placing it in the bottom 5% of all private-sector companies in terms of customer satisfaction, alongside industries such as the [[IRS e-file]] system, airlines, and [[cable companies]]. The reasons why Facebook scored so poorly include privacy problems, frequent changes to the website's interface, the results returned by the News Feed, and spam.<ref>{{Cite news |accessdate=July 21, 2010 |url=http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/20/users-rate-facebook-slightly-above-the-tax-man/ |title=Users Rate Facebook Slightly Above the Tax Man |work=Digits (Wall Street Journal technology blog) |date=July 20, 2010 |author=Fowler, Geoffrey A. }}</ref>

In December 2008, the [[Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory]] ruled that Facebook is a valid [[protocol (diplomacy)|protocol]] to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world's first legal judgement that defines a [[summons]] posted on Facebook as legally binding.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/12/16/1229189579001.html |title= Lawyers to serve notices on Facebook |work=The Age |location=Melbourne |date=December 16, 2008 |accessdate=March 23, 2010 |first=Noel |last=Towell}}</ref> In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David Gendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the company Axe Market Garden via Facebook.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/kiwis-follow-australian-facebook-precedent/2009/03/16/1237054723620.html |title =Kiwi judge follows Australian Facebook precedent |work=The Age |location =Melbourne |agency =Agence France-Presse |date =March 16, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090405104820309C778226&newslett=1&em=197599a6a20090405ah |title= Facebook trap criminals in its web |author=Peters, Melanie |work=Independent Online |location= Cape Town |date=April 5, 2009}}</ref> Employers (such as [[Virgin Atlantic Airways]]) have also used Facebook as a means to keep tabs on their employees and have even been known to fire them over posts they have made.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Watch out! Bosses are saving money by firing employees over Facebook posts |author=Cochran, Jason |date=November 6, 2008 |accessdate=May 6, 2010 |url=http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/11/06/watch-out-bosses-are-saving-money-by-firing-employees-over-face/ |work=WalletPop.com}}</ref>

By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that the generic verb "facebooking" had come into use to describe the process of browsing others' profiles or updating one's own.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Facebooking, the rage on college campuses |author=McDonald, Soraya Nadia |newspaper=The Seattle Times |date=July 4, 2005 |accessdate=September 14, 2009 |url=http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20050704&slug=btfacebook04}}</ref> In 2008, [[Collins English Dictionary]] declared "Facebook" as its new Word of the Year.<ref>{{cite web |author=Nicole, Kristen |url= http://mashable.com/2007/12/21/facebook-noun-verb-collins-english-dictionary/ |title=I Can So "Facebook" You Now (and be {{sic|nolink=y|gramatically|expected=grammatically}} correct) |work= Mashable |date=December 21, 2007 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref> In December 2009, the [[New Oxford American Dictionary]] declared its word of the year to be the verb "[[unfriend]]", defined as "To remove someone as a '[[Friend (Facebook)|friend]]' on a [[social networking]] site such as Facebook. As in, 'I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.'"<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/11/unfriend-is-new-oxford-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-/1 |title=Unfriend is New Oxford dictionary's Word of the Year |work=USA Today |location =Washington DC |accessdate=July 12, 2010 |date=November 17, 2009}}</ref>

In early 2010, [[Openbook (website)|Openbook]] was established, an avowed [[parody]] (and privacy advocacy) website<ref>{{cite web|url=http://youropenbook.org/about.html |title=Openbook&nbsp;– Connect and share whether you want to or not |publisher=Youropenbook.org |date=May 12, 2010 |accessdate=June 26, 2010}}</ref> that enables text-based searches of those Wall posts that are available to "Everyone", i.e. to everyone on the Internet.

Writers for ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' found in 2010 that Facebook apps were transmitting identifying information to "dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies". The apps used an [[HTTP referrer]] which exposed the user's identity and sometimes their friends'. Facebook said, "We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms".<ref>{{Cite news |author=Steel, Emily; Fowler, Geoffrey A. |title=Facebook in Privacy Breach |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html |date=October 18, 2010 |work=The Wall Street Journal |location=New York |accessdate=October 18, 2010}}</ref>

In January 2013, the countries with the most Facebook users were:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/ |title=Facebook Statistics by country |date=March 3, 2012}}</ref>
* United States with 168.8 million members
* [[Brazil]] with 64.6 million members
* [[India]] with 62.6 million members
* [[Indonesia]] with 51.4 million members
* [[Mexico]] with 40.2 million members

All of the above total 309 million members or about 38.6 percent of Facebook's 1 billion worldwide members.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.kompas.com/read/2012/02/02/08412923/43.1.Million.Members.of.Facebook.in.Indonesia |title=43.1 Million Members of Facebook in Indonesia |date=February 2, 2012}}</ref>

In regards to Facebook's mobile usage, per an analyst report in early 2013, there are 192 million Android users, 147 million iPhone users, 48 million iPad users and 56 million messenger users, and a total of 604 million mobile Facebook users.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/04/how-many-mobile-users-does-facebook-have/ |title=Facebook Mobile User Counts Revealed: 192M Android, 147M iPhone, 48M iPad, 56M Messenger, 604M total users |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2013-01-04 |accessdate=2013-04-20}}</ref>

==Criticism==
{{Main|Criticism of Facebook}}

Facebook has met with [[Criticism of Facebook|controversies]]. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including the People's Republic of China<!--Must be stated in full, to disambig between PRC and ROC-->,<ref name="chinablock">{{cite news |title= China's Facebook Status: Blocked |url= http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/chinas-facebook-status-blocked.html |date= July 8, 2009 |work= ABC News blog |accessdate=July 13, 2009}}</ref> Iran,<ref>{{cite news |last=Shahi |first=Afshin |url=http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15313 |title=Iran's Digital War |newspaper =Daily Star | location = Cairo |date=July 27, 2008 |accessdate=August 16, 2008 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080814223841/http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15313 <!--Added by H3llBot--> |archivedate=August 14, 2008}}</ref> Uzbekistan,<ref>{{Ru icon}} {{cite news |url= http://www.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=15794&mode=snews| work = Ferghana News |title= Uzbek authorities have blocked access to Facebook |accessdate=October 21, 2010}}</ref> Pakistan,<ref>{{cite news |last=Cooper |first=Charles |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20005388-501465.html |title=Pakistan Bans Facebook Over Muhammad Caricature Row&nbsp;– Tech Talk |work =CBS News |date=May 19, 2010 |accessdate=June 26, 2010}}</ref> [[Syria]] (unblocked in Syria<ref>{{cite web|last=Protalinski |first=Emil |url=http://thenextweb.com/me/2011/02/08/facebook-and-youtube-to-be-unblocked-in-syria-today/ |title=Facebook and YouTube Unblocked in Syria Today|publisher=The Next Web |date=2011-02-08 |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>),<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11792330 |title=Red lines that cannot be crossed |work=The Economist | location = London |date=July 24, 2008 |accessdate=August 17, 2008}}</ref> and Bangladesh{{citation needed|date=April 2013}} on different bases. For example, it was banned in many countries of the world on the basis of allowed content judged as anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination. It has also been banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during work hours.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Benzie |first=Robert |url=http://www.thestar.com/News/article/210014 |title=Facebook banned for Ontario staffers |work=Toronto Star |date=May 3, 2007 |accessdate=August 16, 2008 }}</ref> The [[Criticism of Facebook#Privacy concerns|privacy of Facebook users]] has also been an issue, and the safety of user accounts has been compromised several times. Facebook has settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/facebook-to-settle-thorny-lawsuit-over-its-origins/ |title=Facebook to Settle Thorny Lawsuit Over Its Origins |work =The New York Times (blog) |date=April 7, 2008 |accessdate=November 5, 2009 | first=Brad | last=Stone}}</ref> In May 2011 emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making critical allegations about [[Google's privacy policies]]; however it was later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant [[Burson-Marsteller]], was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as "a new level skullduggery" and which Daily Beast called a "clumsy [[smear campaign|smear]]".<ref>{{cite news |url= http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/12/technology/facebook_google/index.htm |title= Facebook vs. Google fight turns nasty |work=CNN Money |date =May 12, 2011 |first=Julianne |last=Pepitone}}</ref>

In July 2011, German authorities began to discuss the prohibition of events organized on Facebook. The decision is based on several cases of overcrowding by people not originally invited.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ptjornal.com/201107041737/mundo/alemanha-festas-convocadas-pelo-facebook-sao-ameaca-a-ordem-publica.html |title=Alemanha: Festas convocadas pelo Facebook são "ameaça à ordem pública" |publisher=Ptjornal.com |accessdate=October 29, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.destakjornal.com.br/readContent.aspx?id=10,101638 |title=Alemanha pode proibir festas combinadas pelo Facebook |publisher=Destakjornal.com.br |accessdate=October 29, 2011}}{{dead link|date=November 2012}}</ref> In one instance, 1,600 "guests" attended the 16th birthday party for a Hamburg girl who accidentally posted the invitation for the event as public. After reports of overcrowding, more than a hundred police were deployed for crowd control. A policeman was injured and eleven participants were arrested for assault, property damage and resistance to authorities.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20069457-504083.html |title=Facebook blunder invites 15,000 to teen's 16th birthday party; 100 cops show up, too&nbsp;– Crimesider |publisher=CBS News |date=June 7, 2011 |accessdate=October 29, 2011}}</ref> In another unexpectedly overcrowded event, 41 young people were arrested and at least 16 injured.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mtv.uol.com.br/memo/alemanha-pretende-acabar-com-eventos-via-facebook |title=Alemanha pretende acabar com eventos via Facebook |publisher=Mtv.uol.com.br |language=Portuguese |accessdate=October 29, 2011}}{{dead link|date=April 2013}}</ref>

In 2007, it was reported that 43% of British office workers were blocked from accessing Facebook at work, due to concerns including reduced productivity and the potential for [[industrial espionage]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/136685/dont_ban_facebook_at_work_researchers_advise.html | title=Don't Ban Facebook at Work, Researchers Advise | publisher=PC World | date=Sep 3, 2007 | accessdate=September 4, 2012}}</ref>

A 2011 study in the online journal ''First Monday'', "Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," examines how parents consistently enable children as young as 10 years old to sign up for accounts, directly violating Facebook's policy banning young visitors. This policy technically allows Facebook to avoid conflicts with a United States federal law, the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires minors aged 13 or younger to gain explicit parental consent to access commercial websites. Of the more than 1,000 households surveyed for the study, more than three-quarters (76%) of parents reported that their child joined Facebook when she was younger than 13, the minimum age in the site's terms of service. The study notes that, in response to widespread reports of underage users, a Facebook executive has said that "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." The study's authors also note, "Indeed, Facebook takes various measures both to restrict access to children and delete their accounts if they join." The findings of the study raise questions primarily about the shortcomings of United States federal law, but also implicitly continue to raise questions about whether or not Facebook does enough to publicize its terms of service with respect to minors. Only 53% of parents said they were aware that Facebook has a minimum signup age; 35% of these parents believe that the minimum age is a site recommendation (not a condition of site use), or thought the signup age was 16 or 18, and not 13.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/parents-children-facebook-privacy-age/ |title = Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act |publisher = Journalist's Resource.org }}</ref>

In November 2011, several Facebook users reported that their accounts were hacked and their profile pictures were replaced with pornographic images. For more than a week, users' news feeds were spammed with pornographic, violent and sexual contents. It has been reported that more than 200,000 accounts in [[Bangalore]], India were hacked. Facebook has denied the claims, citing that "safety of the users was on the top of their priority list".<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article2635228.ece?homepage=true | location=Chennai, India |work=The Hindu | first=Deepa | last=Kurup | title=Facebook feeds spammed globally | date=November 17, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Anuradha Shetty |url=http://tech2.in.com/news/all/facebook-denies-hack-in-india-assures-safety/258592 |title=Facebook denies hack in India, assures safety |publisher=Tech2.in.com |date=November 18, 2011 |accessdate=December 21, 2011}}</ref>

A 2013 study in the journal CyberPsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, "Who Commits Virtual Identity Suicide? Differences in Privacy Concerns, Internet Addiction, and Personality Between Facebook Users and Quitters" points to the fact that there is a rising number of Facebook users who are discontent with Facebook and finally decide to quit Facebook. The number one reason for users to quit Facebook was privacy concerns (48%), being followed by a general dissatisfaction with Facebook (14%), negative aspects regarding Facebook friends (13%) and the feeling of getting addicted to Facebook (6%). Facebook quitters were found to be more concerned about privacy, more addicted to the Internet and more conscientious.<ref name="liebertpub1"/>

==Impact==
===Media impact===
In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.facebook.com/marketing |title=Facebook Marketing Solutions |publisher=Facebook |accessdate=January 30, 2011}}</ref> The company began its push by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook's top executives at an "influencers' summit" in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved in campaigns for ''[[True Blood]]'', ''[[American Idol]]'', and ''[[Top Gear (2002 TV series)|Top Gear]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.tvgenius.net/blog/2011/04/19/4-ways-facebook-social-tv-1-video/ |title=Move Over Twitter: Facebook Wants a Piece of Social TV, Too |work=tvgenius: TV Trends Blog |author= Wells, Emma K. |date=April 19, 2011 |accessdate=May 15, 2011}}</ref> News and media outlets such as the Washington Post,<ref>{{cite news |work=The Washington Post |date=Jan 6, 2012 |title=Facebook data reveal what GOP presidential candidates' supporters 'like' |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/facebook-data-reveals-what-gop-presidential-candidates-supporters-like/2012/01/06/gIQAOScufP_graphic.html }}</ref> Financial Times<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e82978cc-3e19-11e1-ac9b-00144feabdc0.html |title=Romney tags Facebook to build momentum |date=January 16, 2012 |last=Dembosky |first=April }}</ref> and ABC News<ref>{{cite news |publisher=ABCNews.com |url=http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/social-media-opens-trove-of-voter-info-to-campaigns/ |title=Social Media Opens Trove of Voter Info to Campaigns |date=Jan 10, 2012 |last=Bingham |first=Amy }}</ref> have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles. In 2012, the beauty pageant [[Miss Sri Lanka Online]] was run exclusively using Facebook.<ref>{{cite web|title=Seri Miss Sri Lanka Online Unveiled|url=http://www.ft.lk/2012/09/21/seri-miss-sri-lanka-online-unveiled/|work=FT.lk|accessdate=9 January 2013}}</ref>

===Social impact===
{{main|Social networking service#Social impact|Social impact of the Internet#Social networking and entertainment}}
Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to reunite lost family members and friends because of the widespread reach of its network.<ref>[http://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/chart/1103/top-10-social-networks-in-q1-2013/ Half of the World's Online Population Uses Facebook], GlobalWebIndex. May 2013.</ref> One such reunion was between John Watson and the daughter he had been seeking for 20 years. They met after Watson found her Facebook profile.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7739245 |title=Father finds daughter on Facebook after 20 years apart |work=WABC |location=New York |date=October 23, 2010 |accessdate=May 15, 2011}}</ref> Another father–daughter reunion was between Tony Macnauton and Frances Simpson, who had not seen each other for nearly 48 years.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3570509&= |title=Facebook reunites father, daughter after 48 years |work=MSN India |location=Delhi |date=January 27, 2010}}</ref>

Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. Some studies have named Facebook as a source of problems in relationships. Several news stories have suggested that using Facebook can lead to higher instances of divorce and [[infidelity]], but the claims have been questioned by other commentators.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334482/The-marriage-killer-One-American-divorces-involve-Facebook.html |title=The marriage killer: One in five American divorces now involve Facebook |work=Daily Mail |location = London |date=December 2, 2010|author=Gardner, David}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57742,news-comment,technology,facebook-causes-one-in-five-divorces-says-law-firm |title=Facebook causes one in five divorces, says law firm |work=[[The First Post]] |location=London |date=December 22, 2009|author=Harwood, Jonathan}}</ref>

===Political impact===
[[File:Abc facebook debate saint anselm.JPG|left|thumb|The stage at the Facebook&nbsp;– [[Saint Anselm College]] debates in 2008.]]
Facebook's role in the American political process was demonstrated in January 2008, shortly before the [[New Hampshire primary]], when Facebook teamed up with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and [[Saint Anselm College]] to allow users to give live feedback about the "back to back" January 5 Republican and Democratic debates.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Politics/story?id=3899006&page=1 |title=ABC News Joins Forces With Facebook |work = ABC News |date=December 18, 2007 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first =Doug | last = Minor |url=http://blogs.saintanselmcollege.net/2007/11/29/abcdebates/ |title=Saint Anselm to Host ABC Debates Jan.&nbsp;5 |publisher= Saint Anselm College blog |date=November 29, 2007 |accessdate=July 18, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first =Tahman | last = Bradley |url=http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/abc_wmur_and_facebook_debates/index.html |title=Republicans Lead off ABC News, WMUR-TV and Facebook Back-To-Back Debates in New Hampshire |publisher=ABC News | work = Political Radar (blog) |date=December 12, 2007 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref> [[Charles Gibson]] moderated both debates, held at the Dana Center for the Humanities at Saint Anselm College. Facebook users took part in debate groups organized around specific topics, register to vote, and message questions.<ref>{{cite web |first =Ezra | last = Callahan |url=http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=8183627130 |title=Tune in to the ABC News/Facebook Debates, Tonight 7&nbsp;pm/6c on ABC |publisher= Facebook Blog |date=January 5, 2008 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref>

ABCNews.com reported in 2012 that the Facebook fanbases of political candidates have relevance for the election campaign, including:
* Allows politicians and campaign organizers to understand the interests and demographics of their Facebook fanbases, as with [[Wisdom (application)|Wisdom for Facebook]], to better target their voters.
* Provides a means for voters to keep up-to-date on candidates' activities, such as connecting to the candidates' Facebook Fan Pages.

{{Quote box
|quote = Unless you get out of Facebook and into someone's face, you really have not acted.
|source = [[Thomas L. Friedman]], 2012<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/opinion/sunday/friedman-facebook-meets-brick-and-mortar-politics.html?_r=1&ref=opinion |title=Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics |author=Thomas L. Friedman |authorlink=Thomas L. Friedman |date=June 9, 2012 |work=New York Times |accessdate=June 10, 2012}}</ref>
|width = 30%
|align = right
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Over a million people installed the Facebook application "US Politics on Facebook" in order to take part, and the application measured users' responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates.<ref>{{cite news |first =Russell | last = Goldman |url=http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4091460&page=1 |title=Facebook Gives Snapshot of Voter Sentiment |work = ABC News |date=January 5, 2007 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref> This debate showed the broader community what many young students had already experienced: Facebook as a popular and powerful new way to interact and voice opinions. An article by Michelle Sullivan of Uwire.com illustrates how the "Facebook effect" has affected youth voting rates, support by youth of political candidates, and general involvement by the youth population in the 2008 election.<ref>{{cite news |first =Michelle | last = Sullivan |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/04/politics/uwire/main4568563.shtml |title='Facebook Effect' Mobilizes Youth Vote |work = CBS News |date=November 3, 2008 |accessdate=March 23, 2010}}</ref>

In February 2008, a Facebook group called "One Million Voices Against FARC" organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians marched in protest against the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]], better known as the FARC (from the group's Spanish name).<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=August 1, 2010 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2008/0204/p04s02-woam.html |title=Facebook used to target Colombia's FARC with global rally |work=Christian Science Monitor | location = Boston |date=February 4, 2008 |author=Brodzinsky, Sibylla }}</ref> In August 2010, one of North Korea's official government websites and the official news agency of the country, [[Uriminzokkiri]], joined Facebook.<ref>{{cite news | first = Laura | last = Roberts | title = North Korea joins Facebook | date = August 21, 2010 | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7957222/North-Korea-joins-Facebook.html | work= The Daily Telegraph | accessdate =August 22, 2010 | location=London}}</ref>

[[File:2011 Egyptian protests Facebook & jan25 card.jpg|250px|thumbnail|right|A man during the 2011 Egyptian protests carrying a card saying "Facebook, #jan25, The Egyptian Social Network".]]

In January 2011, Facebook played a major role in generating the first spark for the [[2011 Egyptian revolution]].<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html The faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0' By John D. Sutter, CNN]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2044142,00.html Is Egypt About to Have a Facebook Revolution? Time Magazine]</ref> On January 14, the Facebook page of "We are all khaled Said" was started by Wael Ghoniem Create Event to invite the Egyptian people to "peaceful demonstrations" on January 25. As in Tunisia, Facebook become the primary tool for connecting all protesters, which lead the Egyptian government of Prime Minister [[Ahmed Nazif|Nazif]] to ban Facebook, Twitter and another websites on January 26,m<ref>[http://mashable.com/2011/01/26/facebook-blocked-in-egypt/ Facebook & Twitter Both Blocked in Egypt - Mashable.com]</ref> then ban all mobile and Internet connections for all of Egypt at midnight January 28. After 18 days, the uprising forced President [[Mubarak]] to resign.

In 2011 there was a controversial ruling by French government to uphold a 1992 decree which stipulates that commercial enterprises should not be promoted on news programs. President Nicolas Sarkozy's colleagues have agreed that it will enforce a law so that the word "Facebook" will not be allowed to be spoken on the television or on the radio.<ref>{{cite news|author=Oliver Pickup |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394558/French-ban-words-Twitter-Facebook-used-TV-radio.html |title=French ban the words 'Twitter' and 'Facebook' from being used on TV and radio |work=Daily Mail |date= June 6, 2011|accessdate=October 29, 2011 |location=London}}</ref>

In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the [[Federal Election Commission]] to form a [[political action committee]] under the name ''FB PAC''.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/facebook-forms-its-own-pac_n_982053.html | title=Facebook forms its own Political Action Committee | date=September 26, 2011 |work=Huffington Post | accessdate=September 27, 2011 | first=Luke | last=Johnson}}</ref> In an email to ''[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]'', a spokesman for Facebook said "FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."<ref>{{cite news | url=http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/183951-facebook-forming-own-pac-to-back-candidates | title=Facebook to form its own PAC to back political candidates | first=Gautham | last=Nagesh | date=September 26, 2011 | publisher=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] | accessdate=September 27, 2011}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* American author [[Ben Mezrich]] published a book in July 2009 about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook, titled ''[[The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hempel |first=Jessi |title=The book that Facebook doesn't want you to read |url=http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/25/technology/founding_of_facebook.fortune/|work =CNN |accessdate=July 3, 2010 | date=June 25, 2009}}</ref>
* ''[[The Social Network]]'', a drama film directed by [[David Fincher]] about the founding of Facebook, was released October 1, 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Social Network (2010) |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/ |publisher = Internet Movie DataBase |accessdate=July 3, 2010}}</ref> Mark Zuckerberg has said that ''The Social Network'' is inaccurate.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mark Zuckerberg Calls The Social Network Inaccurate |url=http://www.limelife.com/blog-entry/Mark-Zuckerberg-Calls-The-Social-Network-Inaccurate-VIDEO/77351.html |date=October 20, 2010 | first = Jeffery | last = Racheff |work = Limelife}}</ref>
* In response to the [[Everybody Draw Mohammed Day]] controversy and the ban of the website in Pakistan, an Islamic version of the website was created, called [[MillatFacebook]].<ref name="afp">{{cite news |last=Hussain |first=Waqar |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iOAHXhFHXrWMDdtAajYAxmypKT2w |title= Pakistanis create rival Muslim Facebook |agency =Agence France-Presse |date=May 27, 2010 |accessdate=June 9, 2010}}</ref>
* "[[You Have 0 Friends]]", an April 2010 episode of the American animated comedy series, ''[[South Park]]'', explicitly parodied Facebook.<ref name=GuardianMediaMonkey8April2010>{{cite news |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2010/apr/08/south-park-season-4-episode-14-facebook |title=South Park parodies Facebook |work=Guardian media blog |date=April 8, 2010 |accessdate=June 7, 2010 | location=London}}</ref>
* At age 102, [[Ivy Bean]] of [[Bradford]], England joined Facebook in 2008, making her one of the oldest people ever on Facebook.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5327822/Oldest-Tweeter-talks-cuppas-and-casserole-on-Twitter-at-104.html | title = Oldest Tweeter talks cuppas and casserole on Twitter at 104 | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | date = May 15, 2009 | location = London }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | first = Alex | last = Millson | url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1298433/Stars-pay-tribute-worlds-oldest-Twitter-user-Ivy-Bean-dies-aged-104.html?ITO=1490 | title = Stars pay tribute to world's oldest Twitter user Ivy Bean after she dies aged 104 | newspaper = Daily Mail | location = London | date = July 28, 2010}}</ref> At the time of her death in July 2010, she had 4,962 friends on Facebook and more than 56,000 followers on Twitter.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/07/28/obit.ivy.bean/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=txV8eA_Nah8 |title=Ivy Bean, 'world's oldest Twitter user,' dead at 104 |last=Gray |first=Melissa |date=July 28, 2010 |work =CNN |accessdate=July 31, 2010}}</ref>
* On May 16, 2011, an Israeli couple named their daughter after the Facebook "like" feature.<ref>{{cite news |title=Parents name child after Facebook 'Like' button|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/05/16/baby.like.name.mashable/index.html |date=May 17, 2011 | work = CNN |first = Brenna | last = Ehrlich}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Israeli newborn named 'Like' in tribute to Facebook| url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/israeli-couple-names-daughter-like-in-tribute-to-facebook.html |date=May 16, 2011 | work = Los Angeles Times | first = Nathan |last = Olivarez-Giles}}</ref>
* Major competitors of Facebook are [[qzone]]([[qq.com]]) and [[renren]] in [[China]] and [[South Korea]]; [[VK (social network)]] and [[Odnoklassniki]] in [[Russia]], [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Moldova]], [[Ukraine]], [[Uzbekistan]]; [[Draugiem.lv]] in [[Latvia]]; [[Cloob]] in [[Iran]]; Zing in [[Vietnam]]; [[mixi]] in [[Japan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.woolor.com/thetechbook/countries-where-facebook-is-not-number-1-social-networking-website/ |title=thetechbook » Countries where facebook is not number #1 social networking website |publisher=Woolor.com |date= |accessdate=2012-12-26}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Companies|Internet}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Ambient awareness]]
* [[Cyberstalking]]
* [[List of social networking websites]]
* [[List of virtual communities with more than 100 million active users]]
* [[Six degrees of separation]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=N|30em}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Kirkpatrick, David, [http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/06/magazines/fortune/fastforward_facebook.fortune/index.htm "Why Facebook matters: It's not just for arranging dates. And it's not just another social network. Facebook offers sophisticated tools for maintaining social relationships"], ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'', October 6, 2006
* [[Daniel Miller (anthropologist)|Miller, Daniel]], ''Tales from Facebook'', [[Polity (publisher)|Polity]] 2011, ISBN 978-0-7456-5209-2
* {{cite web |url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/25/the-age-of-facebook/ |title=The Age Of Facebook |last=Arrington |first=Michael |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2012-04-25}}

==External links==
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* [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html Facebook] collected news and commentary at ''[[The New York Times]]'' <!-- NYTtopic is broken -->
* {{Guardiantopic|technology/facebook}}
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/ Facebook] collected news and commentary at ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' (London)
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/technology/03facebook.html?ref=business Facebook Founder Finds He Wants Some Privacy], in ''The New York Times'', December 3, 2007
* [http://mashable.com/2011/02/07/facebook-privacy-guide/ Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know], by Stan Schroeder, February 7, 2011
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Revision as of 05:02, 23 May 2013

Smartwaiver
Type of businessPrivate
Founded(June 2012 (2012-06))
HeadquartersBend, Oregon, U.S.
Area servedWorldwide
IndustryInternet
URLsmartwaiver.com
LaunchedJune 2012 (2012-06)
Current statusActive

Smartwaiver is a privately held software company that offers online liability waiver software for businesses. Its aim is to digitize the paper liability waiver signing process.

History

Smartwaiver was founded in 2012 by former Webshots co-founder, Andy Laakmann, and the founder of Spadout, Mark Silliman. The NFL used Smartwaiver during the NFL Experience at SuperBowl XLVI, collecting over 200,000 digital waivers in three days.[1]Bend startup gets tech ticket to Super Bowl (News Video). KTVZ. January 30, 2013. Event occurs at 0:30. Smartwaiver is headquartered in Bend, Oregon and has 7 employees.

Features

The company has created numerous applications that convert the process of signing paper liability waivers into an interactive, digital process. Patent pending technology from Smartwaiver includes Auto Photo Capture, an application that automatically takes photos of participants while signing a digital liability waiver and attaches the individual’s photo to the signed copy of the digital liability waiver.

Official website Template:Riding Crest of a Waive Template:NFL Experience

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bend startup gets tech ticket to Super Bowl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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