When Facebook Started
In February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg introduced "The facebook", as it was originally known; the name drawn from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and also personnel. Within 24 Hr, 1,200 Harvard pupils had actually subscribed, as well as after one month, over half of the undergraduate population had an account.
The network was without delay extended to other Boston universities, the Ivy League as well as at some point all US colleges. It became Facebook.com in August 2005 after the address was purchased for $200,000. US senior high schools might subscribe from September 2005, then it started to spread worldwide, reaching UK universities the following month.
As of September 2006, the network was prolonged beyond universities to anybody with a signed up e-mail address. The website continues to be complimentary to join, and also makes a profit via marketing earnings. Yahoo and also Google are amongst companies which have expressed interest in a buy-out, with rumoured numbers of around $2bn (₤ 975m) being reviewed. Mr Zuckerberg has actually up until now chosen not to offer.
The site's attributes have actually remained to develop during 2007. Individuals could currently offer gifts to close friends, article complimentary classified advertisements or even establish their very own applications - graffiti as well as Scrabble are particularly prominent.
This month the firm announced that the number of signed up customers had gotten to 30 million, making it the biggest social-networking website with an education and learning emphasis.
Previously in the year there were rumours that Royal prince William had signed up, but it was later disclosed to be a plain impostor. The MP David Miliband, the radio DJ Jo Whiley, the actor Orlando Blossom, the musician Tracey Emin and the creator of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, are amongst validated top-level members.
This month officials prohibited a flash-mob-style water battle in Hyde Park, organised through Facebook, because of public security worries. And there was even more controversy at Oxford as pupils realised that university authorities were checking their Facebook profiles.
The lawful situation against Facebook dates back to September 2004, when Divya Narendra, as well as the bros Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, that founded the social-networking website ConnectU, implicated Mr Zuckerberg of replicating their concepts and also coding. Mr Zuckerberg had functioned as a computer programmer for them when they were all at Harvard prior to Facebook was created.
The situation was rejected due to a triviality in March 2007 however without a ruling.