Media Culture

It was 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg started asking his fellow Harvard University students to try out his new idea known as "the facebook." The online community allowed his peers to create personal profiles, search for profiles and invite others from the university to join. It was a smashing success almost immediately. In 2006, Facebook opened its virtual doors to anyone with a registered e-mail address. Not content to rest upon his accomplishments, Zuckerberg continued to push for new features. One of the most revolutionary was creating an application programming interface (API) for third-party developers. Suddenly, programmers could design applications that could tap into Facebook's massive population. Applications range from simple games and diversions to clever marketing campaigns. In 2009, Facebook acquired Friend Feed and began to incorporate its aggregation services into Facebook profiles. Facebook is still a private company -- in early 2010, two major investors announced that Facebook would not seek an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010. Looks like you'll have to wait a while longer to get your hands on Facebook stock. In short: Facebook has become the most visited social networking site in the world, receiving more than 10 million unique visitors than MySpace in January 2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site on our list. However, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook may be planning technology that would allow children under 13 to register for the site and give parents more control over how their kids use it. Mechanisms being tested include connecting children's accounts to their parents' and controls that would allow parents to decide whom their kids can 'friend' and what applications they can use," the article explained, citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation. "The under-13 features could enable Facebook and its partners to charge parents for games and other entertainment accessed by their children, the people said."...