Sobreo Facebook

FACEBOOK
É um espaço virtual social que objetiva ter contatos profissionais e relacionais, com uma pitada de mercado com compra e venda de produtos e serviços. Tem uma ramificação internacional bastante considerável e é muito usado nos EUA, que preferem o Facebook ao Orkut, mais usado no Brasil. Nesse resumo, algumas partes em inglês de fácil entendimento, acredito que há informações suficientes sobre histórico, acessibilidade, facebook para iphone, características do produtos, privacidade etc. O Granovetter está por aqui.

Como mesmo afirmam: O Facebook é uma rede social que reúne pessoas a seus amigos e àqueles com quem trabalham, estudam e convivem. As pessoas participam do Facebook para manter contato com seus amigos, carregar um número ilimitado de fotos, compartilhar links e vídeos e aprender mais sobre as pessoas que conhecem.
Qualquer pessoa pode participar do Facebook.
Tudo que é necessário para participar do Facebook é ter um e-mail válido. Para se conectar a colegas de trabalho ou colegas de classe, use seu e-mail do colégio ou trabalho ao cadastrar-se. Uma vez cadastrado participe da rede de sua região para se conectar com pessoas perto de você.
O Facebook é constituido de muitas redes, cada uma baseada em volta de uma empresa, localização ou escola. Participe de redes que reflitam as comunidades da sua vida real para saber mais sobre as pessoas que trabalham, vivem, ou estudam perto de você.
A plataforma do Facebook permite qualquer um, em qualquer lugar, a construir aplicativos completos que você pode escolher para usar. As possibilidades não tem fim. Defina sua experiência no Facebook escolhendo aplicativos que são úteis e relevantes para o seu mundo.

Privacidade
No Facebook as pessoas devem ter o controle sobre como e quem pode ver suas informações. As pessoas só podem ver os perfis de amigos aceitos e de pessoas de suas redes. Você pode usar nossas opções de privacidade a qualquer momento para controlar quem pode ver o quê no seu Facebook.

Empregos
O Facebook possui uma parte voltada para o anúncio de empregos.

Produto
Facebook’s simplified navigation gives users easy access to core site functions and applications. Profile, Friends, Networks and Inbox – pages core to the user experience on Facebook – have a prominent place at the top of the user’s profile page. Facebook applications – Photos, Notes, Groups, Events and Posted items – are displayed on the left side bar, along with any third-party applications a user has added to their account.

Tecnologia
Facebook is the second most-trafficked PHP site in the world, and one of the largest MySQL installations anywhere, running thousands of databases. Facebook has built a lightweight but powerful multi-language RPC framework that allows the company to seamlessly and easily tie together subsystems written in any language, running on any platform. The company is the largest user in the world of memcached, an open-source caching system, and has created a custom-built search engine serving millions of queries a day, completely distributed and entirely in-memory, with real-time updates.

Funding
Round one: $500,000 from Peter Thiel, Summer 2004; Round two: $12.7 million from Accel Partners, April 2005; Round three: $27.5 million from Greylock Partners leading the round, Meritech Capital Partners participating, and Accel Partners and Peter Thiel increasing their investment in the company.


Empregados: 600+
Usuários: 90 million active (users who have returned to the site in the last 30 days)
Empresas em: Palo Alto, Estado da Calif. (central); New York e Londres

Estatísticas
General Growth
· More than 100 million active users
· Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world (comScore)
· Facebook is the most-trafficked social media site in the world (comScore)
Demografia dos usuários
· Over 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks
· More than half of Facebook users are outside of college
· The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older
· Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities

São mais de 24 milhões de fotos baixadas diariamente
Mais de 6 milhões de grupos na página

Daqui a poucos meses o Facebook disponibilizará 15 línguas: Spanish, French, German, Russian and Korean. Our goal is to offer Facebook in as many languages as possible, as quickly as possible.

História da Empresa
2008
abril
Facebook launches Facebook ChatFacebook releases Translation application to 21 additional languages
março
Facebook updates privacy controls to include Friend List privacyFacebook launches in German
fevereiro
Facebook launches in Spanish and French
janeiro
Facebook co-sponsors Presidential Debates with ABC News
2007
novembro
Facebook launches Facebook Ads
outubro
Facebook reaches over 50 million active usersFacebook launches Facebook Platform for MobileFacebook and Microsoft expand advertising deal to cover international markets; Microsoft takes a $240 million equity stake in Facebook
julho
Facebook acquires startup Parakey
maio
Facebook launches Marketplace application for classified listingsFacebook hosts F8 event to launch Facebook PlatformFacebook Platform launches with 65 developer partners and over 85 applications
abril
Facebook reaches 20 million active users Facebook updates site design and adds network portals
março
Facebook reaches over 2 million active Canadian users and 1 million active UK users
fevereiro
Virtual gift shop launches as a feature
2006
dezembro
Facebook reaches more than 12 million active users
novembro
Share feature added on Facebook, simultaneously launched on over 20 partner sites
setembro
News Feed and Mini-Feed are introduced with additional privacy controlsFacebook expands registration so anyone can join
agosto
Facebook development platform launchesNotes application is introducedFacebook and Microsoft form strategic relationship for banner ad syndication
maio
Facebook expands to add work networks
abril
Facebook raises $27.5 million from Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and othersFacebook Mobile feature launches
2005
dezembro
Facebook reaches more than 5.5 million active users
outubro
Photos is added as an application Facebook begins to add international school networks
setembro
Facebook expands to add high school networks
agosto
The company officially changes its name to Facebook from thefacebook.com
maio
Facebook raises $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners; Facebook grows to support more than 800 college networks
2004
dezembro
Facebook reaches nearly 1 million active users
setembro
Groups application is added; the Wall is added as a Profile feature
junho
Facebook moves its base of operations to Palo Alto, Calif.
março
Facebook expands from Harvard to Stanford, Columbia and Yale
fevereiro
Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room.


Observem como convidam novos participantes: “Join our developer community and help make the web even more social”.

No que interessa à sociologia econômica selecionei esse parágrafo. Observem que a compra e venda de produtos e outros serviços são possíveis.

Marketplace
Marketplace is Facebook's self-service application for listing items for sale, housing for rent, jobs available, and so on. Users can use Marketplace to find things they want to buy or use, as well as list anything they are in the market for purchasing, renting, etc.
Gifts
Facebook Gifts are icons that can be purchased for $1 and sent to friends on Facebook. The icons are designed by Susan Kare, the designer of the original icon set for the Macintosh computer in 1983.

Também achei interessante essa "parede":
Wall
The Wall is a forum for users’ friends to post comments or insights about them. Users can always remove comments they don't like from their own Walls. They can restrict who their Wall is visible to, or turn it off entirely, by going to the "Profile" section of the Privacy page.
Importing stories into Mini-Feed
Importing stories into Mini-Feed is a feature that allows users to import activity from other sites into your Mini-Feed (and into your friends' News Feeds). The option to import stories from other sites can be found via the small "Import" link at the top of your Mini-Feed.

A interação com telefone celular também é possível.
Mobile
There are three mobile options for using Facebook on the go: Mobile Web, Mobile Uploads, and Mobile Texts. Facebook Mobile Web is an alternate version of Facebook specially designed for mobile phones. It includes just about everything from the regular site, and it fits on a little screen. Facebook Mobile Uploads allows users to upload photos and notes from their mobile phone straight to Facebook. Facebook Mobile Texts allow users to connect with friends and look up info on Facebook by using their phones to send and receive text messages.
Facebook Platform for Mobile enables any of Facebook’s 80,000 developers to extend their applications to work with mobile phones. Facebook users may opt-in to sending and receiving text messages from applications, or interact with applications on Facebook’s mobile site in a similar manner as they have already done on Facebook.
Também para iPhone: You're probably wondering what makes our iPhone application different from our iPhone website. The bottom line is that applications built for the iPhone have access to more technology than websites. For example, with the native application you can take photos with the iPhone's camera and upload them instantly to your Mobile Uploads album on Facebook. You'll also find the native application is much faster than the website, giving you more reliable access to your Friends, Photos, and Inbox.