Facebook Profile: What is Facebook?

The idea of Facebook can be quite confusing to those new to social networking. So what is Facebook? It is a place to communicate with friends and family, to share photographs or funny links you find on the Web, to play social games like Farmville or Mafia Wars, search for long-lost friends or even chat interactively with your buddies.

In short, it is your home on the web. Find out more you can do with Facebook and why you should use it.

Facebook sprung from its roots as a school-based social network to became the most popular social network in the world. A few keys to Facebook's success is its ability to appeal to both people and businesses, the success of Facebook's developers network which has turned Facebook into a thriving platform, and Facebook Connect's ability to reach out to the rest of the web and provide a single login that works across multiple sites.

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Facebook Profile: Key Features

* Facebook allows you to maintain a friends list and choose privacy settings to tailor who can see what on your profile
* Facebook allows you to upload photos and maintain photo albums that can be shared with your friends
* Facebook supports interactive online chat and the ability to comment on your friends "walls" in order to keep in touch or just say 'hi'.
* Facebook supports groups and fan pages, allowing businesses to effectively use Facebook as a vehicle for social media marketing
* Facebook's developer network delivers advanced functionality in the form of social apps like Flixster and Vampire Wars
* Facebook Connect allows websites to interact with Facebook and allows Facebook to be used as a universal login authentication service

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Facebook Profile: History

Facebook is a social network founded in February of 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Originally a social network for students of Harvard University, it became a hit on campus and expanded to other colleges. In 2005, Facebook opened itself to high schools, and in 2006, it was open to everyone. Since then, it has experienced tremendous growth, bypassing MySpace in terms of global popularity.

In 2007, Facebook launched the Facebook Platform, which allowed developers to create applications on the network. Rather than simply being badges or widgets to adorn on a Facebook page, these applications allowed friends to interact by giving gifts or playing games, such as chess. In 2008, Facebook launched Facebook Connect, which competed with OpenSocial and Google Friend Connect as a universal login authentication service.