Facebook has suffered some ignominious strikeouts during its 10 years. Consider these 10 features and products that did not fly.
Few may have predicted the upward push of Facebook when Harvard University sophomore Mark Zuckerberg launched it with friends from his dorm room 10 years ago.
Back then it was “thefacebook.com,” a social network exclusively for Harvard students. The service had no photo albums, no Timeline, no News Feed. It was a bare-bones, static profile page where users could list their basic information and interests.
Facebook’s popularity rose quickly, amassing millions of users because it expanded to varsities and universities, high schools, and beyond. The social network boasts greater than 1000000000 users worldwide today.
In a up to date interview, Zuckerberg reflected on Facebook’s tenure and his own success: “I’m just really lucky. i actually feel this deep responsibility, and that i attempt to help folks here feel how unique of a position we’re in, and that we have to do the greatest that we will,” he said.
[From a Harvard dorm room to at least one billion users. Read Facebook History: 10 Defining Moments.]
While Facebook’s rise to fame was fast, it wasn’t without obstacles: Inside the last 10 years, the social network endured its fair proportion of turmoil in countless lawsuits and diverse privacy debacles. Just months after launching in 2004, Harvard University rival social network ConnectU filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that Zuckerberg copied its idea, stealing source code and intellectual property.
The social network was on the center of many other lawsuits since then. The corporate settled two: one concerning Facebook Beacon, its controversial ad platform, and another involving Sponsored Stories, another form of ad. Both lawsuits centered on users’ privacy.
Facebook reported that it was profitable for the primary time in 2009. That year, the corporate brought in $777 million in revenue — nearly triple that of 2008, SEC documents later revealed. It has come a ways since then. Last week, Facebook reported fourth-quarter sales of $2.6 billion, up 63% from the identical time last year.
In a decade, Zuckerberg’s team converted thefacebook.com from a standalone profile page to a social network with a bevy of features: Timeline, News Feed, Chat, Messaging, advertising, Pages, Facebook Credits, photo albums, commenting, sharing, and more.
Along the style, Facebook has tested plenty of experimental designs and contours, green-lighting some and killing others. Here is a seriously look into 10 features from Facebook’s past that did not survive. Which of them got you riled, Facebook users?
Kristin Burnham currently serves as InformationWeek.com’s Senior Editor, covering social media, social business, IT leadership and IT careers. Earlier than joining InformationWeek in July 2013, she served in various roles at CIO magazine and CIO.com, most recently as senior … View Full Bio
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