Newes: HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

Founder : Mark zuckerberg

Launched : February 4, 2004

Users : 500 Million peoples

Revenue : US$800 million ( 2009 est.)

Mark zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending Harvard as a sophomore. The site represented a Harvard University version of Hot or Not. Facemash "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person".

To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network, and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images. Harvard at that time did not have a student directory with photos and basic information, and Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. That the initial site mirrored people's physical community with their real identities represented the key aspects of what later became Facebook.

The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion. Ultimately, however, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final, by uploading 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section. He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.

The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He was inspired, about the Facemash incident.On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.

Most of Facebook's revenues comes from advertising. Microsoft is Facebook's exclusive partner for serving banner advertising.