Ding-dong, Deals––Facebook’s Groupon competitor for finding nearby bargains –– is dead after just four months. (Don’t feel bad if you missed out…it was available in only five cities.) Deals is a rare misstep from a company that seems to get bad press only for occasional privacy-related dustups. Despite them, Facebook has done pretty well since launching in 2004. Here are five of the top ideas that have earned the House of Zuckerberg over 750 million users and one of the top spots in tech.
Social network junkies are often portrayed as narcissists, but thanks to the News Feed, Facebook users are mostly obsessed with each other. It’s our one-stop window on the world of friends’ status updates, events, conversations, and more. But after its introduction way back in 2006, the feature was met with fears of cyberstalking and complaints about excessive app updates and other fluff cluttering users’ pages. Since then, the News Feed has gained more options for fine-tuning digital sharing and eavesdropping, making the network a safer, more appealing way to stick your nose into everybody’s business.
It’s hard to imagine a world without FarmVille and Mafia Wars, but somehow we goofed off at work without them…and a million other apps on Facebook. Everything changed when the Facebook Platform –– tools allowing developers to write apps for the site –– was unleashed in 2007. Since then apps have helped make Facebook interactions more dynamic and (occasionally…) more fun, letting users not only check in on friends, but actually do things with them. Apps have also let Facebook easily roll out new features like Gifts, Marketplace, and Video while helping all those third-party developers rake in the cash.
2008 wasn’t a great year for Facebook rivals. That’s when the company launched Facebook Connect, expanding its reach to…well, just about any networked service you’ve ever used. Today there’s hardly a website, iOS app, or even game console that doesn’t let you log into, Like, or share content by entering your Facebook account info. That not only keeps Facebook visible to the world, it helps keep existing users inside its walled garden. After all, why use other social networks when Facebook already does so much? That’s a question competitors will be trying to answer for some time to come.
Facebook doesn’t have an official mascot, but it may as well be the Like button. Since debuting in 2010, it’s gone on to become one of Facebook’s most recognizable symbols, allowing new and old users to make their voices heard about pages, causes, and status updates in an accessible and positive way. It’s Facebook’s mission and attitude in a single word. Thing is, we almost didn’t get it: the feature was originally conceived as the Awesome button, but reportedly Mark Zuckerberg, in a real one-mouse-button-or-two moment, preferred the less extreme “Like”. The rest is, like, history.
Announced in April, the Open Compute Project began as plans to build the most energy-efficient data center possible –– and with Facebook’s bucks, that meant a lotta custom hardware. The results use 38 percent less energy for 24 percent less cash than Facebook’s existing digs. How do we know? Because they’re open sourcing the designs so other companies can build green data centers, too. That’s a smart way to establish to top engineers that open doesn’t necessarily equal Google, and that Facebook is a place where serious work can be done. It’s good for the planet and Facebook’s bottom line.
