The Social Network
(Great title considering our Netflix Party next week!)
By Anabell Mazzan and Hayden Minard
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A screenshot of Mark’s “The Web”: a java application
that allowed him to digitally map out his social circle.
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From the moment Zuckerberg arrived at Harvard, he was creating ways for people to interact with each other online. His first project, Course Match, was a tool to help students pick their classes and see who else was taking them so they could feel more comfortable in this new college experience.
Course Match was the first of many projects that all shared one theme—social connectivity—by taking your in-person relationships and replicating them online.
Do you think that Zuckerberg was revolutionary in his idea of social networks? Can you think of other sites that either followed this idea or came before it?
Thefacebook
Over the 2003 winter break Mark Zuckerberg started on his most important project yet…
Thefacebook.
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A screenshot of Mark Zuckerberg’s personal profile on Thefacebook.
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Zuckerberg’s project quickly evolved into something greater. Thefacebook became a social network used by more than three fourths of the Harvard student body that mimicked social circles almost exactly. This wasn’t the same as MySpace where you could put up a fake persona and be anyone, Thefacebook was your identity, just digital.
Thefacebook was so popular, it expanded to other colleges in no time, first to ivy leagues and then to other prestigious campuses. The decision to keep Thefacebook in a more controlled demographic, ultimately turned out to be one of the key factors to the site’s success. Mark wanted to conquer the world, but to him the world was college, and every other user felt the same way.
Do you think that Zuckerberg’s choice to contain Thefacebook to college kids at first was a smart business move? If so, why? And if not, what would you have done differently?
Entering Palo Alto pushed Facebook to maturity; it came time to take Thefacebook seriously. One of Sean Parker’s last acts prior to stepping down was to secure the famous domain: Facebook.com. Parker is the reason “the” was removed, claiming that it watered down the name. 2005 marks the branding of the Facebook we know.
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| A picture of the entrance to the original Facebook office in Palo Alto. |
Summer of 2005 saw the exponential growth of users, pageviews, and revenue, and in October 2005, Facebook Photos launched. This addition provided more content to Facebook and proved exceedingly successful since, within three weeks, Facebook hosted more photos than Flickr.
But growth wasn’t the thing that kept Facebook going, it was their openness to new markets. Going overseas was one that flourished, but making a timeline made people feel spied on and uncomfortable.
Ideas brought more attention to this platform and gave way to the start of our internet future. Zuckerberg’s vision became a reality -- To bring everyone together when distanced.
What are some things from early Facebook that influenced the social media we know and love today?
Zuckerberg was not revolutionary in his idea, because Friendster had the same idea, the only difference was that Zuckerberg targeted colleges and not the general populace. This idea was a really smart move because college kids are really social, it's the time when you form all your connections and start to really social network. Things like newsfeed and status update are very common today.
ReplyDeleteyes, Zuckerberg proved that every great idea is only as good as it's target market. Also, by limiting Facebook to college students initially, he created a buzz and a demand for other markets (like high school students) to want to join. It was INSANE at CHS the first few days Facebook was available for high school.
DeleteI believe that his idea of a social network was revolutionary because it is shown how people really wanted to interact with each other online. By having these social networks it helped foster and streamline these interactions. Some other social network services are Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, and Google Plus.
ReplyDeleteI think that limiting the Facebook to college kids was a good choice because they would be more likely to embrace this new platform and help it spread quickly. These people grew up with the internet and were more keen on using it.
Some things that they did early on that influenced social media today was their use of pictures and their ability to have their service be used by everyone all over the world.
I would agree that he was revolutionary in the sense that he connected people who wanted to be connected, people who already knew each other and wanted to interact online.
DeleteI forgot Google+ existed. I guess it was similar to MySpace, in that it was popular for a bit but then died several years later, when other social networks became more popular.
DeleteI think Facebook inspired a whole long list of future social networks, including many that we know today, such as twitter, Instagram, Discord, Snapchat, and more. I think it was very smart to start with college students only because it controlled the spread to a point where they could increase their resources efficiently as more people used the site. Things today were influenced greatly by Facebook groups, News Feed, and groups based specifically around schools. Many of these have become important in today's social media forms.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was important to control the spread. If they had released Facebook to anyone who wanted to use it, they could have experienced a lot more technological problems due to a sudden and dramatic increase in usage. By releasing Facebook to colleges in groups, they could anticipate and prepare for how many new users would join.
DeleteAs an aside, I finally used Discord last night. Genius.
DeleteYeah, Discord is very user-friendly while also being extremely powerful and useful for everything it provides.
DeleteI was kind of amazed at how easy and useful Discord is. Before the current situation, I didn't really need it, but we are playing a lot of virtual games with friends these days (social distancing!!) and discord is the only way to go.
Deletehaha yeah its especially nice to talk to people in classes
DeleteI can see that, but teachers have to stay within the Google ecosystem. I do plan to use it a lot personally while we are in stay at home mode!
DeleteI think that he wasn't original in his idea, think of Friendster, but he was revolutionary in the way that he went about expansion and linking. It was very controlled and calculated so that him and his coworkers could keep up with the expansion, and I think that that lead to the success of the company, in part.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a smart move to keep it contained, as I mentioned before. i wouldn't change a thing about their business model.
Status updates and the idea of posting to a community are all things that we see in today's modern sites.
I agree that his idea was definitely a copy of other things on the Internet at the time. I also think that his way of creating Facebook was so unique that he stood out. By making Facebook more serious and only geared toward college kids, he made a good business.
DeleteYeah, by targeting college students he really was able to control the market and make a good business. College kids are looking to make friends and experience as much as possible and this gave them the platform to do so.
DeleteI think I may have mentioned this somewhere else, but there was a definite need for a social networking service within colleges, so starting with college students contributed to the success of Facebook.
DeleteI think it's revolutionary that Zuckerberg came up with the idea- or a version of it- for Facebook at such a young age. Social networking was the next step, and Facebook was the first service to really embrace that. I do think the choice to contain it to college kids was smart, because older/younger generations wouldn't have known what to do with Facebook at first, and I think presenting the service to a demographic that really needed it was very smart. I think the feed of people's updates has influenced most other social media platforms.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the feed did have a large impact on future social networking services. It is kind of the thing that is universal among all modern social media services.
DeleteI agree with this, it's amazing that someone so young could come up with such a revolutionary idea like this.
DeleteI think Mark Zuckerberg was definitely revolutionary at the time because social networking was mostly a failure up until Facebook and it's crazy how he was so young, but making such a big impact on social media as we know it. I think it might have been a smart idea to keep Thefacebook to college kids at first because they were the most tech savvy group that would be able to keep the website alive and active.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the fact that college students were the most tech savvy group definitely made keeping Thefacebook to this group a good decision.
DeleteDo you think if Zuckerberg had tried to expand into other colleges and high schools sooner that he would have been more or less successful?
DeleteYou make good points. College kids were the prime target because they were young as well. As they grow older, the idea is that they will stay on and stay connected, which has proven true today.
DeleteOne of the biggest barriers to expanding the user base was the infrastructure (computers) needed to run Facebook as they brought more users online.
Delete@ Hannah
Deletei really think that the key to Facebook's success was keeping to the prestigious colleges, all of the rich ivy league kids had the tech to use facebook and spend countless hours online
@ Hannah- I don't know if it would have been more or less successful, I just. don't think Facebook/Zuckerberg had the facilities at that point to open up to more people that quickly.
DeleteI think if Zuckerberg tried to move into other campuses, he would have been more successful. It would've given him a slow build up which could've helped with figuring out what Facebook needed to become in its own time.
DeleteI think Zuckerberg was revolutionary in his ideas about social networks because he found a way to display the same social interactions that happened offline on the Internet. Facebook was similar to MySpace, which allowed people to create profiles and interact. Zuckerberg made a similar thing to Myspace, but Facebook was more serious. I do think his decision to stick to college kids was smart because it allowed him to gain total control of one demographic before moving on to others. He was able to be successful and grow at the same time. There was a news feed that allowed users to scroll through and see what was new. This can be seen on Instagram. The profile pictures and profile information can also be seen on most social media, such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI think that Zuckerberg's choice to contain Thefacebook to college kids at first was a good one. Rather than attempting to gear the site towards everyone, it was smart to first keep it contained. This way, it became a "thing" for college students to have, and something that they would keep post-college. In this way, the site was able to expand naturally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that college students would take the platform on with them even after they graduated and this means thefacebook would enter into the real world. It would become an important part of life for the first generation of users and they would pass it on to the next college students, or even expand it by sharing with colleagues and eventually everyone.
DeleteI like your point about letting it expand naturally. As people graduated and new classes entered the schools, Facebook was automatically reaching new audiences
DeleteI think Zuckerberg made a huge impact because of his idea on social networks. Obviously he had a great idea that was ahead of its time, but I think timing played a large role in skyrocketing this idea. Facebook was able to take the idea of Friendster but make it work faster for people who wanted instant gratification. Facebook did buy Instagram which has similar styles, but different targets today. Zuckerberg's choice to target college kids first was very smart because they were the age that was intrigued and familiar with the internet. It also helped with not overloading the site, so managing traffic was easier. This was a very smart move. The news feed is very common in all social media today, which gives recommendations and picks things based on your user activity.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he was way ahead of his time, and that timing was what made him successful. It also was a great idea to keep it just to kids, because their generation was so intrigued involved. Opening it up to the older ones could have been a waste.
DeleteIt'll be interesting to see what you all say when we watch the movie!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually really excited for the movie because the book, while it was kind of unbiased, I'm already seeing that side of wanting full control of something with the development of facebook, the way that he systematically expanded and was able to control everything.
DeleteI really like the movie even though it's based on books written by people who eventually sued Zuckerberg. It may not be a "true" portrayal of him at the time, but it's definitely how he was perceived by those close to him.
DeleteZuckerberg was definitely revolutionary with social networking, he paved the way for future social media. Without him, applications like Snapchat or Instagram may not have been invented. Some early things from Facebook include message rooms, pictures with captions (Instagram), or just saying whats on your mind (Twitter).
ReplyDeleteI think Zuckerberg was revolutionary in his idea for a social network. I think that blogs and other sites tried to connect people, but no other sites brought people together based on who you know and mutual friends (followers) quite like this. I think it was smart to contain thefacebook to college students at first to have a more controlled demographic so they could fix certain aspects of the site and assess its popularity before releasing it on a much larger scale to the public.
ReplyDelete