5 ms·

Dear Facebook's 200,000,000th user, here's what you missed...

25 points by twampss 18y ago

mynameishere 18y ago
Short version: You missed nothing.
dtap 18y ago
The bit about News Feed is the most important to me. News Feed. The news feed was by far the most revolutionary thing that Facebook ever did. It not only changed the way people interact with Facebook, but really with the web as a whole. It’s probably the most copied feature of Facebook, and for good reason. Facebook is nothing today without the News Feed.
ed 18y ago
None of this is very notable, but there was also Wirehog: a web app Zuck (et. al.) wrote to share files over Facebook. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehog
lurkinggrue 18y ago
I just don't get facebook. It feels like the AOL of social media. The part that turned me off is when I tried to sign up it wouldn't let me continue without giving it the logon to my email accounts. I prefer far more open systems like friend feed.
- pavel_lishin 18y ago
  Are you sure it wouldn't let you continue? That absolutely doesn't sound right.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
  - philh 18y ago
    You certainly don't have to give it your login details, but as I recall that isn't entirely clear. There's a "skip this step" button, but the language used doesn't make it sound like that option exists. I may be misremembering though, and I expect the exact details change from time to time.
    - lurkinggrue 18y ago
      They didn't make it obvious and it comes off as they just want to rummage though all my accounts. It turned me off to them rather quickly. Right after I signed up they started Beacon.
  - rythie 18y ago
    It's a while since I signed up to facebook, but I've never done that. Hi5 and LinkedIn still bug me about not doing it, everytime I login and it's not like I even use gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc. anyway.
- bmelton 18y ago
  It prompts you to provide your email logins so that it can find friends for you. It's not very prominent, but there's a "skip this step" link on that page.
lpgauth 18y ago
I like it better when it was closed to Universities and Companies... The signal to noise as increased exponentially since the introduction of regions.
chris 18y ago
Anyone recall the ability to see where your friends last logged in from at their school? ex: "Chris last logged in from Simmons Hall". I found it pretty interesting they had these names, given the rDNS didn't resolve to anything descriptive.
- selcouth 18y ago
  When did it do that? I was in pretty early, but dont remember that one....woulda been nice!
  - Alex3917 18y ago
    It ended in September 2006. It was cool because you could see the other person's IP, which was useful because you could then use your Google analytics to see which hot girls were clicking the links from your facebook profile to your home page.
- daveambrose 18y ago
  I totally forgot about this, but remember seeing my friends "in the library" or dorm room.
selcouth 18y ago
And who could forget Zuck's photo up in the upper right corner. :D
- daveambrose 18y ago
  Now, if I remember correctly, there were theories as to "who" was in that photo. Groups on FB started popping up seeing if it was this one kid from a certain school that was used in that photo.

25 points by twampss 18y ago

Short version: You missed nothing.

dtap 18y ago

The bit about News Feed is the most important to me. News Feed. The news feed was by far the most revolutionary thing that Facebook ever did. It not only changed the way people interact with Facebook, but really with the web as a whole. It’s probably the most copied feature of Facebook, and for good reason. Facebook is nothing today without the News Feed.

ed 18y ago

None of this is very notable, but there was also Wirehog: a web app Zuck (et. al.) wrote to share files over Facebook. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehog

lurkinggrue 18y ago

I just don't get facebook. It feels like the AOL of social media. The part that turned me off is when I tried to sign up it wouldn't let me continue without giving it the logon to my email accounts. I prefer far more open systems like friend feed.

pavel_lishin 18y ago
Are you sure it wouldn't let you continue? That absolutely doesn't sound right.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- philh 18y ago
  You certainly don't have to give it your login details, but as I recall that isn't entirely clear. There's a "skip this step" button, but the language used doesn't make it sound like that option exists. I may be misremembering though, and I expect the exact details change from time to time.
  - lurkinggrue 18y ago
    They didn't make it obvious and it comes off as they just want to rummage though all my accounts. It turned me off to them rather quickly. Right after I signed up they started Beacon.
- rythie 18y ago
  It's a while since I signed up to facebook, but I've never done that. Hi5 and LinkedIn still bug me about not doing it, everytime I login and it's not like I even use gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc. anyway.
bmelton 18y ago
It prompts you to provide your email logins so that it can find friends for you. It's not very prominent, but there's a "skip this step" link on that page.

lpgauth 18y ago

I like it better when it was closed to Universities and Companies... The signal to noise as increased exponentially since the introduction of regions.

chris 18y ago

Anyone recall the ability to see where your friends last logged in from at their school? ex: "Chris last logged in from Simmons Hall". I found it pretty interesting they had these names, given the rDNS didn't resolve to anything descriptive.

selcouth 18y ago
When did it do that? I was in pretty early, but dont remember that one....woulda been nice!
- Alex3917 18y ago
  It ended in September 2006. It was cool because you could see the other person's IP, which was useful because you could then use your Google analytics to see which hot girls were clicking the links from your facebook profile to your home page.
daveambrose 18y ago
I totally forgot about this, but remember seeing my friends "in the library" or dorm room.

selcouth 18y ago

And who could forget Zuck's photo up in the upper right corner. :D

daveambrose 18y ago
Now, if I remember correctly, there were theories as to "who" was in that photo. Groups on FB started popping up seeing if it was this one kid from a certain school that was used in that photo.