World Civilization

FACEBOOK

As we all are very familiar to this word FACEBOOK which is an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduaro Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

Here is an brief detail of facebook



Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: FB
Founded	February 4, 2004 (10 years ago)
Headquarters	Menlo Park, California, US
Area served	United States (2004–05) Worldwide (2005–present)
Founder(s)	· Mark Zuckerberg · Eduardo Saverin · Andrew McCollum · Dustin Moskovitz · Chris Hughes
Key people	Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and CEO) Sheryl Sandberg (COO)
Industry	Internet
Revenue	US$7.87 billion (2013)
Operating income	US$2.80 billion (2013)
Net income	US$1.50 billion (2013)
Total assets	US$17.89 billion (2013)
Total equity	US$15.47 billion (2013)
Employees	8,348 (September 2014)
Subsidiaries	Instagram WhatsApp Oculus VR PrivateCore
Website	www.facebook.comTor: facebookcorewwwi.onion
Written in	C++, PHP (as HHVM) and D language
Alexa rank	2 (September 2014)
Type of site	Social networking service
Registration	Required
Users	864 million daily active users on average for September 2014^[
Available in	Multilingual (70)
Current status	Active

HISTORY

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a "cleaner" look.After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008. On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.

FACEBOOK BUG BOUNTY PROGRAM

On July 29, 2011, Facebook announced its Bug Bounty Program in which security researchers will be paid a minimum of $500 for reporting security holes on Facebook website. Facebook's whitehat page for security researchers says: "If you give us a reasonable time to respond to your report before making any information public and make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our service during your research, we will not bring any lawsuit against you or ask law enforcement to investigate you.

India, which has the second largest number of bug hunters in the world, tops the Facebook Bug Bounty Program with the largest number of valid bugs. "Researchers in Russia earned the highest amount per report in 2013, receiving an average of $3,961 for 38 bugs. India contributed the largest number of valid bugs at 136, with an average reward of $1,353. The USA reported 92 issues and averaged $2,272 in rewards. Brazil and the UK were third and fourth by volume, with 53 bugs and 40 bugs, respectively, and average rewards of $3,792 and $2,950", Facebook quoted in a post.

A Facebook "White Hat" debit card, given to researchers who report security bugs

Media impact

In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook,The company began its push by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook's top executives at an "influencers' summit" in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved in campaigns for True Blood,American Idol, and Top Gear. News and media outlets such as the Washington Post, Financial Timesand ABC News have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles. In 2012, the beauty was run exclusively using Facebook.

Social impact

Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to reunite lost family members and friends because of the widespread reach of its network. One such reunion was between John Watson and the daughter he had been seeking for 20 years. They met after Watson found her Facebook profile. Another father–daughter reunion was between Tony Macnauton and Frances Simpson, who had not seen each other for nearly 48 years.^[

Health impact

Many Facebook users, especially adolescents, display references to alcohol and substance use on their Facebook profiles. One study of alcohol displays on underage college Facebook users found that 35.7% participant profiles displayed alcohol. This can include photos of underage drinking, or status updates describing alcohol or substance use. This is particularly concerning because new social media such as Facebook can influence adolescents by acting as a "superpeer," promoting norms of behavior among other adolescents.^[ Regardless of whether these displays represent real offline behavior or are posted just to make the Facebook user "look cool", displaying these references may lead to an expectation by friends that the adolescent does or will drink alcohol in the future.

Unfriending psychological impact

Although Facebook has an upside of friending people, there is also the downside of having someone unfriend or reject another person, according to psychologist Susan Krauss Whitbourne Whitbourne refers to unfriended persons on Facebook as victims of estrangement. Unfriending someone is seldom a mutual decision and the person often does not know they have been unfriended