Before we dive into the future of Facebook, a look back into the history of the eight year old company might provide some perspective.
In 2004, TheFacebook.com shows up on college radars across the US. Today’s young professionals can recall their first opportunity to login once the coveted .edu email address was assigned.
Moving into 2005, students could relax knowing the delay involved with typing “T-H-E” before Facebook.com was alleviated and thus, would allow them access to the site a bit sooner. The compromise? Letting high school students join in on the Facebook fun.
2006 introduced the News Feed and the beginning on Facebook’s privacy struggle and user protests, held on, you guessed it, Facebook. With this, Facebook welcomed anyone with an email to join.
Ads are introduced in 2007, alongside a spiffy iPhone-specific Facebook site for easier browsing on the go. And 2008 brings Facebook chat – real time conversations with your Facebook friends, eliminating the need to login to AIM ever again.
Let’s just call 2009, the year of the “like”. While in 2010 sharing where you are with friends via Facebook Places highlighted the privacy struggle again that seeped in 2011’s anticipation of a new design.
Today, we are experiencing a Facebook timeline revolt, the ever-present brand updates between posts from friends and the most recent addition, Facebook Pages, a new app just for brand managers.
Some say Facebook is still on the way up. Others weigh in that the site will be irrelevant in years to come.
