What is facebook? Facebook is the largest, most popular social network in the world. As of July, 2011 the site had 800 million active users. That’s right, almost a billion people use facebook on a regular basis. In the beginning facebook was intended for college students only. As a matter of fact, you had to have a .edu email address to even be able to register for the site. It started off at Harvard and quickly made its way around to other elite colleges and universities.

Eventually, because of its extreme popularity, creator Mark Zuckerberg decided to open it up to everyone. The site quickly overtook myspace and became one of the most visited websites on the world wide web. The ease at which you can keep in contact with and share just about everything with old friends is what draws so many to the site. And unlike other social networking sites, you must use a real name to register with facebook.

Once you register you will be able to create a profile page. Your profile is what tells people who you are, where you are located, your status, who your friends are and so much more. Your profile is what helps people find you. They can use your name, email address, high school, university and so much more to find you. Once you become friends with someone you can see their entire profile including contact information.

You profile can contain a variety of different applications. Some of them include your favorite movies and maps of places you have traveled. These applications are created by developers who are not employed by facebook. Besides sharing pictures on facebook, you can also share news stories, videos, websites and much more. These days just about every website has a ìlikeî button that you can click when you want to share something with friends.

Over the years facebook has undergone some changes. They have added new things and taken away others. One of the biggest problems people have with facebook is the privacy issues. Privacy doesn’t seem to be taken very seriously on the site. Even still, the world just can’t seem to get enough. The number of active users is steadily on the rise. They will continue to grow and dominate the social networking space. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next couple of years the site has a active user base of a billion or more.