Facebook today is undoubtedly the most popular Social Networking Site in the world and the second most popular site in the US after MySpace. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Zukerberg, a Computer Science student of Harward with his room mates. Initially, the membership was restricted to the students of the Harward College and it operated as an Internal Service Provider (ISN), but within a month the membership was extended to students of Strandford, Columbia and Yale Universities. After phased expansion for over two years, Facebook finally opened up internationally to anyone above the age of 13 on September 26, 2006.

The registration procedures are simple and the Facebook offers an array of unique features for networking experience. This includes the wall (where users and friends can leave a message, similar to the scrapbook of Orkut), poke (where the users can virtually poke another friend), Status Updates (to tell the friends about their state of mind and activities), Photo albums (unlimited number of photos have been allowed under this), chat, gifts, videos and a range of games which can be designed by the users themselves. Facebook has been blocked in many organisations as the employers feel that their staff is wasting time away in the activities on Facebook.

The privacy settings of Facebook are intact and certain information which is not to be shared with all can be kept under wraps. Facebook also has a feature called Market Place, which lets users post free classified ads. The website generates a major part of its revenue from banner advartising and has Microsoft as its partner for this purpose. Though Facebook does not operate its own blogs, blogs of users can be imported from other sites and will be displayed on the wall of the user. Another drawback is that Facebook does not have a separate section for testimonials, though similar applications generated by users are available for the purpose.

Facebook is supposedly growing at a rate of 5 million users per week and if Facebook were to be a country, it would have been as large as that of Brazil’s. Facebook is currenlty on a rocketing spree. Barack Obama used Facebook for his campaign, Dell will use Facebook for hiring and Microsoft has been influenced by Facebook in designing its operating system. Many celebrities have joined it and the site is on its rise.