FaceBook: The good, the bad and shockingly embarrassing photo
When you consider that Facebook was launched in February 2004 and has expanded to above 500 million members, it definitely is an incredible achievement. It is really a feat of epic levels and a tremendous success story which also reflects the growing recognition of social networking.
You can find people today whose profession is now dependant of Facebook. There’s an continuous struggle between independent application developers and development businesses for example Zynga, around the world including web design London.
Zynga is a wonderful illustration of success with Facebook. After being in business for nearly three years the company has an annual income of over $100 million dollars and are accountable for some of the most well-known applications on Facebook, specifically Farmville and Mafia Wars.
However, within the interest of fairness and objectivity, one could claim that Facebook is a bit like Marmite. You either love it or hate it. My fourteen year old niece for instance will happily devote hour after hour on Facebook, in contrast I might spend perhaps five to ten minutes on it each day or two.
How many occasions have you been out with friends, perhaps you had a few dozen too many drinks and made a total fool of yourself, which would probably have been fine pre 2004 because even if your close friends did have cameras and took pictures there was virtually no web site which could humiliate you in the unique way Facebook can.
The effect of Facebook has also passed on to companies and could now influence employment opportunities. It is widely documented that firms will try and find your profile on Facebook, just to observe if there exists something you maybe forgot to bring up. You have the ability to share with the world absolutely anything that you like and dislike, your favourite music, food, movies and your political and religious affiliations.
For some, the amount of details has gone too far. It’s often claimed that knowledge is power, and if that is the case Facebook is all powerful because they have knowledge of more than half a billion people. Some may ask exactly what possible harm could possibly come from all this understanding?
Well a lot really. Firstly, businesses will go to great lengths to accumulate information on customers and Facebook is a giant and rich data bank of buyers. Since 2004 promotion has grown to be progressively important for the company due to the fact it generates revenue. With Facebook companies can setup extremely targeted adverts, so one may argue that at least users are not inundated with random advertising. Through localizing the web site <a href=”http://www.minttwist.com/blog/1518/facebook-localization-sends-out-strong-message”> Facebook is sending out a strong message</a> of willingness to enhance their services which is certainly encouraging.
There is also a substantially darker side to personal data and information which was demonstrated during World War 2. In Germany and in other regions in Europe, as the Nazis grip extended to Poland, France, Holland and Belgium the census’ of the countries were made use of to hunt down Jews and other political enemies. Indeed this is a somewhat extreme example with the dark side of information but it did happen and demonstrates how data could be utilized in the most unfortunate possible way.
