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michigan web design
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It has been suggested that Pervasive Usability be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
An example for a web page that uses CSS Layouts
An example for a web page that uses CSS Layouts

michigan web design is a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of Markup language suitable for interpretation by Web browser and display as Graphical user interface (GUI).

The intent of michigan web design is to create a web site — a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs), forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into web page by using HTML/XHTML tags.

Improvements in browsers’ compliance with W3C standards prompted a widespread acceptance and usage of XHTML/XML in conjunction with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to position and manipulate web page elements and objects. Latest standards and proposals aim at leading to browsers’ ability to deliver a wide variety of media and accessibility options to the client possibly without employing plug-ins.

Typically web pages are classified as static or dynamic.

Static pages don’t change content and layout with every request unless a human (web master/programmer) manually updates the page.

Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on end-user’s input/interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) Content can be changed on the client side (end-user’s computer) by using client-side scripting languages (JavaScript, JScript, Actionscript, etc.) to alter DOM elements (DHTML). Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing server-side scripting languages (Coldfusion, ASP, JSP, Perl, PHP, Python, etc.). Both approaches are usually used in complex applications.

With growing specialization within communication design and information technology fields, there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between michigan web design specifically for web pages and web development for the overall logistics of all web-based services.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Web site design
o 2.1 Multidisciplinary requirements
* 3 Issues
o 3.1 Lack of collaboration in design
o 3.2 Liquid versus fixed layouts
o 3.3 Flash
o 3.4 CSS versus tables
o 3.5 How it Looks vs. How it Works
* 4 Accessible michigan web design
* 5 Website Planning
o 5.1 Purpose
o 5.2 Audience
o 5.3 Content
o 5.4 Compatibility and restrictions
o 5.5 Planning documentation
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

[edit] History

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, published a website in August 1991.[1] Berners-Lee was the first to combine Internet communication (which had been carrying email and the Usenet for decades) with hypertext (which had also been around for decades, but limited to browsing information stored on a single computer, such as interactive CD-ROM design). Websites are written in a markup language called HTML, and early versions of HTML were very basic, only giving websites basic structure (headings and paragraphs), and the ability to link using hypertext. This was new and different to existing forms of communication - users could easily navigate to other pages by following hyperlinks from page to page.

As the Web and michigan web design progressed, the markup language changed to become more complex and flexible, giving the ability to add objects like images and tables to a page. Features like tables, which were originally intended to be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table-based layout is increasingly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting and design standards like CSS further changed and enhanced the way the Web is made. As times change websites are changing inside(scripts) and out(design) because of the way programs and utilities are created and further develped.

[edit] Web site design

A Web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a Web site is defined as the arrangement and creation of Web pages that in turn make up a Web site. A Web page consists of information for which the Web site is developed. A Web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a Web page.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial Web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial Web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

* The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.
* The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.
* The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.
* The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.

A Web site typically consists of text and images. The first page of a Web site is known as the Home page or Index. Some Web sites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language/region selection, or disclaimer. Each Web page within a Web site is an HTML file which has its own URL. After each Web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks. Faster browsing speeds have led to shorter attention spans and more demanding online visitors and this has resulted in less use of Splash Pages, particularly where commercial Web sites are concerned.

Once a Web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This may be done using an FTP client. Once published, the Web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic, or hits, that the Web site receives. This may include submitting the Web site to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, exchanging links with other Web sites, creating affiliations with similar Web sites, etc.

[edit] Multidisciplinary requirements

Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The Web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills.

[edit] Issues

As in most collaborative designs, there are conflicts between differing goals and methods of web site designs. These are a few of the ongoing ones.

[edit] Lack of collaboration in design

In the early stages of the web, there wasn’t as much collaboration between michigan web designs and larger advertising campaigns, customer transactions, social networking, intranets and extranets as there is now. Web pages were mainly static online brochures disconnected from the larger projects.

Many web pages are still disconnected from larger projects. Special design considerations are necessary for use within these larger projects. These design considerations are often overlooked, especially in cases where there is a lack of leadership, lack of understanding of why and technical knowledge of how to integrate, or lack of concern for the larger project in order to facilitate collaboration. This often results in unhealthy competition or compromise between departments, and less than optimal use of web pages.

[edit] Liquid versus fixed layouts

On the web the designer has no control over several factors, including the size of the browser window, the web browser used, the input devices used (mouse, touch screen, voice command, text, cell phone number pad, etc.) and the size and characteristics of available fonts.

Some designers choose to control the appearance of the elements on the screen by using specific width designations. This control may be achieved through the use of a HTML table-based design or a more semantic div-based design through the use of CSS. Whenever the text, images, and layout of a design do not change as the browser changes, this is referred to as a fixed width design. Proponents of fixed width design prefer precise control over the layout of a site and the precision placement of objects on the page. Other designers choose a liquid design. A liquid design is one, like Wikipedia, where the design moves to flow content into the whole screen, or a portion of the screen, no matter what the size of the browser window. Proponents of liquid design prefer greater compatibility and using the screen space available. Liquid design can be achieved through the use of CSS, by avoiding styling the page altogether, or by using HTML tables (or more semantic divs) set to a percentage of the page. Both liquid and fixed design developers must make decisions about how the design should degrade on higher and lower screen resolutions. Sometimes the pragmatic choice is made to flow the design between a minimum and a maximum width. This allows the designer to avoid coding for the browser choices making up The Long Tail, while still using all available screen space. Depending on the purpose of the content, a michigan web designer may decide to use either fixed or liquid layouts on a case-by-case basis.

Similar to liquid layout is the optional fit to window feature with Adobe Flash content. This is a fixed layout that optimally scales the content of the page without changing the arrangement or text wrapping when the browser is resized.

[edit] Flash

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a proprietary, robust graphics animation/application development program used to create and deliver dynamic content, media (such as sound and video), and interactive applications over the web via the browser.

Flash is not a standard produced by a vendor-neutral standards organization like most of the core protocols and formats on the Internet. Flash is much more restrictive than the open HTML format, though, requiring a proprietary plugin to be seen, and it does not integrate with most web browser UI features like the “Back” button.

According to a study,[2] 98% of US Web users have the Flash Player installed,[3] with 45%-56% (depending on region) having the latest version.[4] Numbers vary depending on the detection scheme and research demographics.[5]

Many graphic artists use Flash because it gives them exact control over every part of the design, and anything can be animated and generally “jazzed up”. Some application designers enjoy Flash because it lets them create applications that do not have to be refreshed or go to a new web page every time an action occurs. Flash can use embedded fonts instead of the standard fonts installed on most computers. There are many sites which forgo HTML entirely for Flash. Other sites may use Flash content combined with HTML as conservatively as gifs or jpegs would be used, but with smaller vector file sizes and the option of faster loading animations. Flash may also be used to protect content from unauthorized duplication or searching. Alternatively, small, dynamic Flash objects may be used to replace standard HTML elements (such as headers or menu links) with advanced typography not possible via regular HTML/CSS (see Scalable Inman Flash Replacement).

Flash detractors claim that Flash websites tend to be poorly designed, and often use confusing and non-standard user-interfaces. Up until recently, search engines have been unable to index Flash objects, which has prevented sites from having their contents easily found. This is because many search engine crawlers rely on text to index websites. It is possible to specify alternate content to be displayed for browsers that do not support Flash. Using alternate content also helps search engines to understand the page, and can result in much better visibility for the page. However, the vast majority of Flash websites are not disability accessible (for screen readers, for example) or Section 508 compliant. An additional issue is that sites which commonly use alternate content for search engines to their human visitors are usually judged to be spamming search engines and are automatically banned.

The most recent incarnation of Flash’s scripting language (called “ActionScript”, which is an ECMA language similar to JavaScript) incorporates long-awaited usability features, such as respecting the browser’s font size and allowing blind users to use screen readers. Actionscript 2.0 is an Object-Oriented language, allowing the use of CSS, XML, and the design of class-based web applications.

[edit] CSS versus tables

For more details on this topic, see Tableless michigan web design.

Back when Netscape Navigator 4 dominated the browser market, the popular solution available for designers to lay out a Web page was by using tables. Often even simple designs for a page would require dozens of tables nested in each other. Many web templates in Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG editors still use this technique today. Navigator 4 didn’t support CSS to a useful degree, so it simply wasn’t used.

After the browser wars subsided, and the dominant browsers such as Internet Explorer became more W3C compliant, designers started turning toward CSS as an alternate means of laying out their pages. CSS proponents say that tables should be used only for tabular data, not for layout. Using CSS instead of tables also returns HTML to a semantic markup, which helps bots and search engines understand what’s going on in a web page. All modern Web browsers support CSS with different degrees of limitations.

However, one of the main points against CSS is that by relying on it exclusively, control is essentially relinquished as each browser has its own quirks which result in a slightly different page display. This is especially a problem as not every browser supports the same subset of CSS rules. For designers who are used to table-based layouts, developing Web sites in CSS often becomes a matter of trying to replicate what can be done with tables, leading some to find CSS design rather cumbersome due to lack of familiarity. For example, at one time it was rather difficult to produce certain design elements, such as vertical positioning, and full-length footers in a design using absolute positions. With the abundance of CSS resources available online today, though, designing with reasonable adherence to standards involves little more than applying CSS 2.1 or CSS 3 to properly structured markup.

These days most modern browsers have solved most of these quirks in CSS rendering and this has made many different CSS layouts possible. However, some people continue to use old browsers, and designers need to keep this in mind, and allow for graceful degrading of pages in older browsers. Most notable among these old browsers are Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5, which, according to some michigan web designers, are becoming the new Netscape Navigator 4 — a block that holds the World Wide Web back from converting to CSS design. However, the W3 Consortium has made CSS in combination with XHTML the standard for michigan web design.

[edit] How it Looks vs. How it Works

Some web developers have a graphic arts background and may pay more attention to how a page looks than considering other issues such as how visitors are going to find the page via a search engine. Some might rely more on advertising than search engines to attract visitors to the site. On the other side of the issue, search engine optimization consultants (SEOs) are concerned with how well a web site works technically and textually: how much traffic it generates via search engines, and how many sales it makes, assuming looks don’t contribute to the sales. As a result, the designers and SEOs often end up in disputes where the designer wants more ‘pretty’ graphics, and the SEO wants lots of ‘ugly’ keyword-rich text, bullet lists, and text links. One could argue that this is a false dichotomy due to the possibility that a michigan web design may integrate the two disciplines for a collaborative and synergistic solution. Because some graphics serve communication purposes in addition to aesthetics, how well a site works may depend on the graphic designer’s visual communication ideas as well as the SEO considerations.

Another problem when using lots of graphics on a page is that download times can be greatly lengthened, often irritating the user. This has become less of a problem as the internet has evolved with high-speed internet and the use of vector graphics. This is an engineering challenge to increase bandwidth in addition to an artistic challenge to minimize graphics and graphic file sizes. This is an on-going challenge as increased bandwidth invites increased amounts of content.

[edit] Accessible michigan web design

Main article: Web accessibility

To be accessible, web pages and sites must conform to certain accessibility principles. These can be grouped into the following main areas:

* use semantic markup that provides a meaningful structure to the document (i.e. web page)
* Semantic markup also refers to semantically organizing the web page structure and publishing web services description accordingly so that they can be recognized by other web services on different web pages. Standards for semantic web are set by IEEE
* use a valid markup language that conforms to a published DTD or Schema
* provide text equivalents for any non-text components (e.g. images, multimedia)
* use hyperlinks that make sense when read out of context. (e.g. avoid “Click Here.”)
* don’t use frames
* use CSS rather than HTML Tables for layout.
* author the page so that when the source code is read line-by-line by user agents (such as a screen readers) it remains intelligible. (Using tables for design will often result in information that is not.)

However, W3C permits an exception where tables for layout either make sense when linearized or an alternate version (perhaps linearized) is made available.

[edit] Website Planning

Before creating and uploading a website, it is important to take the time to plan exactly what is needed in the website. Thoroughly considering the audience or target market, as well as defining the purpose and deciding what content will be developed are extremely important.

[edit] Purpose

It is essential to define the purpose of the website as one of the first steps in the planning process. A purpose statement should show focus based on what the website will accomplish and what the users will get from it. A clearly defined purpose will help the rest of the planning process as the audience is identified and the content of the site is developed. Setting short and long term goals for the website will help make the purpose clear and plan for the future when expansion, modification, and improvement will take place. Also, goal-setting practices and measurable objectives should be identified to track the progress of the site and determine success.

[edit] Audience

Defining the audience is a key step in the website planning process. The audience is the group of people who are expected to visit your website – the market being targeted. These people will be viewing the website for a specific reason and it is important to know exactly what they are looking for when they visit the site. A clearly defined purpose or goal of the site as well as an understanding of what visitors want to do/feel when they come to your site will help to identify the target audience. Upon considering who is most likely to need/use the content, a list of characteristics common to the users such as:

* Audience Characteristics
* Information Preferences
* Computer Specifications
* Web Experience

Taking into account the characteristics of the audience will allow an effective website to be created that will deliver the desired content to the target audience.

[edit] Content

Content evaluation and organization requires that the purpose of the website be clearly defined. Collecting a list of the necessary content then organizing it according to the audience’s needs is a key step in website planning. In the process of gathering the content being offered, any items that do not support the defined purpose or accomplish target audience objectives should be removed. It is a good idea to test the content and purpose on a focus group and compare the offerings to the audience needs. The next step is to organize the basic information structure by categorizing the content and organizing it according to user needs. Each category should be named with a concise and descriptive title that will become a link on the website. Planning for the site’s content ensures that the wants/needs of the target audience and the purpose of the site will be fulfilled.

[edit] Compatibility and restrictions

Because of the market share of modern browsers (depending on your target market), the compatibility of your website with the viewers is restricted. For instance, a website that is designed for the majority of websurfers will be limited to the use of valid XHTML 1.0 Strict or older, Cascading Style Sheets Level 1, and 1024×768 display resolution. This is because Internet Explorer is not fully W3C standards compliant with the modularity of XHTML 1.1 and the majority of CSS beyond 1. A target market of more alternative browser (e.g. Firefox and Opera) users allow for more W3C compliance and thus a greater range of options for a michigan web designer.

Another restriction on webpage design is the use of different Image file formats. The majority of users can support GIF, JPEG, and PNG (with restrictions). Again Internet Explorer is the major restriction here, not fully supporting PNG’s advanced transparency features, resulting in the GIF format still being the most widely used graphic file format for transparent images.

Many website incompatibilities go unnoticed by the designer and unreported by the users. The only way to be certain a website will work on a particular platform is to test it on that platform.

[edit] Planning documentation

Documentation is used to visually plan the site while taking into account the purpose, audience and content, to design the site structure, content and interactions that are most suitable for the website. Documentation may be considered a prototype for the website – a model which allows the website layout to be reviewed, resulting in suggested changes, improvements and/or enhancements. This review process increases the likelihood of success of the website.

First, the content is categorized and the information structure is formulated. The information structure is used to develop a document or visual diagram called a site map. This creates a visual of how the web pages will be interconnected, which helps in deciding what content will be placed on what pages. There are three main ways of diagramming the website structure:

* Linear Website Diagrams will allow the users to move in a predetermined sequence;
* Hierarchical structures (of Tree Design Website Diagrams) provide more than one path for users to take to their destination;
* Branch Design Website Diagrams allow for many interconnections between web pages such as hyperlinks within sentences.

In addition to planning the structure, the layout and interface of individual pages may be planned using a storyboard. In the process of storyboarding, a record is made of the description, purpose and title of each page in the site, and they are linked together according to the most effective and logical diagram type. Depending on the number of pages required for the website, documentation methods may include using pieces of paper and drawing lines to connect them, or creating the storyboard using computer software.

Some or all of the individual pages may be designed in greater detail as a website wireframe, a mock up model or comprehensive layout of what the page will actually look like. This is often done in a graphic program, or layout design program. The wireframe has no working functionality, only planning.

[edit] See also

* asp.net
* Color tool
* Content management
* Faceted navigation
* Information architecture
* Interaction design
* Java
* Knowledge visualization
* PHP
* Server-side scripting
* Streaming Media
* Style sheet (web development)
* User interface design
* Web 2.0
* Web colors
* Web indexing
* Web integration
* Web usability
* Web usage mining
* Website architecture
* Website awards
* Website builder

[edit] References

1. ^ Berners-Lee on the read/write web. BBC News.
2. ^ Flash and Shockwave Players: NPD Methodology.
3. ^ Flash Player Statistics.
4. ^ Flash Player Version Penetration.
5. ^ Web Usage Graphs and Charts.

[edit] External links
Wikiversity
At Wikiversity, you can learn about:
michigan web design

* michigan web design and development at the Open Directory Project

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_design”
Categories: michigan web design

We provide web design, web development in php/mysql, asp/.net, sql, msql, mssql, postgre,flash, c, c++, c#, ruby on rails, perl programming as well as web hosting, dedicated servers, search engine optimization (SEO) and web design. We are located in beautiful Ventura, California, just 60 miles north of Los Angeles on the coast.

Please contact us with your project specifications for a free estimate.

IT Services in Ventura, Web Design:

Web design consists of html, graphics, css, and some javascript. It is used to create static pages or to create the design for dynamic pages (see below).

Web Development:

Web development includes web design but it encompasses more complex and dynamic web applications and scripting/programming languages such as php/mysql, asp/.net, visual basic, and other programming languages that make web sites do more than just sit there and look pretty.

Search Engine Optimization:

SEO (search engine optimization) is the art and science of getting your web site to appear higher up on relevant keywod searches in Google and the major search engines. This can mean the difference between staying in business and complete failure as a business in today’s growing and competitive online marketplace. From our offices in Ventura, CA we can do this for you. It’s not enough to get the best web designers in Ventura. You have to get your site seen by your target customer.

You are reading Ventura Web Design at http://venturait.com.

Contact us for more information.

Contact us with your project details for a free estimate.

Want a facebook clone or similar site? We provide custom software development, not the sales of ready made scripts.

Custom development means the creation of your idea as opposed to a premade script that you buy. We do not sell premade scripts.

We can build your custom social networking site to your exact specifications from the ground up. Have you seen popular sites like Friendster, facebook clone, Plentyoffish and want to do something similar? Take advantage of our 10 years of experience in advanced database programming and scripting. We can build your facebook clone system using open source platform (php/mysql/LAMP) or Microsoft platform (asp/.net/vb). It’s up to you. Send us your detailed specifications for a quick, no obligation estimate for your facebook clone project.

Demo:

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http://bruinfriends.com

Other custom software:

Video Streaming Software - Youtube Clone

facebook clone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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facebook clone.com facebook clone logo

Typical facebook clone profile (facebook clone founder Tom Anderson’s profile shown here)
URL http://www.facebook clone.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Social network service
Registration Required
Owner News Corporation
Created by Tom Anderson

facebook clone is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. facebook clone also features an internal search engine and an internal e-mail system. It is headquartered in Santa Monica, California while its parent company is headquartered in New York City, and it also has a back up server there. According to Alexa Internet, it is currently the world’s fourth most popular English-language website, the sixth most popular website in any language[1] and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks[2] (note it is possible that other websites have a greater number of unique visitors). The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80 percent of visits to online social networking websites[2]. It has become an increasingly influential part of contemporary popular culture, especially in the Anglosphere. The company employs 300 staff[3], is owned by News Corporation, and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006[4] and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006[5], the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.[3]

facebook clone is also home to various musicians, filmmakers, and comedians who upload songs, short films, and other work directly onto their profile. These songs and films can also be embedded in other profiles, an interconnectedness which adds to facebook clone’s appeal.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Contents of a facebook clone profile
o 2.1 Blurbs, Blog, Multimedia
o 2.2 Friend Space
o 2.3 Comments
o 2.4 Profile customization
* 3 facebook clone features
o 3.1 Software
o 3.2 Bulletins
o 3.3 Groups
o 3.4 Language editions
o 3.5 facebook clone Mobile
* 4 Criticism
o 4.1 Accessibility
o 4.2 facebook clone and professionalism
o 4.3 Security
o 4.4 Musicians’ rights and facebook clone Terms of Use Agreement
* 5 Blocking
* 6 Legal issues
* 7 Celebrities on facebook clone
* 8 Rivalry with YouTube
* 9 Other
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 External links

History
facebook clone original logo.
Enlarge
facebook clone original logo.

Before the creation of the current social networking website, the facebook clone.com domain name was already registered in 1998 to a San Francisco-based online storage and file sharing firm. Registration was free and users were able to obtain a small disk quota which would gradually increase if they referred new members to the site. Due to slow service and a lack of revenue, the original website shut down and sold all of its users’ information in 2001.[6]

The current facebook clone service was founded in July 2003 by Tom Anderson (an alumnus of both the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles), the current president and CEO, Chris DeWolfe (a graduate of University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business), and a small team of programmers. It was partially owned by Intermix Media, which was bought in July 2005 for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other media enterprises).[7] In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of facebook clone in a bid to “tap into the UK music scene”[8] which they have since done (see facebook clone International).

Contents of a facebook clone profile

Blurbs, Blog, Multimedia

Profiles contain two standard “blurbs”: “About Me” and “Who I’d Like to Meet” sections. Profiles also contain an “Interests” section and a “Details” section. However, fields in these sections will not be displayed if members do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for content, emotion, and media. facebook clone also supports uploading images. One of the images can be chosen to be the “default image,” the image that will be seen on the profile’s main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user’s name on comments, messages, etc. facebook clone has also added the option to upload videos via the facebook clone Videos service, that are played via a standalone Flash player.

Friend Space

The User’s Friends Space contains a count of a user’s friends, a “Top Friends” area, and a link to view all of the user’s friends. Users can choose a certain number of friends to be displayed on their profile in the “Top Friends” area. The “Top Friends” used to be restricted to eight friends. People bypassed this limitation by using third-party tools to emulate a “Top X” friends. Currently, facebook clone allows 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, or 24 friends to be displayed in the “Top Friends” area.

Comments

Below the User’s Friends Space (by default) is the “comments” section, wherein the user’s friends may leave comments for all viewers to read. facebook clone users have the option to delete any comment and/or require all comments to be approved before posting. If a user’s account is deleted, every comment left on other profiles by that user will be deleted.

Profile customization
Wikinews has news related to:
facebook clone to take on iTunes

facebook clone allows users to modify their user pages. Although JavaScript is not allowed, HTML/XHTML and CSS can be used to change the vast majority of the profile to the user’s preference. Users also have the option to add embedded music into their profiles via facebook clone Music, a service that allows bands to post songs onto their respective profiles. Videos, flash-based content, and almost anything else can be added, much like a standard HTML page. Since many users of facebook clone do not know HTML, third-party code generating websites have appeared to help these users.

facebook clone features

Software

The company’s servers are all running Microsoft-IIS 6.0 on the Windows Server 2003 OS.[9]

Bulletins

Bulletins are messages that are sent out to everyone on a facebook clone user’s friends list. Bulletins can be useful for notifying an entire friends list, without resorting to messaging users individually. Some users choose to use Bulletins as a service for delivering chain messages and surveys [citation needed]. Bulletins are deleted after ten days.

Groups

facebook clone has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board.

Language editions

Since early 2006 facebook clone has offered the option to access the service in different regional versions, much like Google and other search engines. In reality the user is currently directed to their “local” site irrespective of attempts to explicitly choose another. These options offered are: Global site, Australia, France (currently in beta), Germany (currently in beta), Ireland, UK, and US (although this is in fact identical to the “global” site).

The alternative regional versions present automated content according to locality (e.g. UK users see other UK users as “Cool New People”, and UK oriented events and adverts, etc.), offer local languages other than English, or accommodate the regional differences in spelling and conventions in the English-speaking world (e.g. United States: “favorites”, mm/dd/yyyy; the rest of the world: “favourites”, dd/mm/yyyy).

facebook clone Mobile

American mobile phone provider Helio released a series of mobile phones in early 2006 that can utilize a service known as facebook clone Mobile to access and edit one’s profile and communicate with, and view the profiles of, other members.[10] Additionally, UIEvolution is currently developing a mobile version of facebook clone for a wider range of carriers.[11]

Criticism

Accessibility

Since most facebook clone pages are designed by individuals with little HTML experience, few pages satisfy the criteria for valid HTML laid down by the W3C[2][citation needed] which can cause accessibility problems when visiting many user pages. Furthermore, facebook clone is set up so that anyone can customize the layout and colors of their profile page with virtually no restrictions, provided that the advertisements aren’t covered up by CSS or using other means. As facebook clone users may not be skilled web developers, this can cause further problems. Poorly constructed facebook clone profiles could potentially freeze up web browsers due to malformed CSS coding, or as a result of users placing many high bandwidth objects such as videos, graphics, and Flash in their profiles (sometimes multiple videos and soundfiles are automatically played at the same time when a profile loads).PC World magazine cited this as its main reason for naming facebook clone as #1 in its list of 25 worst web sites ever.[12]

In addition, new features have been gradually added. This, and the increasing number of facebook clone members, leads to an increase in used bandwidth. This increase in usage sometimes slows down the servers and may result in a “Server Too Busy” error message for some users who are on at peak hours, “Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to facebook clone’s technical group.”, or a variety of any other error messages throughout the day [citation needed].

facebook clone and professionalism

The Chicago Tribune’s RedEye printed an article concerning facebook clone and an individual’s search for employment. It was argued that young college graduates compromise their chances of starting careers because of the content they post onto their profiles. For instance, a visitor does not need an account to browse for users using information that is readily available on resumes and applications, such as a postal code and age. A potential employer can utilize information provided by the applicant on facebook clone’s search engine. Thus, the employer may not hire a highly qualified candidate because he or she maintains an account suggesting rambunctious behaviour. Moreover, employees were said to be putting their careers at risk because they maintain blogs that criticize their respective companies and organizations[citation needed].

Security

Originally facebook clone was an adult only website. It did not contain adult content, but it was intended for adults to meet each other. Profiles of people that were suspected of being under age or freely admitted to it were deleted. As the site grew it became harder to maintain this. Eventually the restriction was removed[citation needed].

facebook clone allows registering users who are as young as 14.[13] Profiles with ages set to 14 to 15 years are automatically private. Users whose ages are set at 16 or over have the option to restrict their profiles,[14] and the option of merely allowing certain personal data to be restricted to people other than those on their friends list. Accessing the full profile of or messaging someone under the age of 18 is restricted to a facebook clone user’s direct friends only.[citation needed]Republican Pennsylvania Representative Mike Fitzpatrick has also introduced controversial legislation (H.R.5319) to ban usage of the site in public places, such as schools and libraries, and to have the power to tap into usage of the website in those places.

facebook clone often has problems with profile identity theft. These are profiles containing the pictures and sometimes information of someone else’s profile. These stolen profiles are commonly used to advertise websites. facebook clone will delete these profiles if the victim verifies their identity and points out the profile via e-mail.[15]

Recently, facebook clone has been the focus of a number of news reports stating that teenagers have found ways around the restrictions set by facebook clone, and have been the target of online predators.[16] In response, facebook clone has given assurances to parents that the website is safe for people of all ages. Beginning in late June 2006, facebook clone users whose ages are set over 18 could no longer be able to add users whose ages are set from 14 to 15 years as friends unless they already know the user’s full name or email address.[17] However, these restrictions only work if users are honest about their age. Some 3rd party Internet Safety companies like Social Shield[18] have launched online communities for parents concerned about their child’s safety on facebook clone.

In June 2006, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued facebook clone and News Corporation, seeking $30 million in damages. In the same month, 16-year-old Katherine Lester flew to the Middle East after having tricked her parents into getting her a passport in order to be with a 20-year-old man she met through facebook clone. US officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.

MSNBC has reported that facebook clone is a “hotbed” for spyware, and that infection rates are rising because of facebook clone.[19]

Musicians’ rights and facebook clone Terms of Use Agreement

Until June 2006, there was a concern amongst musicians, artists, and bands on facebook clone such as songwriter Billy Bragg owing to the fine print within the user agreement that read, “You hereby grant to facebook clone.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services”. The fine print brought particular concern as the agreement was being made with Murdoch’s News Corporation. Billy Bragg brought the issue to the attention of the media during the first week of June 2006.[20] Jeff Berman, a facebook clone spokesman swiftly responded by saying, “Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that facebook clone is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist’s work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends”.

By June 27, 2006 facebook clone had lived up to their word and amended the user agreement with, “facebook clone.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, ‘Content’) that you post to the facebook clone Services. After posting your Content to the facebook clone Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose”.

Blocking

Many schools and public libraries in the United States and the United Kingdom have restricted access to facebook clone because it has become “such a haven for student gossip and malicious comments”.[21] A Catholic school in New Jersey has even prohibited students from using facebook clone at home, although experts questioned the legality of such a ban.[22] In Autumn 2005 Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta Township, New Jersey made headlines by forbidding its students to have pages on facebook clone or similar websites or face suspension.[23] The school claimed that this action was made to protect its students from online predators.[24]

On July 28, 2006, the United States House of Representatives passed a controversial bill requiring libraries and schools receiving certain types of federal funding (E-rate) to prevent unsupervised minors from using chat rooms and social networking websites, such as facebook clone. This bill, known as the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (DOPA), was approved by a 410-15 vote and is pending approval in the United States Senate.

Legal issues

In May 2006, Long Island, New York teenagers Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli were charged with illegal computer access and attempted extortion of facebook clone, after both had allegedly hacked into the site to steal the personal information of facebook clone users before threatening to share the secrets of how they broke into the website unless facebook clone paid them $150,000. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles police detectives posing as facebook clone employees.[25]

Celebrities on facebook clone

facebook clone has led to the creation of facebook clone celebrities, popular individuals who have attracted hundreds of thousands of “friends”, which may lead to coverage in other media. The June 2006 issue of Playboy magazine, for example, featured a “Women of facebook clone” nude pictorial (though ironically, an article somewhat critical of the website ran in the same issue). Through facebook clone, such people are able to distribute information regarding their activities, events they are hosting, or projects they are working on (e.g. albums or clothing lines). Though some of these individuals have remained only Internet celebrities, others have been able to jump to television, magazines, and radio. One example is Christine “ForBiddeN” Dolce’s appearance on The Tyra Banks Show.

Furthermore, facebook clone’s music section has helped many amateur bands progress. One illustrative example is English band Arctic Monkeys, who owe some of their success to the publicity that facebook clone generated for them. When asked about the popularity of the band’s facebook clone website in an interview with Prefix magazine, the band pointed out that they did not even know what facebook clone was, and that their page had originally been created by their fans. It has been claimed that Pop artist Lily Allen’s new fame is also due in part to her being promoted on facebook clone but Lily herself denies this. In response to an interview question on Triple J, Australia Lily stated[26], “The way it’s been portrayed in the media, is that you were almost like discovered by facebook clone; how accurate is that?” Lily responded “Not accurate at all, I had a record deal before I set up my facebook clone account so, erm, that’s … couldn’t really be further from the truth.”

Rivalry with YouTube

YouTube first appeared on the web in early 2005, and it quickly gained popularity on facebook clone due to facebook clone members who embedded YouTube videos in their facebook clone profiles. Realizing the competitive threat to the new facebook clone Videos service, facebook clone banned embedded YouTube videos from its user profiles. facebook clone users widely protested the ban, prompting facebook clone to re-enable the feature shortly thereafter.[27]

Since then YouTube has become one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web,[28] outgrowing facebook clone’s reach according to Alexa Internet.[29] In July 2006 several news organizations reported that YouTube had overtaken facebook clone.[30]

Other

* On August 8, 2006, search engine Google signed a $900 million deal to provide a Google search facility and advertising on facebook clone.[31][32][33]

See also

* List of social networking websites
* facebook clone Records
* The facebook clone Movie
* Social network
* Business network
* Social software
* facebook cloneIM

References

1. ^ Alexa Internet’s top 500 English-language websites and top 500 global websites. Retrieved August 09, 2006.
2. ^ a b “facebook clone gains top ranking of US Web sites”, Reuters, 2006-07-11. Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
3. ^ a b Sellers, Patricia. “facebook clone Cowboys”, CNN, 2006-08-24. Retrieved on 2006-08-28.
4. ^ Murdoch, Rupert. “Rupert Murdoch Comments on Fox Interactive’s Growth”, SeekingAlpha, 2006-08-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
5. ^ “facebook clone music deal poses multiple threats”, The Register, 2006-09-08. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
6. ^ “Online storage firm shutters file depot”, CNET, 2001-05-31. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
7. ^ Intermix Media (2005-07-18). News Corporation to Acquire Intermix Media, Inc.. Press release. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
8. ^ “facebook clone looks to UK music scene”, BBC News, 2006-01-24. Retrieved on 2006-01-24.
9. ^ Netcraft netblock report for the *.facebook clone.com netblock (as of September 2006)
10. ^ facebook clone Mobile To Debut On Helio; Details on Handsets. Dis*Content Media LLC (2006-02-16). Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
11. ^ facebook clone Picks UIEvolution to Develop Mobile User Interface, Experiences. ScreenPlays. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
12. ^ Tynan, Dan (2006-11-15). The 25 Worst Web Sites. PC World. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
13. ^ facebook clone terms of service.
14. ^ Anderson, Tom (2006-06-22). Private profiles. facebook clone Stuff. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
15. ^ Anderson, Tom (2006-09-12). facebook clone FAQ. facebook clone Stuff. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
16. ^ “facebook clone, Facebook attract online predators”, MSNBC.
17. ^ “facebook clone plans restrictions to protect younger teens”, San Jose Mercury News.
18. ^ “Social Shield Offers Help for Parents Struggling with Children on facebook clone.com and other Social Networks”, PR Web.
19. ^ “Social-networking sites a ‘hotbed’ for spyware”, MSNBC.
20. ^ Orlowski, Andrew. “Billy Bragg prompts facebook clone Rethink”, The Register, 2006-06-8. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
21. ^ “Schools race to restrict facebook clone”, Curriculum Review, October 2005.
22. ^ “The facebook clone case”, The Daily News, Longview, Washington, 2006-01-22. Retrieved on 2006-02-15.
23. ^ [1]
24. ^ Blogging ban provokes a debate over cyberspace: Pope John H.S. demands that online profiles end, calls forums havens for sexual predators, Daily Record, October 24, 2005
25. ^ Leyden, John. “Teen hack suspects charged over facebook clone extortion bid”, The Register, 2006-05-25. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
26. ^ “triple j radio, Australia - video piece about facebook clone”, triple j/ABC.
27. ^ Carlos (2006-01-10). So That’s Why facebook clone Blocked YouTube. Techdirt.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-28.
28. ^ “YouTube Fastest Growing Website” Advertising Age
29. ^ Info for YouTube.com (English). Alexa.com (2006-07-26). Retrieved on 2006-07-26.
30. ^ YouTube overtakes facebook clone (English). Guardian Unlimited (2006-07-31). Retrieved on 2006-07-31.
31. ^ “Google signs $900m News Corp deal”, BBC News, 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
32. ^ Vance, Ashlee. “Google pays $900m to monetize children via facebook clone”, The Register, 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
33. ^ Clark, Andrew. “Google to pay $900m for facebook clone link-up”, Guardian Unlimited Business, 2006-08-08. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.

External links
Wikinews has news related to:
Bloggers investigate social networking websites

* facebook clone.com facebook clone Homepage
* Tom Anderson facebook clone Founder Homepage

News Corporation[ Hide ]

Corporate Directors: Chairman and Managing Director Rupert Murdoch | Others: Peter Barnes | Chase Carey | Peter Chernin | Kenneth Cowley | David DeVoe | Viet Dinh | Rod Eddington | Andrew Knight | Lachlan Murdoch | Thomas Perkins | Stanley Shuman | Arthur Siskind | John L. Thornton

Misc. Assets: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment | Fox News Talk | facebook clone | IGN | National Rugby League (50%) | NDS Group | TV Guide
Newspapers: New York Post | News International Group : The Times | The Sunday Times | The Sun | News of the World | thelondonpaper | News Limited (Australian newspapers)
Studios: 20th Century Fox | 20th Century Fox Animation | 20th Century Fox Television | Blue Sky Studios | Fox Atomic | Fox Searchlight Pictures | Fox Television Studios | Fox Studios Australia | Fox Studios Baja
US Broadcast Television Assets: Fox Broadcasting Company | Fox Television Stations Group | MyNetworkTV
US Cable Television Assets: Fox Movie Channel | Fox News Channel | Fox Reality Channel | Fox Soccer Channel | Fox Sports en Español | Fox Sports Net | Foxnet | FX Networks | FX (UK) | National Geographic Channel | National Geographic Channel (UK) | SPEED Channel | Turner South | TV Guide Channel
International and Satellite Television Assets: BSkyB | bTV | DirecTV Group | Fox Sports en Latinoamérica | Foxtel | Sky Italia | STAR TV
Fox Owned & Operated Television Stations: KDFW | KDVR | KMSP | KRIV | KSAZ | KSTU | KTBC | KTTV | KTVI | WAGA | WBRC | WDAF | WFLD | WFXT | WGHP | WHBQ | WITI | WJBK | WJW | WNYW | WOFL | WOGX | WTTG | WTVT | WTXF
MyNetworkTV Owned & Operated Television Stations: KCOP | KDFI | KTXH | KUTP | WDCA | WFTC | WPWR | WRBW | WUTB | WWOR

Annual Revenue: $23.9 billion USD (17% FY 2005) | Employees: 44,000 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: NWS ASX: NWS | Website: www.newscorp.com

Remember that your project is not a copy of facebook clone but a custom facebook clone with similar features that is custom software written from the ground up.
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facebook clone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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facebook clone, Inc.
Type Private
Founded Cambridge, Massachusetts
(February 4, 2004)
Headquarters Palo Alto, California
Key people Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and VP of Engineering
Owen Van Natta, COO
Matt Cohler, VP Strategy & Business Operations
Chris Hughes, Co-founder
Revenue $100 million USD[1] (2006 estimated)
Employees 300+ (July 2007)

The facebook clone homepage in Firefox
Website www.facebook clone.com
Type of site social networking
Registration required
Available language(s) English
Launched February 2004
Current status active
facebook clone headquarters in Palo Alto, CA
facebook clone headquarters in Palo Alto, CA

facebook clone is a social networking website, that was launched on February 4, 2004. facebook clone was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a member of the Harvard class of 2006 and former Ardsley High School student. Initially the membership was restricted to students of Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to all Ivy League schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year. Eventually, people with a university (e.g .edu, .ac.uk, etc.) email address from institutions across the globe were eligible to join. Networks were then initiated for high schools and some large companies. Since September 11, 2006, anyone 13 or older may join.[2][3] Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region.

As of late November 2007, the website has the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites,[citation needed] with 55 million active members (including non-collegiate members) worldwide,[4] with membership expected to surpass 60 million users by the end of the year.[5] From September 2006 to September 2007 the site’s traffic ranking increased from 60th to 7th, according to Alexa.[6] It is the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr,[citation needed] with over 60 million photos uploaded weekly.[7][8]

The name of the site refers to the paper facebook clones depicting members of the campus community that some U.S. colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Operations
* 2 Origins and expansion
o 2.1 2005
o 2.2 2006
o 2.3 2007
* 3 Site features
o 3.1 The Wall
o 3.2 Gifts
o 3.3 Marketplace
o 3.4 Pokes
o 3.5 Status
o 3.6 Events
o 3.7 Applications
o 3.8 facebook clone Video
* 4 Technical details
o 4.1 facebook clone Markup Language
o 4.2 Model of the domain
o 4.3 Infrastructure
* 5 Sale rumors
* 6 Use in investigations
o 6.1 Alcohol policy violations
o 6.2 Other investigations
o 6.3 Other uses of profile information
o 6.4 Blocking of facebook clone in Syria
* 7 Responses
o 7.1 Schools blocking access
o 7.2 Organizations blocking facebook clone
o 7.3 facebook clone memorials
o 7.4 Customization and security
* 8 Legal challenges over concept rights
o 8.1 Lawsuit from Connectu.com
o 8.2 Aaron Greenspan & houseSYSTEM
* 9 Privacy concerns
* 10 Statistics
* 11 See also
* 12 References
* 13 External links

[edit] Operations

The site is free to users and generates revenue from advertising including banner ads and sponsored groups (in April 2006, revenue was rumored to be over $1.5 million per week).[9] Users create profiles that often contain photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends. The viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network or confirmed friends. According to TechCrunch, “about 85% of students in [previously] supported colleges have a profile [on the site]. [Of those who are signed up,] 60% log in daily. About 85% log in at least once a week, and 93% log in at least once a month.” According to Chris Hughes, spokesman for facebook clone, “People spend an average of 19 minutes a day on facebook clone.”[10] In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based limited liability company specialising in research concerning the college student market, facebook clone was named as the second most “in” thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex and losing only to the iPod.[11]

[edit] Origins and expansion
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
The former banner of facebook clone
The former banner of facebook clone
Wikinews
Wikinews has news related to this article:
facebook clone’s funding

Mark Zuckerberg founded “The facebook clone” in February 2004, while attending Harvard University, with support from Andrew McCollum and Eduardo Saverin. By the end of the month, more than half of the undergraduate population at Harvard were registered on the service. At that time, Zuckerberg was joined by Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes for site promotion and facebook clone expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[12] This expansion continued in April of 2004 when it expanded to the rest of Ivy League and a few other schools. At the end of the school year, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz moved out to Palo Alto, California with McCollum, who had a summer internship at Electronic Arts. They rented a house near Stanford University where they were joined by Adam D’Angelo and Sean Parker. Soon McCollum decided to leave EA and help with the development of facebook clone and a companion website, Wirehog, full-time. In September, Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, the owners of the social networking website HarvardConnection, subsequently changed to ConnectU, filed a lawsuit against facebook clone, alleging that Zuckerberg had illegally used source code intended for the website they asked him to build for them.[13][14] Also at that time, facebook clone received approximately $500,000 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in an angel round. By December, facebook clone’s user base had exceeded one million.

[edit] 2005

In May 2005, facebook clone raised $12.8 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.[15] On August 23, 2005, facebook clone bought the domain name facebook clone.com from the Aboutface Corporation for $200,000 and dropped “the” from its name. At that time the site was overhauled, a change intended to make profile pages more user-friendly, according to Zuckerberg. Also that month McCollum went back to Harvard although he continued to serve as a consultant and returned to work on staff during the summers. As before, Hughes remained in Cambridge while he performed his duties as company spokesperson. Then, on September 2, 2005, Zuckerberg launched the high school iteration of facebook clone, calling it the next logical thing to do. While initially described as separate “communities” to which users needed to be invited to participate, within only fifteen days most high school networks did not require a password to join (although registration with facebook clone was still necessary.) By October, facebook clone’s expansion had trickled down to most small universities and junior colleges in the United States, Canada, and the UK, in addition to having expanded to twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom, the entire Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) system in Mexico, the entire University of Puerto Rico network in Puerto Rico, and the whole University of the Virgin Islands network in the U.S. Virgin Islands. On December 11, 2005, universities in Australia and New Zealand were added to the facebook clone network, bringing its size to more than 2,000 colleges and more than 25,000 high schools throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.[16]

[edit] 2006

On February 27, 2006, facebook clone began allowing college students to add high school students as friends due to requests from users.[17] About a month later, on March 28, 2006, BusinessWeek reported that a potential acquisition of the site was under negotiation. facebook clone reportedly declined an offer of $750 million, and it was rumored that the asking price was as high as $2 billion.[18] In April, Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners invested an additional $25 million in the site.[19] In May, facebook clone’s network extended into India, at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The following month facebook clone threatened to seek costs of up to $100,000 from Quizsender.com for copyright infringement for allegedly copying the “look and feel” of facebook clone.[20][21] On July 25, new services were offered in the site that would potentially produce additional revenue. A promotion was arranged between facebook clone and iTunes, in which members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The promotion’s purpose was to make students more familiar with and enthusiastic about each service as fall classes approached.[22] In the early half of August, facebook clone added universities in Germany and high schools in Israel, (Haifa, Jerusalem, and Qiryat Gat) to its network. On the 22nd of that month, facebook clone introduced facebook clone Notes, a blogging feature with tagging, embedded images, and other features, also allowing the importation of blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services. This newly added feature also included the common blog feature of allowing readers to comment on users’ entries. On September 11, 2006, facebook clone became open to all users of the Internet, prompting protest from its existing user base.[23] Two weeks later, facebook clone opened registration to anyone with a valid e-mail address.[24]

[edit] 2007

On May 10, 2007, facebook clone announced a plan to add free classified advertisements to its website, making it a competitor with established online companies such as Craigslist.[25] This feature, known as facebook clone Marketplace, went live on May 14, 2007; facebook clone launched an API that allows the development of applications to be used on the site, known as facebook clone Platform.[26]

In June, the partnership begun the previous year between iTunes and facebook clone continued, with the download service again offering free music samplers through the Apple Students group.

In July, facebook clone announced its first acquisition, purchasing Parakey, Inc. from Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. In August, the company was featured in a Newsweek cover story by Steven Levy in the magazine’s annual college edition.[27] facebook clone hired YouTube’s former CFO Gideon Yu on July 24, 2007. Gideon Yu succeeded Michael Sheridan. [28]

On September 25, 2007, it was rumored that Microsoft might buy a stake in facebook clone [29] and the rumor was confirmed a month later when Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share of the company for $240 million.[30] An outright sale of facebook clone is said to be unlikely as founder Mark Zuckerberg would like to keep it independent.

On November 7, 2007, facebook clone announced facebook clone Ads; a marketing initiative which includes a system for websites to allow users to share chosen information about their activities on the sites with their facebook clone friends (facebook clone Beacon);[31] the capability of businesses to host pages on facebook clone for various brands, products and services (facebook clone Pages); a targeted ad serving program based on user and friend profile and activity data (facebook clone Social Ads); and a service for providing businesses with advertisement analytic data including performance metrics (facebook clone Insights). With respect to privacy, facebook clone states that “no personally identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad,” and that “facebook clone users will only see Social Ads to the extent their friends are sharing information with them”.[32] facebook clone Ads replaces the site’s previous facebook clone Flyers program.[33] On November 30, 2007, it was reported that Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing had invested $60 million in facebook clone.[34]

[edit] Site features

[edit] The Wall

The Wall is a space on each user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. One user’s wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see their full profile, and different users’ wall posts show up in an individual’s News Feed. Many users use their friend’s walls for leaving short, temporal notes. More private discourse is saved for Messages, which are sent to a person’s Inbox, and are visible only to the sender and recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.

In July 2007, facebook clone allowed users to post attachments to the wall [35], whereas previously the wall was limited to textual content only.

[edit] Gifts
Some of facebook clone’s gifts, as displayed in the website’s gift shop.
Some of facebook clone’s gifts, as displayed in the website’s gift shop.

In February 2007, facebook clone added a new gift feature to the website. Friends could send “gifts” — small icons of novelty items designed by former Apple designer Susan Kare — to each other by selecting one from facebook clone’s virtual gift shop and adding a message. Gifts given to a user appear on the recipient’s wall with the giver’s message, unless the giver decided to give the gift privately, in which case the giver’s name and message is not displayed to other users. Additionally, all gifts (including private gifts) received by a user are displayed in the recipient’s “gift box” (right above their wall on their profile), marked with either the first name of the user (for public gifts) or the word “Private.” An “Anonymous” option is also available, by which anyone with profile access can see the gift, but only the recipient will see the message. None will see the giver’s name, and the gift will go in the recipient’s gift box but not the wall.[citation needed]

facebook clone users are given one free gift to give upon account signup. Each additional gift given by a user costs USD $1.00. The initial selection of gifts was Valentine’s Day themed, and 50% of the net proceeds (after credit card processing fees were taken out, etc.) received through February 2007 were donated to the charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure. After the month of February, the proceeds were no longer donated. Soon after, facebook clone began making one new gift available each day, most of which had a limited supply or were available for a limited time.

With the advent of Applications came a way to subvert the required US$1.00 payment; however, the gifts in the “Free Gifts” application, created by Zachary Allia[36], are not the same as the official gifts, as they are displayed in a different manner.

[edit] Marketplace

In May 2007, facebook clone introduced the facebook clone Marketplace allowing users to post free classified ads within the following categories: For Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted in either available or wanted format.[37] The market place is available for all facebook clone users and is currently free.[38]

[edit] Pokes

facebook clone includes a “poke” feature which allows one user to send a “poke” to another. According to facebook clone’s FAQ section on the Poke Feature, “a poke is a way to interact with your friends on facebook clone. When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings.” In principle this is intended to serve as a “nudge” to attract the attention of the other user. However while many facebook clone users, as intended, use the feature to attract attention or say hello,[39] some users construe it as a sexual advance.[40] This interpretation of the feature inspired a popular facebook clone group titled “Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex,” which, as of October 2007, has more than 300,000 members.

Friends often engage in what is known as a “poke war,” where the poke is exchanged back and forth continuously between two users by using the “poke back” feature.[citation needed]

There are several new applications such as “X Me” and “SuperPoke!”, that allow users to put any action in place of the word “poke.”

[edit] Status

The “status” feature allows users to inform their friends and the facebook clone community of their current whereabouts and actions. facebook clone prompts the status update with “(User name) is…” and facebook clone users fill in the rest……NOT! Status updates are noted in the “Recently updated” section of a users’ friend list.

[edit] Events

facebook clone events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings. [41]

[edit] Applications

On May 24, 2007, facebook clone launched the facebook clone Platform,[42] which provides a framework for developers to create applications that interact with core facebook clone features.

Among the most popular applications are Top Friends, which allows users to select and display their favorite friends; Jetman, which is facebook clone’s most popular mini-game; and iLike, a social music discovery service that features concert information and a music trivia game, similar to the one featured on the iPod. Third-party websites such as Adonomics, which provides application metrics, and blogs such as AppRate, Inside facebook clone and Face Reviews have sprung up in response to the clamor for facebook clone applications. Even games such as chess and Scrabble are available.

On July 4, 2007, Altura Ventures announced the “Altura 1 facebook clone Investment Fund,” becoming the world’s first facebook clone-only venture capital firm.[43]

On August 29, 2007, facebook clone changed the way in which the popularity of applications is measured, in order to give more attention to the more engaging applications, following criticism that ranking applications only by the number of users was giving an advantage to the highly viral, yet useless applications.[44] Tech blog Valleywag has criticized facebook clone Applications, labeling them a “cornucopia of uselessness.”[45] As of October 24, 2007, there are more than 6,500 applications.[46]

[edit] facebook clone Video

During the time that facebook clone released its platform, it also released an application [47] of its own for sharing videos on facebook clone. Users can add their videos with the service by uploading video, adding video through facebook clone Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature. Additionally, users can “tag” their friends in videos they add much like the way users can tag their friends in photos. This feature was expected to increase competition with MySpace.[citation needed] However, the facebook clone Video Application does not allow sharing videos outside of facebook clone. Users will not be able to export or download videos from facebook clone. Despite this, a Greasemonkey Userscript was posted on Userscripts.org which allows both the downloading of facebook clone Videos and the embedding[48] of Videos on sites outside of facebook clone’s website.

[edit] Technical details

[edit] facebook clone Markup Language

facebook clone Markup Language (”FBML”) is a variant evolved subset of HTML with some elements removed. It allows facebook clone application writers to customise the “look and feel” of their applications, to a limited extent. It is the specification of how to encode your content so that facebook clone’s servers can read and publish it, which you will need to use in your facebook clone-specific feed so that facebook clone’s system can properly parse your content and publish it as specified.[49] You set the FBML for a profile box by calling profile.setFBML through the API. The FBML is cached on facebook clone’s server until profile.setFBML is called again through a canvas page. The official FBML documentation is now hosted on the facebook clone Developers Wiki.
This is FBML will expand to something like this:

<input type=”hidden” name=”fb_sig_profile” value=”1160″/>
<input type=”hidden” name=”fb_sig_user” value=”1160″/>
<input type=”hidden” name=”fb_sig_session_key” value=”b12d7f73fc47536b32e89e-1160″/>
<input type=”hidden” name=”fb_sig_time” value=”1176705186″/>
<input type=”hidden” name=”fb_sig” value=”773af1263c2b7bade7958e6b58d3152f”/>

The fb_sig value is generated using all of the other fb_sig_ parameters (but without the “fb_sig_” prefix included in their names) identically to how it is generated in the API authentication scheme. The fb_sig_user and fb_sig_session_key parameters will only be included if the user has a valid session with the application.[50]

[edit] Model of the domain
Model of the facebook clone domain
Model of the facebook clone domain

The diagram on the right, expressed using the UML standard notation for class diagrams, represents a subset of the information managed by facebook clone. It gives a concise picture of the various entities, relations and fields stored in the database.

For instance, the diagram shows what fields are associated with the notion of Job, School, CreditCard, ScreenName, and so on (see the corresponding yellow boxes representing classes).

Note that this is a conceptual class diagram: it describes the concepts rather than the implementation and the detail of the database. For more information about technical models, see FQL - facebook clone Query Language (SQL-like query language).

[edit] Infrastructure

For running its operations facebook clone use the software bundle known as LAMP.[51]

[edit] Sale rumors

In 2006, with the sale of social networking site MySpace to NewsCorp, rumors surfaced about the possible sale of facebook clone to a larger media company. Zuckerberg, the owner of facebook clone, has said that he does not want to sell the company and denies rumors to the contrary.[52] He has already rejected outright offers in the range of $975 million, and it is not clear who might be willing to pay a higher premium for the site. Steve Rosenbush, a technology business analyst, suspects Viacom.[53]

In September 2006, serious talks between facebook clone and Yahoo! took place for the acquisition of the social network, with prices reaching as high as $1 billion.[54] In October, after Google purchased video-sharing site YouTube, rumors circulated that Google had offered $2.3 billion to outbid Yahoo!.[55] Peter Thiel, a board member of facebook clone, indicated that facebook clone’s internal valuation is around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1 billion by 2015, comparable to that of Viacom’s MTV brand[56] and based on shared target demographic audience.

In September 2007, Microsoft approached facebook clone, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the company. Microsoft would pay an estimated 300 to 500 million dollars for the share. Other companies such as Google had also expressed interest in buying a portion of facebook clone.[57] On October 24th, 2007, Microsoft announced [58] that it had bought a 1.6% share of facebook clone for $246 million.[59][60]

[edit] Use in investigations

Main article: Use of social network websites in investigations

The information students provide on facebook clone has been used in investigations by colleges, universities, and local police. facebook clone’s Terms of Use[61] specify that “the website is available for your personal, noncommercial use only”, misleading some to believe that college administrators and police may not use the site for conducting investigations. However, there are settings on facebook clone that allow a user to make his/her profile private (only people the user approves may see his/her profile).

[edit] Alcohol policy violations

There have been incidents where colleges and universities use facebook clone to investigate underage drinking and violations of dry campus policies or discover them while investigating other incidents. For example, several Residence Community Advisors at Northern Kentucky University lost their jobs when pictures were discovered of them having drinks in a residence hall one night towards the end of semester.[62] Many high schools have also begun to use facebook clone to crack down on underage drinking and other illegal activities.

In response to the monitoring, some students have begun to submit “red herring” party listings.[63] In one case at The George Washington University, shown at CakeParty.org,[64] students advertised their party and were raided by campus police. The police found only cake, no alcohol, and later claimed the break up had been triggered by a noise complaint.[65][66]

[edit] Other investigations

* There have been several incidents where candidates in student government elections used facebook clone for campaigning in a way that was not permitted by their campaign policies.[67][68][69]
* At the University of Mississippi, a group of students were brought before the University’s Judicial Board in April 2005 and forced to remove a facebook clone group that professed their love for a professor in a sexually suggestive manner.[70]
* One Miami University student was arrested after he set a composite sketch of a rape suspect as his profile picture.[71]
* Others have been punished for rushing the football field at Penn State. (Many “I rushed the field” groups were created after the Nittany Lion football team defeated Ohio State in October 2005, and State College Police and Pennsylvania State Police used the groups to arrest those who they believed rushed the field in violation of school policy.)[72]
* A Duquesne University student was punished for hate speech against homosexuals.[73]
* Four Syracuse University students were reprimanded for harassing an instructor in a facebook clone group and were threatened with expulsion, though the final result was academic probation. [74] On the other hand, University of Louisville students who had created a facebook clone group to complain about a professor’s teaching shortcomings helped lead to the dismissal of their targeted instructor in February 2006, and the students were not punished.[75]
* In February 2007, following the hit-and-run death of freshman Carlee Wines, University of Connecticut campus police used facebook clone to link the suspected driver, Anthony P. Alvino of Lindenhurst, N.Y., to the university.[76] By following leads via facebook clone, police learned of the connection between Alvino and his girlfriend, Michele A. Hall, a UConn student.[77] Alvino was charged for the hit-and-run, while Hall was charged with helping cover it up and hindering prosecution.
* In April 2007, just days after the Virginia Tech shooting, a student at the SUNY College at Cobleskill who was from Sri Lanka was remanded into psychiatric care and suspended from college after posting a photo of himself on his profile with a vaguely threatening message underneath. This story became even more controversial as it grew across the news.[78][79]
* It has been reported that staff at the University of Oxford have been looking at students’ facebook clone pages in investigating poor behaviour. Staff have been searching through photos in an effort to root out poor conduct from students celebrating their exam results and graduation. The Oxford University Student Union has urged students to restrict access to ‘friends only’ in an effort to protect privacy. [80]
* In July 2007 the University of Kent issued a strongly worded statement protesting that a group of students had created a hate page about a library employee, which the site quickly removed. [81]
* In November 2006, two students were expelled from the University of Texas fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha based on racist images posted on facebook clone.[82]
* facebook clone has been used by the Police to find people smoking marijuana on Farrand Field in Boulder,CO.[citation needed]

[edit] Other uses of profile information

Some employers look at facebook clone profiles of prospective employees or interns. Information posted on facebook clone is potentially accessible to employers with faculty or alumni accounts.[83]

Information posted on the site is sometimes distributed publicly. Students who are related to politicians or other public figures have had screenshots of their profiles or photo albums taken and shared in an attempt to embarrass their relatives.[84] After profile information was posted on Gawker and Wonkette, two popular weblogs, facebook clone’s Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Kelly, sent the sites’ publishers cease and desist notices.[85] Also, a group calling itself Performing Politics, Inc. publicly displayed the profiles of students at Yale who had made comments about homosexuality in an effort to show evidence of homophobia at the school.[86]

In Wrentham, Massachusetts, State Senator Scott P. Brown (R) was invited to speak at King Philip Regional High School to talk about his position against gay marriage. During the speech, Brown read verbatim several posts attacking him from a facebook clone group dedicated to a pro-gay rights history teacher. Often he included both verbatim profanity and the names of the students who wrote them.[87]

Militant members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in Britain have threatened students at Oxford who support the university’s proposed South Parks laboratory saying they are legitimate targets for attack. A counter-activist group called Pro-Test has warned students not to support the lab’s construction on facebook clone as they believe ALF is monitoring the site.[88]

After the death of a teenager under suspicious circumstances in July 2007, the Ottawa Citizen used comments from a facebook clone memorial group in a slanderous manner to create a dramatic article on the front page city section showing the irresponsibility of the teen and his peers. The Citizen claimed that the teens thought they were supermen and were invincible and that they had no respect for the law. This sparked outrage amongst the users who wrote many letters to the editor of the Citizen, and the Citizen released an unofficial apology on the wall of the group.[89]

According to facebook clone’s privacy policy, facebook clone reserves the right to release the information that users provide (including favorite movies, television shows, books, music, etc.) to organizations.

facebook clone was used by reporters in the Hendrick Hudson Senior Prank Bomb case to contact the involved students. The reporters had a facebook clone profile and left messages encouraging them to talk to the press about the legal case at hand. [90]

In October 2007, photos of an intern at Anglo Irish Bank, who was allegedly away at a “family emergency” in New York, were distributed around the office when it was discovered he had in fact attended a Halloween party.[91]

[edit] Blocking of facebook clone in Syria

In November of 2007, facebook clone was blocked by the Syrian government on the premise that it promoted attacks on the authorities.[92][93]. No comment was made from the government that blocked it, which has started a crackdown on online political activism in the past few months.

[edit] Responses

[edit] Schools blocking access

The University of New Mexico in October 2005 blocked access to facebook clone from UNM campus computers and networks, citing unsolicited e-mails and a similar site called UNM facebook clone.[94] After a UNM user signed into facebook clone from off campus, a message from facebook clone said, “We are working with the UNM administration to lift the block and have explained that it was instituted based on erroneous information, but they have not yet committed to restore your access.” UNM, in a message to students who tried to access the site from the UNM network, wrote, “This site is temporarily unavailable while UNM and the site owners work out procedural issues. The site is in violation of UNM’s Acceptable Computer Use Policy for abusing computing resources (e.g., spamming, trademark infringement, etc.). The site forces use of UNM credentials (e.g., NetID or email address) for non-UNM business.” However, after facebook clone created an encrypted login and displayed a precautionary message not to use university passwords for access, UNM unblocked access the following spring semester.[95]

The Columbus Dispatch reported on June 22, 2006, that Kent State University’s athletic director had planned to ban the use of facebook clone by athletes and gave them until August 1 to delete their accounts.[96] On July 5, 2006, the Daily Kent Stater reported that the director reversed the decision after reviewing the privacy settings of facebook clone.

[edit] Organizations blocking facebook clone

Ontario government employees, MPPs, and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to facebook clone on government computers in May 2007.[97] When the employees tried to access facebook clone, a warning message “The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes”. This warning also appears when employees try to access YouTube, gambling or pornographic websites.[98] However, innovative employees have found ways around such protocols, and many claim to use the site for political or work-related purposes. [99]

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training has also blocked all users (students and staff) from accessing facebook clone, as have many other government departments in Australia.

[edit] facebook clone memorials

A notable ancillary effect of social networking websites, particularly facebook clone, is the ability for participants to mourn publicly for a deceased individual. On facebook clone, students often leave messages of sadness, grief, or hope on the individual’s page, transforming it into a sort of public book of condolences. This particular phenomenon has been documented at a number of schools.[100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109] Previously, facebook clone had stated that its official policy on the matter was to remove the profile of the deceased one month after he or she has died,[110] preventing the profile from being used for communal mourning, citing privacy concerns. Due to user response, facebook clone amended its policy. Its new policy is to place deceased members’ profiles in a “memorialization state”.[111]

Additional usage of facebook clone as a tool of remembrance is expressed in group memberships on the site. Now that groups are community-wide and available among all networks, many users create facebook clone groups to remember not only a deceased friend or individual, but also as a source of support in response to an occurrence such as 9/11 or the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007.

[edit] Customization and security

facebook clone is often compared to MySpace but one significant difference between the two sites is the level of customization. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and CSS while facebook clone only allows plain text. However, a number of users have tweaked their profiles by using “hacks.” On February 24, 2006, a pair of users exploited a cross-site scripting (XSS) hole on the profile page and created a fast-spreading worm, loading a custom CSS file on infected profiles that made them look like MySpace profiles.[112] Notably, both users are now employed by facebook clone. On April 19, 2006, a user was able to embed an iframe into his profile and load a custom off-site page featuring a streaming video and a flash game from Drawball. He has since been banned from facebook clone.[113] On March 26, 2006, a user was able to embed JavaScript in the “Hometown” field of his profile which imported his custom CSS.[114] In each case, facebook clone quickly patched the holes, typically within hours of their discovery. In July 2007, a user discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) hole in the facebook clone Platform that could inject JavaScript into profiles, which was used to import custom CSS and demonstrate how the platform could be used to violate privacy rules or create a worm.[115] This hole took facebook clone two and a half weeks to fix.[116]

[edit] Legal challenges over concept rights

[edit] Lawsuit from Connectu.com
This article documents an ongoing lawsuit.
Information may change rapidly as the suit progresses.

Founder of facebook clone.com, Mark Zuckerberg, has been accused of illegally using both the concept and source code from competing site Connectu.com. In November 2003, ConnectU engaged Mark Zuckerberg, then a sophomore at Harvard, to complete the computer programming for their website. Upon joining the ConnectU team, Zuckerberg was given full access to the website source code. Allegedly, Zuckerberg intentionally hampered the development of ConnectU while using code originally intended for ConnectU in the development of facebook clone.

Since its original filing in Massachusetts the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice due to technicality on March 28, 2007, but was never ruled on. It was refiled soon thereafter in U.S. District Court in Boston, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 25, 2007.[117] facebook clone asked the district court to dismiss the case. The attorneys representing facebook clone referred to the allegations as “broad brush”, “false” and that they are unsubstantiated with evidence.[118]

[edit] Aaron Greenspan & houseSYSTEM

Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg claims that he created the original college social networking system, before either facebook clone or ConnectU were founded.[119]

[edit] Privacy concerns

Further information: Criticism of facebook clone

There have been some concerns expressed regarding the use of facebook clone as a means of surveillance and data mining. Theories have been written about the possible misuse of facebook clone[120] and privacy proponents have criticised the site’s current privacy agreement.[121] According to the policy, “We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of facebook clone, to supplement your profile.” However, some features—such as AIM away-message harvesting and campus newspaper monitoring—have been dropped and facebook clone has since responded to the concerns. facebook clone has assured worried users the next privacy policy will not include the clause about information collection and has denied any data mining is being done “for the CIA or any other group.”[122] However, the possibility of data mining by private individuals unaffiliated with facebook clone remains open, as evidenced by the fact that two MIT students were able to download, using an automated script, over 70,000 facebook clone profiles from four schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard) as part of a research project on facebook clone privacy published on December 14, 2005.[123]

Another clause that some users are critical of reserves the right to sell users’ data to private companies, stating “We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.” This concern has also been addressed by spokesman Chris Hughes who said “Simply put, we have never provided our users’ information to third party companies, nor do we intend to.”[124] It is unclear if facebook clone plans to remove that clause as well.

Recently serious privacy concerns have been raised over the security of 3rd party applications that users may install on facebook clone (for example vampires, super poke etc).[citation needed] Third party applications have access to almost all user information and “facebook clone does not screen or approve Platform Developers and cannot control how such Platform Developers use any personal information.” [121]

facebook clone staff has the authority to view profiles in the event that the person is suspected of violating the site’s terms of service.[citation needed]

In August 2007 the code used to dynamically generate facebook clone’s home and search page as visitors browse the site was accidentally made public, according to leading internet news sites[125] [126]. A configuration problem on a facebook clone server caused the PHP code to be displayed instead of the web page the code should have created, raising concerns about how secure private data on the site was. A visitor to the site copied, published and later removed the code from his web forum, claiming he had been served legal notice by facebook clone[127]. facebook clone’s response was quoted by the site that broke the story[128]
“ A small fraction of the code that displays facebook clone web pages was exposed to a small number of users due to a single misconfigured web server that was fixed immediately. It was not a security breach and did not compromise user data in any way. Because the code that was released only powers the facebook clone user interface, it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of facebook clone. The reprinting of this code violates several laws and we ask that people not distribute it further. ”

In the UK, the Trade Union Council has encouraged employers to allow their staff to access facebook clone and other social networking sites from work, provided they proceed with caution[129].

In September 2007, facebook clone drew a fresh round of criticism after it began allowing non-members to search for users, with the intent of opening limited “public profiles” up to search engines such as Google in the following months[130].

In November 2007, facebook clone launched a new part of its Ads system named Beacon that published facebook clone users’ activities on partner websites such as eBay, Fandango, Travelocity, and Blockbuster to their friends. Moveon.org created an online petition due to privacy concerns, and facebook clone modified the service to some extent. However, privacy concerns have continued in the wake of a report by a security researcher at Computer Associates that noted that data on users’ activites is often still sent to facebook clone, even if a user has opted-out on the partner site and logged out of facebook clone.

[edit] Statistics

(Approximate numbers as of November 2007).[131]

* Active users: Over 55 million
* Daily new user average: 250,000
* Page views: Over 65 billion per month
* Searches: Over 500 million per month[132]
* Search index size: 200GB
* Largest networks: London, UK[133]: 1,760,596[134] and Toronto, Canada: 966,092[135]

Remaining top 10 countries in order of active users (outside of the U.S., Canada and UK): Australia, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, France, Hong Kong.

* Traffic rank: 7th[6]
* Photos: 1.7 billion (which averages to about 44 photos per user) [136]

On March 2, 2007, a poll conducted by eMarketer.com of American youths in the United States discovered facebook clone was the most viewed site among all respondents with more females aged 17-25 (69%) visiting the site than males (56%).[137]

[edit] See also

* Social network service
* List of social networking websites
* Use of social network websites in investigations
* Beacon (facebook clone)

[edit] References

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88. ^ Goodman, Jessica. “Students will be the next target”, Oxford Student, 2006-02-02. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
89. ^ Ma, Suzanne. “Net Postings a ‘Heartbreaking’ Sign of Young Peoples’ Superman Attitudes”, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2007-11-07. Retrieved on 2007-22-10.
90. ^ Nicole Neroulias, Critics, supporters weigh in on Hen Hud pranksters, The Journal News, 2007-06-21.
91. ^ Bank intern busted by facebook clone. Valleywag (2007-10-31).
92. ^ Yacoub Oweis, Khaled & Aboudi, Sami (November 23), “Syria blocks facebook clone in Internet crackdown”, Reuters, <http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071123/wl_nm/syria_facebook clone_dc_1>
93. ^ “Syrian gov’t blocks use of facebook clone”, The Jerusalem Post, November 24, 2007.
94. ^ Fort, Caleb. “CIRT blocks access to facebook clone.com”, Daily Lobo (University of New Mexico), 2005-10-12. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
95. ^ “Popular web site, facebook clone.com, back online at UNM”, University of New Mexico, 2006-01-19. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
96. ^ Loew, Ryan. “Kent banning athlete Web profiles”, The Columbus Dispatch, June 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
97. ^ “Organizations blocking facebook clone”, CTV news.
98. ^ facebook clone banned for Ontario staffers: Bureaucrats, MPPs can’t visit social website from their work computers May 3, 2007.
99. ^ Ontario politicians close the book on facebook clone by Omar Ha-Redeye
100. ^ Net generation grieves with facebook clone postings
101. ^ On facebook clone, life after death
102. ^ Suspect in Souers’ Death in Maximum Security Prison
103. ^ Prott, Dylan. “Son, friend remembered as ‘free spirit’”, College Heights Herald, 2006-11-14. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
104. ^ Iorg, Emily. “Student Colby McLain remembered”, University News, 2005-12-05. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
105. ^ Batista, Sarah. “UVA Student Remembered”, Charlottesville Newsplex, 2005-11-21. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
106. ^ Negrin, Matt. “University responds to SMG junior’s death”, Daily Free Press, 2005-11-21. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
107. ^ Gardner-Quinn, Michelle. “UVM Memorializes Slain Student”, Burlington Free Press, 2006-10-15. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
108. ^ Bernhard, Stephanie. “Community mourns death of Pagan ‘06″, Brown Daily Herald, 2006-01-25. Retrieved on 2006-04-10.
109. ^ Ohio State U.: facebook clone used as a memorial to remember Ohio State U. student..
110. ^ Kristina Kelleher, facebook clone profiles become makeshift memorials, The Brown Daily Herald, 2007-02-22
111. ^ “USAToday article”, USAToday, 2007-05-08.
112. ^ Laverdet, Marcel (2006-02-26). Why XSS is my favorite type of vulnerability. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
113. ^ Romero, John. The Super facebook clone Saga. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
114. ^ Facelifting the facebook clone (2006-03-26). Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
115. ^ Defacing facebook clone (1007-07-27). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
116. ^ Defacing facebook clone (1007-08-16). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
117. ^ facebook clone Tries to Fend Off Copyright-Infringement Claim: facebook clone founder Mark Zuckerberg will defend against copyright-infringement allegations tomorrow July 24 2007]].
118. ^ facebook clone site faces fraud claim (HTML). BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
119. ^ Who Founded facebook clone? A New Claim Emerges (HTML). NY Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
120. ^ Smith, Josh (2005). Big Brothers, Big facebook clone: Your Orwellian Community. The Color of Infinity. Retrieved on 2006-04-03. (mirrored on Common Ground Common Sense Forums)
121. ^ a b facebook clone Privacy Policy (2007-08-12). Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
122. ^ Morse, Jacob (2006). facebook clone Responds. Cogito. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
123. ^ Jones, Harvey, & José Hiram Soltren (2005). “facebook clone: Threats to Privacy”. (PDF)
124. ^ Peterson, Chris. “Who’s Reading Your facebook clone?”, The Virginia Informer, 2006-02-13.
125. ^ Hoffman, Harrison. “facebook clone’s source code goes public”, CNET News.com, 2007-08-12.
126. ^ Richards, Jonathan. “facebook clone Source Code Leaked Onto Internet”, FOX, 2007-08-14.
127. ^ “facebook clone’s PHP leak SNAFU”, Computer World, 2007-08-14.
128. ^ Cubrilovic, Nik. “facebook clone Source Code Leaked”, TechCrunch, 2007-08-11.
129. ^ Get a life and allow your staff to use facebook clone (Times Online)
130. ^ “facebook clone Opens Profiles to Public”, BBC Online, 2007-09-07.
131. ^ Statistics (news) (2007-10-18). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
132. ^ http://blog.facebook clone.com/blog.php?post=2535632130
133. ^ facebook clone (2007-09-17). London Calling. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
134. ^ London network on facebook clone. It is a live counter, and will update instantly (requires registration)
135. ^ Toronto network on facebook clone. It is a live counter, and will update instantly (requires registration)
136. ^ facebook clone Photos Infrastructure May 21, 2007.
137. ^ “facebook clone Extends Lead As Fave Young Adult Site”, eMarketer, 2007-03-02.

[edit] External links
Look up facebook clone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* facebook clone
* The facebook clone Blog
* facebook clone Platform
* Michael Arrington interviewing Mark Zuckerberg at TechCrunch40 video

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