Facebook is a social network that connects people from around the world with their friends, fans, work and school colleagues. It enables users to stay in touch with their friends, upload videos, share photos and links.
The site is all about communication and users are able to follow friends, join groups, invite others as well as put out announcements. Run out of California, Facebook is popular among not only those in the United States but the UK, Turkey and France and is available in a range of languages.
Registering is free, and each member has the option to join a regional, company or school network. From there, friends can be added and the personal profile page can be continually updated (and even interlinked with a Twitter account). One of the most useful features is the option to create a fan page, which can act as a customised profile page for a project company or product etc while providing the opportunity to communicate directly with fans.
Facebook is incredibly wide ranging, and allows members the chance to tailor and personalise their profile, and add as much informtion to it as they wish, as well as load and build a variety of applications from games to social tools. Indeed, there are countless features and possibilities to connect and create communities with others. There are many different groups, discussing a plethora of content and as it is founded on individual’s personal interests and communities, therefore the majority of film genres and styles appear on the site in some manner.
Facebook is rapidly becoming one of the largets social networks in the world, and is constantly developing with users able to create their own applications for others to use. The main social tools offered include blogging, photo and video sharing, friend and group messaging along with an instant chat feature. In turn video messages and podcasts can be uploaded. All common digital video formats are accepted, though they can be no longer than two-minutes and no larger than 100MB. That said clips from other sites can be posted on your profile and another major drawcard of Facebook is the ability to embed and integrate a range of other web-based tools, in particular Flickr photos and YouTube clips. Meanwhile, Facebook also can be linked to other websites and major social networks, while also providing its own bookmarking tag to paste pages to your profile. Advertising is also available and can be specifically targeted at relevant demographics.
Facebook has come under controversy recently and is frequently being blocked in a number of countries including Syria and Iran. Many workplaces have also banned it, citing a loss in productivity. One of the biggest issues the network has faced are around privacy, which has been compromised a few times. However, it has recently increased security and their privacy settings are aimed at members controlling who sees what in their profiles.
Registration Yes, free, 14+
Focus Connecting friends, family and colleagues
Film Focus All genres and types as content is user generated
Style A wide-ranging social network with many tools and applications for creating communities, communcating, sharing and promoting your interests.
Features Bookmarking, blogs, groups, events, chat, messaging, RSS feeds YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, video uploading (in all main formats including mobile phone), video and photo sharing, podcasts, fan pages, updates and annoucements.
Usability Simple with many features.
