In 2010 Facebook was six years old, had just overtaken Google as the most-visited site in the United States on some weekly measures, and passed 500 million users in July. Its blue-and-white pages became the default way to share photos, plan events, and play FarmVille.
The 2010 Facebook had a slim blue bar across the top with a search box, small icons for friend requests, messages and notifications, and a left-hand column of bookmarks (News Feed, Messages, Events, Photos, and the games you had installed). The News Feed toggled between Top News and Most Recent. Every post had a small Like link, comments appeared inline, and Facebook Chat lived in a bar pinned to the bottom of the window.
April's f8 conference launched the Open Graph and the Like button for the whole web. May brought a privacy backlash and simplified settings. August added Places check-ins, October relaunched Groups, and November announced the new Messages system with @facebook.com addresses. In December, Time named Mark Zuckerberg its Person of the Year, two months after The Social Network arrived in cinemas.
- Domain in 2010
- facebook.com
- Launched
- 4 February 2004
- Founders
- Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes
- Owner in 2010
- Facebook, Inc. (private)
- Status today
- Still active
What people used it for
- Status updates and the News Feed
- Photo albums and tagging
- Events and birthdays
- Facebook Chat
- Social games like FarmVille
Interface characteristics
- Blue top bar (#3b5998) with search box
- Left column of bookmarks and apps
- Top News / Most Recent feed toggle
- Like and Comment links under every post
- Chat bar docked to the bottom of the page
Notable features
- Like button for the web (April 2010)
- Places check-ins (August 2010)
- Groups relaunch (October 2010)
- Messages with @facebook.com email (November 2010)
- 500 million users (July 2010)
What happened later
Facebook went public in 2012, passed a billion users the same year, bought Instagram and WhatsApp, and renamed its parent company Meta in 2021. It remains the largest social network on Earth.
Archived on the Wayback Machine
Archived pages open on web.archive.org (Internet Archive). They are historical captures, not part of this exhibit.
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