The rise and rise of Facebook

Launched in early 2004, Facebook was designed to help organise your friends and see how many people you knew through your friends. Initially only for the US universities, Facebook eventually reached these shores and in October last year, it started gaining a cult following in Durham, spawning our own portal at http://dur.facebook.com/. You list your school, year of leaving, college, subject etc and set up you profile with what films/music etc you like and that's it. You can search on any variable and add people who are your friends. They have to acknowledge that they do know you and between you you can add in reminders about how you met and how you knew each other. Of course, some people, in their quest for the largest numbers of friends, add everyone they've ever met. Once you're registered you can search and, much like Wikipedia, looking at one persons' set of interests, photos and list of friends can lead you on until you have mysteriously spent hours on the site. Of course, being an old git, most of my friends have left, but Facebook also offers alumnae the chance to register and slowly, members of college from last year are signing up (and boosting my friends count!). Want to see who else is here from your school, who else like that crap film you do or simply who shares your birthday in Durham? The answers are only a click away. While things like Friendsreunited got boring after about an hour, Facebook might actually continue to be useful (especially as it's free) and added benefits like the ability to identify people in photos and individual messageboards (walls) mean it can be endlessly tweaked. It seems Facebook has broken through the geek barrier and become a part of everyday life for most students.