T23-Group 2



Facebook and Twitter are two of the fastest growing social network that are available to individuals. Facebook has the been one of the leading social networks since it was established. Twitter, however, has expanded more each year, surpassing facebook as more individuals have become aware of it.

Group Members
Cherry Lam, Mico Delvo, Amar Joshi and Marina Foo

History of Facebook


Facebook was launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and two other students, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while they attended Harvard University. When Facebook was first launched it was originally known as TheFacebook. The original concept of Facebook started at Harvard and expanded to other universities in Boston and other Ivy League Schools, where it gained popularity. Other than MySpace, it is the second largest social network available to individuals. Facebook was officially changed from "Thefacebook" to "Facebook," and facebook.com was purchased for $200 000 dollars. When Facebook was originally created, it was only available to individuals who attend an education institution. Since September 2006, however, any individual with a valid email address has been allowed to join Facebook. It has gained over 8 million users in the United States and over 30 million users worldwide since its launch in 2004. Facebook is free to all users, due to the amount of investors that have put money into it. Investors include Microsoft, Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) and many more. Google and Yahoo! have also tried to purchase Facebook but have not succeeded.

History of Twitter


Twitter was founded by Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey in South Park, San Francisco. Twitter unlike Facebook, has gone through a longer process to launch. Williams and Stone formed a company named Odeo, and through that company Twitter was formed. Even though Odeo did not do well, Twitter was its sucessor and was grew in popularity. Its name is based on the sound of chirping birds, as it represents the exchange of information in the social network. Due to the importance of Twitter, the company Odeo was bought out, and a new company, Obvious Corporation was formed where Twitter was the main product by the same creators. In, March 2006, Twitter became its own company and Twitter Incorporated was established.

Popularity
Facebook currently has over 175 million users while Twitter currently has an estimated 2-3 million users. It is difficult to know the exact amount of twitter users because the website does not publish the number of active accounts the site has. According to Nielsen News, Twitter is fastest growing social networking site as grew by 343% from 2007 to 2008 while facebook was only 116%.

How does Facebook and Twitter work?


Facebook has a variety of features but four main pages for the site are: Profile (where individuals can add personal information about their interests and activities and also change their status), Friends (the people the same social network and who can write on an individual’s wall or photos by consent), Networks (a city, school or workplace that an individual is part of) and Inbox (personal, private messages are sent). Facebook also has applications which include: Photos (personal photo albums or photos in which an individual is tagged by others), Notes (section where individuals can write blog entries),Groups (pages that allows people to come together to express emotions or interests), Events (individuals can organize their own event or see the invitations they have from others), Posted Items (individuals can put up links, or photos that they find interesting but are not their own), and Gifts (there are free gifts that individuals can send to their friends or also pay $1 USD for a more specific gift).

Twitter is simpler than facebook as it has eliminated a lot of the features that facebook has. Twitter simply asks “What are you doing?” and users are able to put whatever they want in the 140 character box including links to photos or interesting websites, or words to express their location or thought. Users can also update their status by mobile texting, instant message, or by the web.



Advantages of Facebook
-	Has more control over what occurs in the “status update” stream which is effectively becoming a publish function with a variety of media including text, photos and video etc.

-	Facebook does contain advertisements but not ones that are popping up fifty times and flashing, doesn’t slow down your computer or freeze it.

-	It is very useful when looking to connect with friends that you lost contact with by easily search their name.

-	It is a well organized social network which its layout is simple and so it is easy to use.

-	Facebook contains great privacy settings. It allows users to choose which information is shared and how much of it. Options are in the hands of the user and no one else.

Advantages of Twitter
-	Twitter is committed to the privacy of its users since they are able to talk privately to someone through direct messages which is equivalent to e-mail that goes to the recipient's home page and also shows up in his or her e-mail.

-	A number of Twitter-like services exist, including sending text messages to multiple people at once.

-	Provide many services and applications with iPhone and blackberry which allow people to update and manage more than one Twitter account at the same time.

-	It automatically changes the status of the users.



Disadvantages of Facebook
-	Since its massive growth, Facebook has now become a marketing tool that advertises and promotes products, events, charity causes, dating websites, etc.

-	Business organizations are now able send spam mails to users that promote their products through sponsorship or by signing up as an account user.

-	Lack of information filtering led to the exposure of users’ activities to other user’s feed.

-	External parties had developed tons of applications to be used in Facebook that it takes away the main purpose of the website, which is social networking. These applications also fill the notification updates of users which is annoying.

-	Facebook can be overly complicated for new users for the website possess has so much features that it will take a new user some time and effort to fully take advantage of its features.

Disadvantages of Twitter
-	Twitter provides very limited functions. Its activities are only restricted to finding and following people, send brief messages, and direct replies.

-	Limited to 140 characters per status update.

-	Anyone has access to your profile and able to follow your updates.

-	Twitter does not have much users compared to Facebook.

-	Sometimes there is traffic overload in the servers due to its growing popularity.