Introduction
Facebook is a social networking site that came into being in February 2004. Facebook currently has over 850 million users who for them to use it must first register where they will create a personal profile, add fellow friends and are able to share messages. The system has an automatic notification system where users are able to get updates of any transactions. Users moreover, are involved in common-interest groups, prepared workplace, school or college. Facebook has some features that require the users to be well over 13 years of age before they are able to use the site. Facebook is used by people of all ages young and old who are interested in socializing.
Users on Facebook are offered the ability to create profiles composing of photos, list of hobbies, connection information as well as other personal details. These users are able to interact with their friends with the help of private message system as well as public in addition to the chat feature. Users of Facebook are able to select their own privacy settings and decide on who is to view their profile. The site is available at no cost and provides income through promotions like banners. One has to have a user name and a picture to be connected to others in the social realm.
Facebook has several features that make it possible to communicate with friends; there is a wall, where a person is able to place information to another person but visible to others, there is also pokes, where users direct virtual “poke” to a friends. There are status that the users may use to pass information of where they are and what they are doing. Photos may be used by the users for others to see and comment about.
Server-side and client-side hardware and software requirements of your system
Facebook uses software that is completely functional and licensed version. As a web application, Facebook requires no special hardware and software requirements as all of the workload is handled by the Server. Nevertheless, the recommended minimum hardware requirements for Facebook should be a CPU of 1GHz 32-bit or even 64-bit, the memory of the system should be 1 GB which is 1024MB and above, there should be a sound card for chatting, a 2Mbit internet Access. For the software needs; the operating system can be Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows Vista, 7 32 and 64 Bit. At times when one puts to use Vista computer to upload data, one may notice slow internet connection, Vista pack 1 may sort out the slowness, this hence calls for one to use Vista host. For the web browser to be used, one may use, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or above, Apple Safari, Mozilla and Google Chrome. For internet connection, there should be an ADSL 2 Mbit Download and 512 Kbytes Upload or above for the common use or an ADSL 7Mbit Download and 1 Mbit Upload or above for appropriate application when streaming a video or an audio. Facebook has high level of customization which makes it different from other social networking sites like MySpace. Facebook has the requirement that the users are to issue their genuine identity as well the requirement that they use only plain texts while interacting.
Facebook Features
Main features of Facebook are the wall, status, photos and pokes. In wall, this is the first profile space where the users post their contents. It makes it possible for one to post a message, more so short or chronological notes, for the user to have a look at while showing the time and date the message was placed there. An operator’s wall is seen by everyone who is able to see the person’s profile and friend’s wall posts are seen in the operator’s News Feed. Moreover, the wall also shows the happenings on the operator’s profile, like; the friends added, the group joined, the articles read and posts made and to whom among others. Currently the wall is being phased out to bring into being the timeline profile design brought into being in December 2011.
There is also the Chat feature which makes it possible for face bookers to interact with their friends. This may either be done on a one-to-one basis or to several friends at once with the help of the groups attribute. Facebook has an instant messaging feature for its user’s which upholds the Facebook Chat like Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, eBuddy among others. The Chat feature may as well be applied in the desktop with the help of Gabtastik which is a dedicated web chat browser. It may as well be used on iPhone using an application, as well as Blackberry. Facebook is looking forward to apply the XMPP support which makes it possible for several users using the instant messaging feature to interact with the service. The Chat also has the ability to use video chats, this requires for the users to use the plug-in software for the web browser they are using.
Another feature common on Facebook is the Status updates feature which makes it possible for several Face bookers to write and post messages for their friends to access. The recipient on the other hand reciprocates by posting their own comments or pressing the “Like” button. The not long updates by a Facebook operator will be seen at the top part of their Wall and placed as a “Recently Updated” part of the recipient’s list. The initial objective of this feature was to make it possible for clients to notify their friends of the prevailing situation; “status”, feelings or activity. This feature was made available in 2006 which began the status update with “is” which was later removed. This was trailed by “What are you doing right now?” in 2009 to “What’s on your mind?” in the same year. Facebook later made it possible to tag friends using the status updates with the application of @ feature before the name hence switching the name of the person into a link and adding the message on the wall of the recipient. Tagging has developed to note the names of the friends through writing their names. A big number of these updates are funny and consequently several websites have come up to assist in status updating.
There is the poke Facebook feature which is designed to poke or nudge a person so as to get his or her attention. Most of the Facebook users make use of this feature to get the attention or say “hello” to other users. The initial form of the poke feature made use of several features in the beginning of the feature, stating that its coming to being was destined for coolness. Varied people have varied forms of interpretation for poke. There are varied applications of Facebook with the extended thought of a poke by making users to undertake several actions to their fellow Facebook users for instance “kick” or “wave to”. The receiver of the poke is also reciprocated several times until one of the people concerned gives up; it is logically known as a “Poke War”. In terms of the security feature of Facebook, users are allowed to manage their own security or privacy settings; some users may see the profile of an individual while others are blocked depending on the user.
