Statistics about facebook

Facebook users:
a- Gender:
Male (60%)
female (40%)

b- Age:
(under 15) 4%
(16-25) 54%
(26-34) 23%
(35-44) 13%
(45-55) 5%
(above 55) 1%

c- Nationality:
UAE (12%)
Gulf Countries (7%)
Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq (45%)
Egypt and Sudan (25%)
Other nationalities including (11%).

d- Educational statue:
Student (4%)
High school graduate (13%)
College undergraduate student (39%)
Bachelor degree (32%)
Post graduate (12%)

e- Monthly Income By (AED):
(under 1,000) 30%
(1,001-5000) 41%
(5,001-10,000) 13%
(above 10,000) 16%

f- Login device:
Cell phone (25%)
Desktop PC ( 19%)
Laptop (56%)

g- Number of friends:
( less than 40 ) 36%
(41-80) 19%
(81-120) 18%
(121-200) 18%
( more than 200) 10%

h- Meeting facebook friends:
Internet friends 10%
Friends of friends 27%
Searching on facebook 19%
Real friends 42%
Other 2%

Facebook, what you like and don’t like about it?

Advantages:

§ Allows user search for new and old friends.
§ Accessible to chosen universities having a high level of security.
§ Makes it less awkward when communicating with strangers or people you are not familiar with.
§ Makes it easier to join groups having similar likes and dislikes
§ Allows members to check students who are taking the same class, living within the same area, or coming from the same academy
Disadvantages

Overcrowding
§ Weakening long distance relationship
§ Unsupported by physical adjacency
Contributes wide-range procrastination
§ Rampant addiction
§ Stalking is possible
§ Acquaintances be labeled as friends

Conclusion

What we have learned from our research about Facebook?

Facebook Definition:
Facebook is social website where people meet, it have a main idea about friends meeting or making new relationships in the same website even if they are far away from each other, meaning they can contact to any country in the wide world.
Who is the founder of the Facebook?
The founder of the facebook was a student in Harvard University in Boston. His name is Mark Zuckerberg. He launched his website on February 4, 2004, it started as thefacebook.com then in 2005 he decided to delete (the) so it changed to facebook.com
Why its attractive?
What makes it special or attractive more than other websites is that Facebook have a lot of services, entertainment, information page for every user, personal page, free space for the user which called (Wall), friends can chat with each other ,and every user can add his images and albums and share it with other friends.
Facebook competitors:
There are a lot of social sites which can consider as Facebook competitors. The popular facebook competitors are Twitter, blogger, MySpace, Tagged...etc. In general, Facebook is the best social site in the network.
Threats affecting Facebook:
Every company have few Problems. Even biggest companies in the world have problems such as Facebook. Facebook problems are:
1- Privacy ( the 33-page Document):
Privacy is important to be successful in social network . The 33-page document gives the power to agents from local police, FBI, and Secret Service to entire to social network sites as an undercover fed to search for information, photo, video, and to chat with any suspect.
2- Click jacking
Click jacking is web sites contain codes can harm your computer and take any action that could affect your browser without your knowledge.
3- Spammy Wall Posts, Inbox Messages, and Chat Messages
This method is the most popular. Criminals send spammy messages and posts in the user wall with links that have viruses or to bluff you to but your username and password etc… .
4- Money Transfer Scams
Money Transfer scam is dangerous method to steal from the users, but Indirectly. This scam use friends as a motivation for the user to transfer money to the criminals account. They send massages to the user and shows that the massage from the user friend and Claims that he/she is in needs money and if the user can transfer the money to their account.
5- Password Interception
Its popular if a person have the same password for facebook and his/her important files or emails account. So, some users fooled with some methods that ask their user name and password.
6- Lack of User Control of Information
Some user are Obsessed about facebook and uploading on facebook. So, they upload almost all photos and videos they have, but this continuous uploading have a negative effect on people how are on the content of the uploaded file.

How to make account in Facebook

Step 1

Step 2


Step 3

Step 4



Step 5


Step 6

Step 7



Step 8


Step 9



Step 10


Step 11


Step 12





Step 13

Interesting issues

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. His new idea and what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history. All of that success comes after both personal and legal complications.

Mark Zuckerberg idea was to create a website to get the attention of all the clubs in his university and give people the opportunity to check out their friends, see pictures, profiles and put the social life in the university online. Why he wants that, because it’s exclusive, fun and have a better life.

Threats affecting Facebook

End-users share a wide variety of information on Facebook, but a discussion of the privacy implications of doing so has yet to emerge. We examined how Facebook affects privacy, and found serious flaws in the system. Privacy on Facebook is undermined by three principal factors: users disclose too much, Facebook does not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties are actively seeking out end-user information using Facebook.

Undercover Feds on Social Networking Sites Raise Questions

The next time someone tries to “friend” you on Facebook, it may turn out to be an undercover fed looking to examine your private messages and photos, or surveil your friends and family. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has obtained an internal Justice Department document that describes what law enforcement is doing on social networking sites.
The 33-page document shows that law enforcement agents from local police to the FBI and Secret Service have been logging on to MySpace and other sites undercover to communicate with suspects, read private postings and view photos and videos that are restricted to a user’s friends.
The document also describes techniques for verifying alibis — such as checking messages posted by a suspect on Twitter disclosing his whereabouts at the time a crime was committed — and uncovering information that might point to illegal activity, such as photos depicting a suspect with expensive jewelry, a new car or even a weapon.
The document says evidence from social networking sites can:
· Reveal personal communications
· Establish motives and personal relationships
· Provide location information
· Prove and disprove alibis
· Establish crime or criminal enterprise
The investigative techniques were part of a slide presentation titled “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites” given last year by John Lynch, deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division to describe how valuable social networking sites can be to give law enforcement access to non-public information. The cops can also map social relationships and networks, among other things. The document does not include guidance or cautionary notes on how to conduct an investigation responsibly using these services, though it acknowledges the problematic nature of using an assumed identity to open an account with a social networking site.


Clickjacking
Certain malicious websites contain code that can make your browser take action without your knowledge or consent this malicious affecting Facebook and made the users feel uncomfortable. Clicking on a link on one of these websites might cause the website to be posted to your Facebook profile without your permission.

Spammy Wall Posts, Inbox Messages, and Chat Messages
When criminals gain access to a Facebook account, they usually post spammy comments on friends’ Walls, or send spammy messages through Inbox or Chat. These messages ask you to click on a link and often try to entice you by claiming there’s a new photo or video of you somewhere on the Internet that you need to check out.
The link then takes you to a phishing site that asks you to enter your login information, or a malware site that prompts you to download malicious software. This is another threat affecting Facebook, hackers always want to steal people profiles so they use different type of tricks and malicious software to access people accounts.

Money Transfer Scams
Scammers sometimes post status updates, or send Inbox or Chat messages, from a friend’s account claiming that the friend is in some difficult situation and in need of money. These messages ask you to help by wiring funds through a money transfer service. Never send money without first verifying the story through some other means, such as by talking to the person over the phone.

Password Interception
The fact that the username and password were sent in clear text is a security vulnerability. An adversary could read Facebook user names and passwords of the Ethernet or unencrypted wireless traffic, obtaining access to users' Facebook passwords, as well as any additional accounts they use those passwords for. Because of the ethical and legal implications of doing so, we did not attempt to steal passwords. It should be noted, however, that MIT cited password theft as a real problem when they maintained telnet servers that had login data sent as clear text. The University of New Mexico cited this as the main reason they chose to disable Facebook access from their network. Because many users use their university email passwords as their Facebook passwords, UNM views Facebook as a security liability for their network.

Lack of User Control of Information
Other users can upload and associate information to one's Facebook account. The most prominent feature of this type is the “My Photos" feature, which allows users to upload photos and tag them with the names of the people in the pictures. This functionality has already resulted in trouble for an underage student at University of Missouri-Columbia when college administrators found a picture of her duct-taped to a chair while another student poured beer in her mouth. This was a matter of considerable embarrassment as she had just been elected student body vice president. The university is currently considering removing her from that role.

Facebook, what you like and don’t like about it

Facebook - a popular name among those who are so into it. Individuals from different ages, gender and nationality who have an account in Facebook are now using more of their time chatting, working, playing, exchange pictures, videos and socializing with other people amidst the distance and lack of time. And even if a community like Facebook serves numerous advantages, it also proves to have certain disadvantages as well. From these advantages and disadvantages the person will be able to recognize what he/she likes or dislikes. There are now series of improvements in the system just to make up with the shortcomings. First will take the advantage and explain some of them after that we will see some of the disadvantage:

Advantages:

§ Allows user search for new and old friends.

Like to have new friends from different places around the world, also to meet some friends that you have been a long time don’t see them.

§ Accessible to chosen universities having a high level of security.

For example, if a student from a country wants to study abroad. Logically he will get the general information about that university like camps location , university policies, majors that university have and other stuff like that. If the university has an account in facebook, he can get less formal information like name of professors and make friends even before he moved there.

§ Makes it less awkward when communicating with strangers or people you are not familiar with.

This is one the most benefit that a lot people will get from facebook, also tell us one of the reasons why facebook has spread out too fast.

Some of people have serious problem talking and communicating with other people for several reasons and they want to have barrier between them and strangers or people, so facebook give them exactly what they want.

§ Makes it easier to join groups having similar likes and dislikes

The last thing you will be care about in facebook is (won’t be able to have a friend), because the probability for that it almost zeros facebook gives you the ability to search for your friends. For example you may find friends have same hobbies and interests or friends with same thoughts. This also a reason why facebook has been so famous.

§ Allows members to check students who are taking the same class, living within the same area, or coming from the same academy

As before, facebook is for everyone companies, universities, members, families and individuals. Members have the chance to get answers from their student without asking them all of that comes from facebook.

Disadvantages

As before facebook have some disadvantages and this some of them:

§ Overcrowding
Imagine that you can meet all people you knew like your family and friends also people you don’t knew at anytime and anywhere. That is a great idea but if you really thing about it you will notice that is maybe too much, no one is sure that the user will be able chat or comment to all of them every time he sign in.

§ Weakening long distance relationship

User can make a lot of friendship to different people from different places around the world in facebook. This type of friendship won’t be as before by virtue of the distance. Also people may forget the real meaning of friendship.

§ Unsupported by physical adjacency

As we know in facebook you are chatting to different people in different places, and there is no physical adjacency because of the distance, and this will not make the relationship between them strong.

§ Contributes wide-range procrastination

Setting in front of the computer and on facebook makes you procrastinate doing things must be done in the moment, and this will be repeated many times, that will affect for example the productivity in the work for the employees.

§ Rampant addiction

It’s obviously, that facebook will lead to the addiction, because it has many attractive things (people, downloading videos, sharing music, pictures and event….); it’s another live in one place and in the same time in different places.

§ Stalking is possible

As facebook provide a variety of features and because of open and public nature of it there is the possibility for being stalked and observed online or offline, this can be highly aggravating and users loss their privacy

§ Acquaintances be labeled as friends

In facebook every user account has people named as friends even if the user himself don’t knew them So, there is no difference between your friends and people who just added.

Surely, the disadvantages don't pose a threat to you just by merely looking at it. Someone else has to prove that what users do with their profile is directly in proportion with what can happen to them. A user must understand what he is trying to give out otherwise things might get messy and people will mistook them as someone else.

It is quite obvious that a trade off is happening between the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. While it increases the communication and connection between friends and the online community it also increases the risk of procrastination and makes it easier for others to stalk a user. Worse, some are actually punished for what they put on their profile and would claim that it was there only for fun.

Despite the above mentioned advantages and disadvantages of an online networking service, it still is gaining demand and popularity among the young crowd. There are about 10,000 students (professionals and young professionals not yet included) who are joining into Facebook every day. This is regardless of the age, race and country. Some are now trying to criticize the status of professionalism of this site whether it's just another fad like other online networking services are.

Facebook Competitors

What are the social networks compete with Facebook? They are Bebo, Friend-star, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin, Xing, Blogger, Tagged, My Yearbook, LiveJournal, SlashKey, Gaia Online, Seesmic, Etsy, Dopplr, Moshimonsters and so on.


The below chart shows a huge disparity between Facebook and the other social networking sites in terms of unique visits. Facebook is the only obvious site that is experiencing an upward trending growth while others clustered at the bottom of the chart. LinkedIn and Twitter also appear to be growing at a steady pace but definitely in a different league from Facebook.

Regardless, both Twitter and LinkedIn serve different needs and aren’t much of a threat to Facebook. LinkedIn (professional networking) and Twitter (mirco-blogging) are two successful product differentiation examples.


Facebook and Twitter:

Twitter is the most popular site between the microblog sites. It presents its users writing texts of 140 characters about everything that users want. However Facebook is being used by lots of countries. Further its average load time is faster than Twitter which average load time is 2.655 seconds. Demographics of Twitter are that it is more popular between 25 and 34 age group than the others. But Facebook is more popular between 18 and 24 age group.

Similarities between Facebook and Twitter are that most of the users visit the sites from google.com, users consists of college and graduate school students generally, females represent them more than males and people who has no children represent them. Twitter™ is like the simplistic, easy-going cousin of the complex, multi-tasking Facebook™. Allowing its users to snippets of information as brief status updates and not elaborate descriptions of life, Twitter™ keeps things simple. There are "Followers" and "Followings" on Twitter™, which would be comparable to Facebook's™ "Friends," and there are direct messages that are also limited to 140 characters - which are comparable to "Messages" on Facebook™. Twitter limits the contact between people and the information shared - making it very different from the other all-encompassing social network. Twitter also has an iPhone™ application and TwitterBerry™, the Twitter™ application for Blackberry™.


Facebook and MySpace:

Facebook vs MySpace most people who are active on social networking sites have a profile on both MySpace and Facebook. However, despite being on both sites, each user almost always has a preference for one site over the other. That's due to the fact that there are some significant differences between the two networking sites and the people who are most active on them.
MySpace began with a big preference for teenagers whereas Facebook was designed specifically for college students. (When it first started, you even needed a college email address to sign up with Facebook.) As the two sites have grown up, their users have changed. These days, teens may be on either site. And college students turn up on both of them as well. Where the real differences lie now is in the professionals who are networking on the sites. Facebook has a number of different professionals who are on the site for networking and job hunting. If you're a career professional in the computer or business fields, Facebook is more your game. That's not to say that there aren't professionals on MySpace. However, they tend to be involved in more creative careers. Musicians, comedians and fashion designers are easy to find on MySpace.


Facebook has MySpace beat hands down for the number of applications that you can use on the site. In fact, new applications are being designed on a regular basis for Facebook, many of which assist with the professional networking that takes place on the site. If all of those applications are too confusing for you, you might want to stick with MySpace. Despite the fact that there are plenty of applications for Facebook, the types of designs that you can have on your own profile page are somewhat limited. Most Facebook pages look basically the same at a first glance. In contrast, it's possible to really alter your MySpace profile so that it looks completely unique. People who want to show off their creative tendencies are likely to find that MySpace makes that a little bit easier to do. Moreover, Spam doesn't seem to be a problem on Facebook whereas it can be quite a headache on MySpace. People hack MySpace profiles and send viruses to their friends on the site. If you don't want to deal with spam, Facebook is currently the place for you.

Facebook and Google:

Over the last couple of years, Google has tried to better establish itself in online social networking due to the intensifying threat from rivals like Facebook, but its offerings haven’t really been as widely embraced by consumers as the company has hoped. Most recently, about a year ago, Google released Google Wave, a real-time asynchronous communication, collaboration, and social networking platform that brought email, real-time chat with voice and video, and social networking all in one place – the first of its kind – yet the service has too not become as popular. Only less than a year after general availability, Google announced early last August that it would stop Wave development, and said it intended to keep the service available at least until the end of this year. Despite Google’s marginal results in social networking, the company remains very well positioned strategically to develop a complete social network if it can correctly integrate some of its popular products that millions of people already use and rely on daily. And right now, it appears Google will finally utilize already popular products to leverage itself into social networking by adding layers of social networking elements into some of its properties, like YouTube, starting as early as this November.
Google will subsequently launch a new social network called Google ME, which will be the most comprehensive social network built by the company, and could actually become a real substitute to Facebook. Our source, which spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans were not made public, knowing people familiar with the project, told us that users could centrally upload and share content, as well as access information from other social networks like Twitter, play multiplayer games with social elements, and create groups of friends with different privacy settings. Furthermore, if enabled, friends would be able to see search queries, and search results could be optimized based on friend contributions. Additionally, Google ME will be integrated with key Google products, including Gmail, Voice, and Docs, among other products.