It's too bad that there's no way to archive of the "inside" of the site. What was it like to actually use Facebook at this time? I actually did use Facebook back then, and even I'm not even sure exactly how I used it before the news feed feature was added -- I'm pretty sure people would click "friends" and then look for a little "profile updated recently" message.
It would be cool if people could go back and try old versions of things in the cloud. With non-cloud software (like Windows 3.1 or Mac OS 1.0), it's possible to do this, but with websites, once they've been taken down, no one will ever be able to use their old versions again. I wonder if there's some way that Facebook could "donate" old versions of their code for posterity.
I've always wanted something like this. Not that I have a business model in mind to make it feasible but it would be awesome if it were a separate product that did this for "gardened" content in general.
I don't remember 2006 specifically, but I was on facebook in 2004. Back then, it was only open to .edu addresses. They had a list of all of the dorms at the school and the rooms in them. You would select using a pull down menu which was your room. They also had drop-down menus for all of the classes that the school offered, and there was a 'group' that was created for each class that you could use to construct study groups (or whatever). There was no news feed. Instead of the 'wall' as it is now, it was instead an editable text box that acted like the white board that is common outside dorm rooms.
Ah, I remember the "white board" wall. Back when the Facebook API came out in 2007-ish, I implemented a functioning lookalike using the API -- at one point, it had around 17,000 users who had logged in, including Mark Zuckerberg himself(!!)
...then Facebook basically killed the API (changing it over to a more of an authentication system than an add-content-to-your-profile system) so that was it for my app.
I've thought about versioning with Web apps. It's not at all an efficient way to spend your time as a company, but there are apps I use where older versions were much more to my suiting.
I used to find the Internet Archive incredibly useful, sadly the new design has completely ruined this. Before the site was nice and organized, now it's a big mess that seems to be designed for smartphones. Infinite scrolling really helps making the site completely chaotic and confusing.
However, even though the site is ruined for me now, I really want to thank Internet Archive for all the years of enjoyment it has given me.
I'd like to notice that the iconic 'Like' button has appeared on FB only in 2009, with acquisition of FriendFeed (recently closed), a social network site which pioneered it.
FriendFeed was created by a team led by Paul Buchheit, the original creator of GMail, and Bret Taylor, one of creators of Google Maps.
Just a funny fact that shows how much the tech industry is interconnected.
16 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 45.7 ms ] threadIt would be cool if people could go back and try old versions of things in the cloud. With non-cloud software (like Windows 3.1 or Mac OS 1.0), it's possible to do this, but with websites, once they've been taken down, no one will ever be able to use their old versions again. I wonder if there's some way that Facebook could "donate" old versions of their code for posterity.
...then Facebook basically killed the API (changing it over to a more of an authentication system than an add-content-to-your-profile system) so that was it for my app.
However, even though the site is ruined for me now, I really want to thank Internet Archive for all the years of enjoyment it has given me.
FriendFeed was created by a team led by Paul Buchheit, the original creator of GMail, and Bret Taylor, one of creators of Google Maps.
Just a funny fact that shows how much the tech industry is interconnected.
(Don't forget it started as 'thefacebook.com')
http://web.archive.org/web/20040902031403/http://thefacebook...