List of Facebook features
Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of the social media site.
This article is about the features of the social media service Facebook. For the main article, see Facebook.Applications[edit]
Events[edit]
Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings. Events require an event name, network, host name, event type, start time, location, and a guest list of friends invited. Events can be public or private. Private events cannot be found in searches and are by invitation only. People who have not been invited cannot view a private event's description, Wall, or photos. They also will not see any Feed stories about the event. When setting up an event the user can choose to allow friends to upload photos or videos. Note that unlike real world events, all events are treated as separate entities (when the reality is some events sit inside other events, going to one event would preclude going to another, and so on).
In February 2011, Facebook began to use the hCalendar microformat to mark up events, and the hCard microformat for the events' venues, enabling the extraction of details to users' own calendar or mapping applications. Third parties facilitate events to be exported from Facebook pages to the iCalendar-format.
Marketplace[edit]
In 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace, allowing users to post classified ads within sale, housing, and jobs categories.[75] However, the feature never gained traction, and in 2009, control was transferred to Oodle, the platform powering the functionality. The feature was then eventually shut down in 2014.[75] In October 2016, Facebook announced a new Marketplace, citing the growth of organized "buy and sell" Facebook Groups, and gave the new version a higher prominence in the main Facebook app, taking the navigation position previously held by Facebook Messenger.[75][76]
According to Facebook's internal data from 2019, the Marketplace used to only be a C2C platform but now there is a major B2C opportunity for US retailers.[77]
In June 2021, the European Commission and Competition and Markets Authority launched antitrust probes over concerns that Facebook's Marketplace took advantage of data from competing services that advertise on the platform and used it to gain "an undue competitive advantage".[78]
Notes[edit]
Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, as a blogging platform offering users the ability to write notes, attach photos, and optionally import blog entries from external sources.[79]
The most known usage form of the Notes feature was the Internet meme "25 Random Things About Me", which involves writing 25 things about the user that their friends do not already know about them and using the tag function to ask 25 friends to do the same. The trend became popular in February 2009, with The New York Times discussing its sudden surge, noting that nearly five million notes were created for the purpose, a doubling of the feature's use in the previous week and larger than any other week in Facebook's history.[80]
In September 2015, the Notes feature received an update, bringing additional features, such as adding a cover photo and caption, the ability to resize photos, and text formatting options.[81]
Places[edit]
Facebook announced Places on August 18, 2010. It is a feature that lets users check into Facebook using a mobile device to let a user's friends know where they are at the moment.[82]
In November 2010, Facebook announced "Deals", a subset of the Places offering, which allows for users to check in from restaurants, supermarkets, bars, and coffee shops using an app on a mobile device and then be rewarded discounts, coupons, and free merchandise. This feature is marketed as a digital version of a loyalty card or coupon where a customer gets rewarded for loyal buying behavior.[83]
On October 10, 2010, Places became available on BlackBerry,[84] iPhone, and Android. Other users, including Windows Mobile users, must use an HTML5 browser to use Places via Facebook Touch Site.[85]
Facebook Places was reported discontinued on August 24, 2011,[86] but was relaunched in November 2014, now including cover images, discovery sections, city/category landing pages, a deeper integration with the Location API, Graph Search queries and user generated content.[87]
Security[edit]
On May 12, 2011, Facebook announced that it is launching several new security features designed to protect users from malware and from getting their accounts hijacked.[238]
Facebook will display warnings when users are about to be duped by clickjacking and cross-site scripting attacks in which they think they are following a link to an interesting news story or taking action to see a video and instead end up spamming their friends.[238]
Facebook also offers two-factor authentication called "login approvals", which, if turned on, will require users to enter a code whenever they log into the site from a new or unrecognized device. The code is sent via text message to the user's mobile phone.[238]
Facebook is partnering with the free Web of Trust safe surfing service to give Facebook users more information about the sites they are linking to from the social network. When a user clicks on a potentially malicious link, a warning box will appear that gives more information about why the site might be dangerous. The user can either ignore the warning or go back to the previous page.[238]
Removed features[edit]
Email[edit]
In February 2010, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was working to rewrite its messaging service to turn it into a "fully featured webmail product", dubbed "Project Titan".[239] The feature, unofficially dubbed a "Gmail killer" internally, was launched on November 15, 2010,[240] and allowed users to directly communicate with each other via Facebook using several different methods. Users could create their own "[email protected]" email address to communicate, use text messaging, or through the Facebook website or mobile app's instant messaging chat. All messages were contained within single threads in a unified inbox.[241] The email service was terminated in February 2014 because of low uptake.[242][243]
FBML[edit]
Facebook Markup Language (FBML) was considered to be Facebook's own version of HTML. While many of the tags of HTML can be used in FBML, there were also important tags that could not be used, such as HTML, HEAD, and BODY. Also, JavaScript could not be used with FBML.
According to the Facebook Markup Language (FBML) Developer's page, FBML is now deprecated. No new features will be added to FBML and developers are recommended to develop new applications utilizing HTML, JavaScript and CSS. FBML support ended January 1, 2012, and FBML was no longer functioning as of June 1, 2012.
Lite[edit]
In August 2009, Facebook announced the rollout of a "lite" version of the site, optimized for users on slower or intermittent Internet connections. Facebook Lite offered fewer services, excluded most third-party applications and required less bandwidth.[244] A beta version of the slimmed-down interface was released first to invited testers[245] before a broader rollout across users in the United States, Canada, and India.[244] It was announced on April 20, 2010, that support for the "lite" service had ended and that users would be redirected back to the normal, full content, Facebook website. The service was operational for only eight months.
In June 2015, this feature was reintroduced as an app with a total size of less than 1 MB, primarily focusing markets where internet access is slow or limited.[246]
Deals[edit]
Facebook announced a pilot program called Deals, which offered online coupons and discounts from local businesses, at an event at its Palo Alto office on 3 November 2010.[247]
Deals launched on April 25, 2011, in five cities—Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco—with the hope of expanding. This new offering was a direct competitor to other social commerce sites such as LivingSocial and Groupon for online coupons and deals-of-the-day. Facebook users were able to use Facebook Credits to purchase vouchers that could be redeemed for real goods and services.[248][249]
Deals expanded to Charlotte, St. Louis and Minneapolis in late June 2011.[250]
Facebook closed the Deals program on 26 August 2011, describing the product as a "test."[251]
Jobs