The History of Facebook and How It Was Invented

Mark Zuckerberg  was a  Harvard computer science student  when he, along with classmates Eduardo Saverin,  Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes  invented Facebook.  Amazingly, the idea for the website, now the worlds most popular social networking page, was inspired by a botched  effort to get Internet users to rate one anothers photos.   Hot or Not?: The Origin of Facebook In 2003,  Zuckerberg, a second-year student at Harvard,  wrote the software for a website called  Facemash. He put his computer science skills to questionable use by hacking into Harvards security network, where he copied the student ID images used by the dormitories and used them to populate his new website. Website visitors could use Zuckerbergs site to compare two student photos side-by-side and determine who was hot and who was not.   Facemash opened on October 28, 2003—and closed a few days later, after it was shut down by Harvard execs. In the aftermath, Zuckerberg faced serious charges of breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Though he faced expulsion from Harvard for his actions, all charges against him were eventually dropped. TheFacebook: An App for Harvard Students On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched a new website called TheFacebook. He  named the site after  the directories that were handed out to university students to help them to get to know one another better. Six days later, he got into trouble again when Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused him of stealing their ideas for an intended social networking website called HarvardConnection. The claimants later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, however, the matter was eventually settled out of court. Membership to the website was at first restricted to Harvard  students. Over time, Zuckerberg enlisted a few of his fellow students to help grow the website. Eduardo Saverin, for example, worked on the business end while Dustin Moskovitz was brought on as a programmer. Andrew McCollum served as the sites graphic artist and Chris Hughes became the de facto spokesperson. Together the team expanded the site to additional universities and colleges. Facebook: The Worlds Most Popular Social Network In 2004, Napster founder and  angel investor  Sean Parker became the companys president. The company changed the sites name from TheFacebook to just Facebook after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000. The following year, venture capital firm Accel Partners  invested $12.7 million in the company, which enabled the creation of a version of the network for high school students. Facebook would later expand to other networks, such as employees of companies. In  September of  2006, Facebook announced that anyone who was at  least 13 years old and had a valid email address could join.  By 2009, it had become the worlds  most used social networking service, according to a report by the analytics site Compete.com. While Zuckerbergs antics and the sites profits eventually led to him becoming  the worlds youngest multi-billionaire, hes done his part to spread the wealth around. Hes donated $100 million dollars to the Newark, New Jersey public school system, which has long been underfunded. In 2010, he signed a pledge, along with other wealthy businessmen, to donate at least half of his wealth to charity.  Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have  donated $25 million toward fighting the Ebola virus and announced that they would  contribute 99% of their Facebook shares to the  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative  to improve lives through education, health, scientific research, and energy.