2010 Web 2.0 Recap Part 1: Facebook

2010 Web 2.0 recap kicks off with Facebook.

Facebook had a huge year and continued to gain ground as the world most popular web 2.0 social networking site. Approximately 600 million people are using Facebook and odds are that you and your friends are already using it. It's no secret that Facebook is the biggest player in the game and they're so far ahead it'll be their own fault if they loose a dominant amount of market share. The thing that stands out about Facebook in 2010 was that unlike many other large and growing web 2.0 companies, they never backed down from making changes and taking risks. Facebook still acts like a startup and is willing to continue it's growth by venturing into new markets and continually updating their platform.

The Open Graph


In 2010 Facebook held several press conferences. One of, if not the biggest, was the concept of Facebook's Open Graph. Websites all along the web (Justmeans included) have started optimizing their pages for Facebook. "Like", share, and other widgets can be seen just about anywhere nowadays. It's quite impressive how fast Open Graph spread and how widely adopted it's become. It's almost becoming expected to build websites with Facebook sharing capability.

Location Location Location

In another game changing move, Facebook jumped into the geolocation space by going head on with the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp by offering its Places service. With Places users can check in to their favorite locations and share it with friends. Facebook used Places to help launch Facebook Deals. Select retailers were given an option to offer discounts to those who checked in via Places. Users responded in large numbers. Many predict that Facebook's decision to enter the geolocation realm will pay off big in the coming years.

A New Look

Facebook also made it a huge priority in 2010 to change the way it's platform was used and many aesthetic changes occurred.  Some minor tinkering was done with business pages over the summer and more recently both Groups and user profiles were changed. Groups were redesigned and were made more user friendly. User profiles were given a complete overhaul within the past month and many users and tech critics have responded in favor of the new profiles. Facebook also unveiled it's new revamped messaging service, which will continue to roll out in 2011.

A Household Name

Facebook was dominant in 2009, but not till this year has it really hit the mainstream. 25% out of all time spent on the web is spent on Facebook. Big name brands are promoting Facebook profiles via television and traditional print media. A major motion picture depicting the early days of Facebook has been nominated for numerous awards. Many predict Facebook has a chance to overtake Google as the most popular web 2.0 site on the web in the not too distant future. Except another huge year from Facebook in 2011.