Arguably one of the biggest fads to hit the University of Denver campus since hockey is thefacebook.com.
Thefacebook.com is a purely social site that allows students to search for friends not on only their college campus but also across the nation and a few in Canada.
The Web site currently has 1.4 million users and is available at 335 campuses reported Chris Hughes “co-Founder and Press Guy .” He didn’t have a figure on how many groups are currently listed on thefacebook.com.
Members create profiles with a variety of personal information such as where they go to school, where they live, which fraternity of sorority they belong to, a phone number and in which classes they are enrolled.
Other members can then search for friends in a variety of categories such as name, high school, classes or interests. When they find someone they as their friend on thefacebook they send them a friend invitation and the other members either accepts or rejects. The web site offers a variety of ways to keep in touch by sending messages.
The Web site originated at Harvard late last year after continued frustration over the usual freshmen directory. Five students at Harvard hatched the plan in their dorm room for the site. In the college spirit they gave themselves “appropriate” titles.
“Mark Zuckerberg {Founder, Master and Commander, Enemy of the State}, a student at Harvard, had the idea last winter. He wanted to combine an idea for a universal online database with an interactive social networking interface,” said Hughes, in an e-mail interview. “The idea was sort of an extension of the traditional college facebooks with terrible freshman ID photos and boring information. After a few weeks of work and many late-night dorm-room conversations with the rest of us-the four other guys who started out working with Mark-thefacebook was released at Harvard.”
The other founders are Eduardo Saverin, Business Stuff, Corporate Stuff, Brazilian Affairs; Dustin Moskovitz, No Longer Expendable Programmer, Paid Assassin and Andrew McCollum, Graphic Art, General Rockstar.
No one is more surprised by the overwhelming success and popularity than the four guys who created it.
“We never imagined it would blow up like this. We’ve definitely been surprised,” wrote Hughes. “At the outset, Mark was playing around with an idea for Harvard students, but now, it’s a site with over 1.4 million users at 335 schools. It’s blossomed from a product of late-night dorm-room conversations to a serious website,” wrote Hughes.
The site is free, but makesrevenue through advertising to play their salaries of five founders.
Thefacebook.com did not arrive at DU until October after students started sending e-mails to thefacebook.com in order to get DU added. One of these students is Omer Zulfikar Ali, a RA in Johnson-McFarlene.
“I first heard about it from a friend who goes to Yale and all her friends where on it. I saw her using it and thought that’s pretty cool,” said Ali. He started sending e-mails then until they finally added the campus to the web site.”
“I know I am not the only one who was trying to get DU added,” said Ali I don’t think I should get all the credit. But I know I was one of the first.” Ali has about 130 friends online and has joined more groups then he can remember. He also started a number of groups including RAs, J-Mac, and those who came to learn the great American art of muff-diving. Even he was surprised by how fast it caught on at DU but he can understand why.
“It’s a great way to publicize events. As an RA, I plan to use it for programs because everyone checks their facebook everyday,” said Ali.
“One of the most popular groups is DU Party Central. Whoever came up with it is brilliant. It is the easiest and cheapest way to advertise on campus.”
