1. From now on, all ABC Threads REQUIRE Global Approval. To gain approval, send a PM to the Global Moderators Inbox.
2. Unless ABC threads have a very very related topic, they will be put in Crazy House
3. All ABC threads in Crazy House are to follow Crazy House Rules
4. Each user may only post 2-3 times in each ABC thread per day
5. The post a picture rule is going to be more enforced. It takes no effort to say something and not leave the picture. It takes 5 seconds to go to Google and find an image of the item in question. Not doing so breaks the rules of the threads and is therefore spam.
PS - Yes, I know this is a dupe, I just am making this in both General Chat and Crazy House as these forums are the ones most frequented, and thus more likely to catch someone's eye.
1. From now on, all ABC Threads REQUIRE Global Approval. To gain approval, send a PM to the Global Moderators Inbox.
2. Unless ABC threads have a very very related topic, they will be put in Crazy House
3. All ABC threads in Crazy House are to follow Crazy House Rules
4. Each user may only post 2-3 times in each ABC thread per day
5. The post a picture rule is going to be more enforced. It takes no effort to say something and not leave the picture. It takes 5 seconds to go to Google and find an image of the item in question. Not doing so breaks the rules of the threads and is therefore spam.
PS - Yes, I know this is a dupe, I just am making this in both General Chat and Crazy House as these forums are the ones most frequented, and thus more likely to catch someone's eye.
Ok I have to bring something up from an SEO perspective. Most ABC games drive in TONS of traffic to the site, why? Because they've got TONS of nice keywords, and it's even better when those threads contain pictures hosted on vizzed.
Here's an example:
Pokemon ABC = 18,902 people in the past 6 months
Take a look at any ABC thread, if you see a ton of search engine keywords at the bottom, than that thread is probably driving in a lot of traffic (keep in mind that it only shows the top keywords).
I'm not saying we encourage people to make them but if we can just keep them under control, I see no reason why we need to reduce the amount and I definitely don't want to close or trash any that are driving in traffic.
I'm not necessarily talking about just ABC games, there are a lot of similar threads that drive in traffic. So maybe what we could do is, if the thread seems to be driving in search engine traffic (which can be seen from the footer), than we should definitely keep it open. Maybe we could also require those types of threads to require bigger responses. So for example, a Super Hero ABC game would not only require you to post the heroes name but also a picture of the hero or a fun fact or maybe even why you picked that hero.
Ok I have to bring something up from an SEO perspective. Most ABC games drive in TONS of traffic to the site, why? Because they've got TONS of nice keywords, and it's even better when those threads contain pictures hosted on vizzed.
Here's an example:
Pokemon ABC = 18,902 people in the past 6 months
Take a look at any ABC thread, if you see a ton of search engine keywords at the bottom, than that thread is probably driving in a lot of traffic (keep in mind that it only shows the top keywords).
I'm not saying we encourage people to make them but if we can just keep them under control, I see no reason why we need to reduce the amount and I definitely don't want to close or trash any that are driving in traffic.
I'm not necessarily talking about just ABC games, there are a lot of similar threads that drive in traffic. So maybe what we could do is, if the thread seems to be driving in search engine traffic (which can be seen from the footer), than we should definitely keep it open. Maybe we could also require those types of threads to require bigger responses. So for example, a Super Hero ABC game would not only require you to post the heroes name but also a picture of the hero or a fun fact or maybe even why you picked that hero.
Davideo7 : I'm in agreement with you. I felt the same way about the entire ABC situation. Almost ALL ABC threads bring a LOT of activity but could also be considered SPAM because of simple short posts.
For example... A is for Ariados, B is next. < Spam.
It should be A s for Ariados, a Bug/Poison type Pokemon. It evolves from Spinarak starting at level 22. Then a picture would follow and B is next. All ABC posts should look similar to this.
Davideo7 : I'm in agreement with you. I felt the same way about the entire ABC situation. Almost ALL ABC threads bring a LOT of activity but could also be considered SPAM because of simple short posts.
For example... A is for Ariados, B is next. < Spam.
It should be A s for Ariados, a Bug/Poison type Pokemon. It evolves from Spinarak starting at level 22. Then a picture would follow and B is next. All ABC posts should look similar to this.
I'm more trying to emphasize the quality of the threads more so than the quantity. They bring in a lot of traffic, which is good, but they also are among the spammiest threads on site. This looks bad to anyone who sees it, and it could actually drive away as much traffic as it brings in.
I have nothing against ABC threads. I do have something against rampant spam, and disapproval of the rules. As it stands, you should only make 3-5 posts in an ABC Thread a day maximum, and if you post more you should really be balancing it out.
I see ABC Threads as similar to Crazy House in many ways. They are popular. They bring in traffic. They are spam waiting to happen. That's why we put the limit on Crazy House, and why a similar limit was put on ABC Threads.
As it stands people never follow the rules unless you make it bold and clear. Even after the installation of these rules, some people forget and it causes spam.
I guess you could say I stand on ABC Threads = Spam is the main issue. I'm not trying to get rid of traffic by limiting ABC Thread posting, but instead raise traffic through quality posting. I think that'll drive in more people.
I'm more trying to emphasize the quality of the threads more so than the quantity. They bring in a lot of traffic, which is good, but they also are among the spammiest threads on site. This looks bad to anyone who sees it, and it could actually drive away as much traffic as it brings in.
I have nothing against ABC threads. I do have something against rampant spam, and disapproval of the rules. As it stands, you should only make 3-5 posts in an ABC Thread a day maximum, and if you post more you should really be balancing it out.
I see ABC Threads as similar to Crazy House in many ways. They are popular. They bring in traffic. They are spam waiting to happen. That's why we put the limit on Crazy House, and why a similar limit was put on ABC Threads.
As it stands people never follow the rules unless you make it bold and clear. Even after the installation of these rules, some people forget and it causes spam.
I guess you could say I stand on ABC Threads = Spam is the main issue. I'm not trying to get rid of traffic by limiting ABC Thread posting, but instead raise traffic through quality posting. I think that'll drive in more people.
legacyme3 : Well there's no possible way it could drive away that much traffic. The thread I used as an example has driven in 18,902 people in the last 6 months, there's no way the same thread could drive out that many people as well, that'd be like every single user that has ever posted so according to your theory, that thread of mine should have killed the board activity by now.
I agree with the 3-5 post limit per an ABC thread per a day though, 3 is definitely enough. I think that we can work on making these threads less spammy though and make them require more time and effort.
legacyme3 : Well there's no possible way it could drive away that much traffic. The thread I used as an example has driven in 18,902 people in the last 6 months, there's no way the same thread could drive out that many people as well, that'd be like every single user that has ever posted so according to your theory, that thread of mine should have killed the board activity by now.
I agree with the 3-5 post limit per an ABC thread per a day though, 3 is definitely enough. I think that we can work on making these threads less spammy though and make them require more time and effort.
Exactly, the whole point is to up the quality, as opposed to eliminating the quantity. Generally, half the problem is when a person takes 0 effort to make 7 or 8 posts in an ABC thread. I think 3 is more than enough, I find myself posting in one every few weeks, but I can't expect to hold everyone to the same standard
I mean, the only thing this is accomplishing is making it so you have to use a little effort. I don't think that's a bad thing
Exactly, the whole point is to up the quality, as opposed to eliminating the quantity. Generally, half the problem is when a person takes 0 effort to make 7 or 8 posts in an ABC thread. I think 3 is more than enough, I find myself posting in one every few weeks, but I can't expect to hold everyone to the same standard
I mean, the only thing this is accomplishing is making it so you have to use a little effort. I don't think that's a bad thing
This article compares the size of Wikipedia with other encyclopedias and information collections.
Source material from which Wikipedia statistics in this article are derived is available;[1] the Footnote on WikiStatistics section at the end of this page provides technical discussion of this article.
Currently, the English Wikipedia alone has over 3,988,312 articles of any length, and the combined Wikipedias for all other languages
greatly exceed the English Wikipedia in size, giving a combined total of
more than 8 billion words in 19 million articles in approximately 270 languages.[2] The English Wikipedia alone has over 2.5 billion words,[3] over 50 times as many as the next largest English-language encyclopedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, and more than the enormous 119-volume Spanish-language Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana.
In 2005 the English-language Wikipedia more than doubled in size, and many smaller wikipedias have grown by a higher multiple.
As an example, in June 2011, there were more than 11 million edits in all Wikipedias and 3.6 million in the English version.[2][3]
Wikipedia is still in need of much expansion and improvement.
Many of the articles are of poor quality and some mainstream
encyclopedia topics are not covered adequately. In addition, the average
article length is only a little over half the size of that in Encyclopædia Britannica, although many major articles are considerably longer.[citation needed] Over time the balance of the editorial effort is expected to slowly
tilt towards a greater emphasis on increasing the quality, scope,
classification and interlinkage of existing articles. However, new
articles will probably always be created in large numbers, as
Wikipedia's conventions on acceptable article topics incorporate huge
numbers of potential new articles every year (newly prominent people, current events, media products,
physical products, etc). In mid 2006 the rate of new article creation
was still rising, but only slowly. As of January 2007 it looks as if the
rate of article creation may have peaked in mid 2006, though it would
be premature to state that it did so for certain. See Wikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia's growth for more on Wikipedia's growth rate and expected future size.
Other online encyclopedic resources
Nevertheless, there are many other online databases which combine several encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries and allow users to search all of the works simultaneously. One example is Oxford Reference Online — a combined database of 221 encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries, offering a total of 1.4 million articles as of 2011, with expansions planned for the future.[4] Another example is Xrefplus, which offers access to 262 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.[5] This all added up to about 2.9 million entries when the database had 225 titles.[6] There also is HighBeam Research and GaleNet. GaleNet — which is likely the largest named so far — offers users the ability to search several encyclopedia databases, including the Biography Resource Center (1,335,000 people), Gale Virtual Reference Library (594 reference books),[7] and the Science Resource Center (51 titles),[8] among others.
Paper encyclopedias
The largest paper encyclopedia ever produced is possibly the Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in 1407 in 11,095 books, 370 million Chinese characters.[9] The individual books that made up the encyclopedia were small by modern
standards; the work was twelve times the size of the 20 million word
French Encyclopédie,[10] giving a total of 240 million words, or 21,600 words per book, although it is unclear if that is how it differs from the Encyclopédie in size. It is also unclear if it is twelve times larger than the original 28-volume version of the Encyclopédie completed in 1772 or the 35-volume version completed in 1780. The Yung-lo ta-tien was a collection of excerpts and entire existing works, rather than an
original work. Only two copies were made and all that survives is a
small fraction of one copy.
This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page.(April 2009)
Numbers regarding total characters are based on an estimated average
word length of five, plus a space, or six characters per word.
*Classical Chinese is a very compact language. The result is very short in size for the same content.
†It is said that Yongle is larger than Siku, but it is uncertain how they were compared.
‡Kenneth F. Kister, Kister's best encyclopedias: a comparative guide to general and specialized encyclopedias, (1994) p. 450. [Article count is for the 82-volume edition, rather than the 119-volume one.]
**Number of encyclopedic articles. The Nationalencyklopedin contains a total of 356,000 entries.
††Kister, op. cit., p. 365.
**Includes 10,000 historical archives.
‡‡Advertised as containing "over 63,000
articles...with 36,000-plus map locations, and over 29,000
editor-approved Web site links." The 2006 Premium CD-ROM had 68,000
articles.[16]
⁑Advertised as containing 41,500 articles written
by 6,803 authors, 60 million of words, 350 million of characters,
360,000 links, 122,000 definitions in the included dictionary, 130,000
bibliographical references.[17]
Size of other information collections
Note that Wikipedia is neither a dictionary nor a web index; these figures are just for order-of-magnitude comparison.
Astronomy
The Guide Star Catalog II has entries on 998,402,801 distinct astronomical objects searchable online.
5.5 TB of astronomical images (covering the whole night sky in several colours) are available online.[18]
Biology
The World Resources Institute claims that approximately 1.4 millionspecies have been named, out of an unknown number of total species. A 2011
study says there are 8,700,000 species (6,500,000 land species,
2,200,000 marine species).[19]
GenBank, an online database of DNA sequences from over 260,000 species ([1]), has (as of January 2008) over 110 million entries (sequence records) covering over 100 gigabases.
As of August 2011, GeoNames ([2])
contains over 10 million geographical names and consists of 7.5 million
unique features whereof 2.8 million populated places and 5.5 million
alternate names.
Internet
Over 25 billion web pages with over 1 trillion unique URLs were known to Google on February 24, 2006.
Netcraft logged roughly 92,615,362 distinct websites in 28 August 2006.
As of August 2006, the Open Directory Project web index claims to have over 590,000 categories for 4 million websites.
As of August 2011, Internet Archive claims to have indexed over 150 billion pages, +548,000 moving images, +82,000 concerts, +948,000 recordings and +2,945,000 texts.
Language
The Oxford Dictionary of English (formerly The New Oxford Dictionary of English) claims 355,000 definitions, and four million words of text.[3]
The British Library is known to hold over 150 million items.
The Library of Congress claims that it holds approximately 119 million items, 12 million of which are electronically searchable.
Copac is a searchable electronic catalogue of over 31 million books held in libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland (includes all electronic records from the British Library)
Music
The freeDB database holds information for around 1,579,205compact discs. Many of the disks are duplicates, however, so the number of unique CDs is unclear.
The All Music Guide database contains entries for 834,069unique albums, and 14,642,322 credits (as of June 2005).
As of August 2011, Jamendo project contains over 50,000 free and open albums.
People
Thomson-Gale's Biography Resource Center contains over 1,335,000 biographies. 335,000 are essays, while over a million are thumbnail entries.[5]
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has over 50,000 articles on famous Britons, in 50 million words (implying an average article size of 1000 words).
The Espacenet free online service contains records on more than 70 million patent publications from the European Patent Office patent databases.
The Inspec database contains over 11 million abstracts.
The Compendex database contains over 9 million records.
The Elsevier BIOBASE database contains over 4.1 million records.
The IEEE Xplore database contains over 2 million records.
The cost of a printed Wikipedia
Evaluating the cost of a printed Wikipedia is fraught with
difficulties. As of 14 March 2010 there were approximately 14 billion
characters so assuming 5,000 characters per page that would yield 2.8
million pages. If you then add 25% for extra space for photos, tables,
and diagrammes that would yield 3.5 million pages. This would produce
8,750 volumes of 400 pages each. As an example, allowing US$0.05 per
page would yield a cost of US$175,000 without binding.
Statistics for this page are taken from the Article count (alternate) table and from the Words table.
Excluding redirect pages, there are roughly (using figures from September 1, 2006):
1.4 million articles that have at least a single link.
1.3 million articles that have at least a single link and 200 readable characters (roughly equivalent to at least 33 words).
Taking the difference of these two figures, there are about:
100,000 articles that have at least a single link but fewer than 200 characters.
There is also an uncounted number of articles which have no links.
The current statistics provide no indication of the size of this last
category. The 609 million words in fact span the 1.3 million bona fide articles, the remaining 100,000 linked articles, and the unknown number
of articles without links. A rough estimate of the word count in the
latter two categories is ten million words. Dividing the remaining 600
million words by 1.3 million gives a mean article length of about 460
words.
Further, of the articles on the English Wikipedia, perhaps 36,000 are "data dumped" gazetteer entries about towns and cities in the United States. It is
controversial whether gazetteer entries should count towards the number
of "real" encyclopedia articles; however, their statistical significance
is very much less now than in October 2002 when they were added. Very
many have been colonised by Wikipedians who have transformed them to varying extents, including to an unimpeachably encyclopedic status.
Partially filled rows for recent months can also occur. In that case
only selected data were collected for one or more large projects, due to
time constraints.
This report has been regenerated after recovery from recent major data collection bug. Thank you for your patience.
Note: figures for first months are too low. Revision history was not always preserved in early days.
x < 0% 0% < x < 25% 25% < x < 75% 75% < x
Wikipedians (registered users, incl. bots) A = Wikipedians who edited at least 10 times since they arrived
B = Increase in wikipedians who edited at least 10 times since they arrived
C = Wikipedians who contributed 5 times or more in this month
D = Wikipedians who contributed 100 times or more in this month
Articles (excl. redirects) E = Articles that contain at least one internal link
F = Articles that contain at least one internal link and 200 characters readable text, disregarding wiki- and html codes, hidden links, etc.; also headers do not count (other columns are based on the official count method)
G = New articles per day in this month
H = Mean number of revisions per article
I = Mean size of article in bytes
J = Percentage of articles with at least 0.5 Kb readable text (see F)
K = Percentage of articles with at least 2 Kb readable text (see F)
Database L = Edits in past month (incl. redirects, incl. unregistered contributors, incl. bots)
M = Combined size of all articles (incl. redirects)
N = Total number of words (excl. redirects, html/wiki codes and hidden links)
Links O = Total number of internal links (excl. redirects, stubs and link lists)
P = Total number of links to other Wikipedias
Q = Total number of images presented
R = Total number of links to other sites
S = Total number of redirects
Edit activity levels of registered users and bots per group of namespaces
Articles = namespace 0 only.
YoY = Year over Year change
MoM = Month over Month change, for first 28 days of each month, to allow fair comparison between consecutive months
PoM = Percentage of Maximum, (= highest value ever in that column), again for first 28 days of each month
PoM = Note how because of this
normalization a short month can have PoM 100% even when the absolute
editor count in the left section doesn't show the highest (full month)
value for that column
Users
Trends
Edits ≥
1
3
5
10
25
100
250
1000
2500
10000
25000
100000
5 YoY
100 YoY
5 MoM
100 MoM
5 PoM
100 PoM
May 2012
219426
109745
77222
48545
26842
10665
4995
804
167
8
4
-0.9%
1.7%
0.2%
-0.7%
84.3%
91.4%
Apr 2012
212794
106750
75197
47526
26508
10557
4776
735
143
10
1
-2.2%
1.6%
0.5%
0.1%
84.1%
92.0%
Mar 2012
215648
108508
76332
48061
26857
10755
5009
756
152
12
3
-5.4%
-0.5%
-3.7%
-2.6%
83.7%
92.0%
Feb 2012
217803
108428
76049
47667
26605
10538
4844
753
126
8
1
-2.7%
-0.0%
1.0%
-1.7%
87.0%
94.5%
Jan 2012
226937
112980
79163
49551
27812
11257
5297
874
167
12
3
-4.0%
-1.3%
5.5%
6.9%
86.1%
96.1%
Dec 2011
210006
105458
74448
47219
26460
10608
4878
751
136
16
2
1.1%
2.6%
-2.0%
-0.5%
81.6%
89.9%
Nov 2011
216813
106901
74733
46797
26011
10327
4694
729
138
11
1
0.6%
-0.3%
1.1%
1.5%
83.3%
90.4%
Oct 2011
219426
107793
75167
47049
26300
10474
4819
757
137
7
2
0.3%
-1.9%
-1.0%
-1.9%
82.4%
89.1%
Sep 2011
216182
105879
74353
46414
25906
10332
4701
732
128
8
1
1
1.2%
-2.9%
-0.3%
-1.3%
83.2%
90.8%
Aug 2011
218311
108604
76652
48538
27279
10888
4986
765
136
7
2
0.6%
-1.4%
-0.1%
-0.1%
83.5%
92.1%
Jul 2011
213989
107875
76073
48335
27075
10777
4838
766
139
14
3
1.3%
2.4%
-2.0%
0.2%
83.6%
92.1%
Jun 2011
218181
108553
76179
48110
26800
10537
4790
714
137
6
1
-1.1%
-1.3%
0.5%
3.0%
85.2%
91.9%
May 2011
228270
111996
77894
48470
26595
10487
4681
759
122
7
1
-5.3%
-6.2%
-1.5%
-1.7%
84.9%
89.2%
Apr 2011
225584
110857
76914
47889
26441
10390
4624
677
115
8
2
-4.5%
-5.6%
-2.2%
-2.2%
86.1%
90.8%
Mar 2011
239009
116660
80652
49947
27457
10804
4948
752
134
10
-3.4%
-4.5%
-3.8%
-4.2%
88.1%
92.8%
Feb 2011
226271
111735
78182
48656
26860
10542
4815
688
129
9
1
-1.6%
-3.1%
1.9%
-0.3%
91.5%
96.9%
Jan 2011
232989
116703
82426
51479
28344
11400
5286
850
159
11
4
-2.0%
-1.7%
11.5%
10.8%
89.9%
97.2%
Dec 2010
207074
104354
73625
46585
26078
10344
4719
743
128
9
1
-6.3%
-2.0%
-2.9%
-3.7%
80.6%
87.7%
Nov 2010
213838
106175
74286
46321
25872
10354
4727
738
126
7
-7.5%
-2.8%
0.7%
-0.3%
83.0%
91.1%
Oct 2010
214546
106986
74956
47233
26378
10676
4947
770
129
10
1
-7.0%
-2.4%
0.3%
-2.0%
82.4%
91.3%
Sep 2010
208872
104345
73436
46394
26224
10643
4938
748
144
11
2
-6.6%
-2.3%
-1.2%
-0.4%
82.2%
93.1%
Aug 2010
212304
107593
76158
48354
27362
11038
5046
827
148
16
-6.1%
-1.3%
1.2%
4.7%
83.2%
93.5%
Jul 2010
209053
105791
75107
47605
26607
10527
4828
736
121
9
-7.7%
-3.7%
-4.5%
-4.6%
82.2%
89.4%
Jun 2010
218191
108962
76994
48056
26839
10671
4815
717
120
12
-6.2%
-3.3%
-4.6%
-2.1%
86.0%
93.7%
May 2010
236867
117540
82284
51415
28395
11184
5078
791
134
9
3
-1.1%
-1.2%
0.1%
-0.8%
90.2%
95.7%
Apr 2010
233959
115746
80563
50057
27584
11006
5073
769
122
10
-0.1%
0.8%
-1.2%
0.4%
90.1%
96.5%
Mar 2010
241559
119762
83481
51741
28480
11313
5241
817
128
12
1
-1.6%
-1.3%
-1.9%
-3.9%
91.2%
96.1%
Feb 2010
230376
113928
79439
49454
27529
10878
4786
697
96
8
1
-1.5%
2.0%
1.1%
1.3%
93.0%
100.0%
Jan 2010
243000
120467
84139
52472
29045
11596
5363
813
105
8
1
-1.3%
0.3%
7.3%
11.0%
92.0%
98.7%
Apr 2012
212794
106750
75197
47526
26508
10557
4776
735
143
10
1
-2.2%
1.6%
0.5%
0.1%
84.1%
92.0%
Jan 2012
226937
112980
79163
49551
27812
11257
5297
874
167
12
3
-4.0%
-1.3%
5.5%
6.9%
86.1%
96.1%
Oct 2011
219426
107793
75167
47049
26300
10474
4819
757
137
7
2
0.3%
-1.9%
-1.0%
-1.9%
82.4%
89.1%
Jul 2011
213989
107875
76073
48335
27075
10777
4838
766
139
14
3
1.3%
2.4%
-2.0%
0.2%
83.6%
92.1%
Apr 2011
225584
110857
76914
47889
26441
10390
4624
677
115
8
2
-4.5%
-5.6%
-2.2%
-2.2%
86.1%
90.8%
Jan 2011
232989
116703
82426
51479
28344
11400
5286
850
159
11
4
-2.0%
-1.7%
11.5%
10.8%
89.9%
97.2%
Oct 2010
214546
106986
74956
47233
26378
10676
4947
770
129
10
1
-7.0%
-2.4%
0.3%
-2.0%
82.4%
91.3%
Jul 2010
209053
105791
75107
47605
26607
10527
4828
736
121
9
-7.7%
-3.7%
-4.5%
-4.6%
82.2%
89.4%
Apr 2010
233959
115746
80563
50057
27584
11006
5073
769
122
10
-0.1%
0.8%
-1.2%
0.4%
90.1%
96.5%
Jan 2010
243000
120467
84139
52472
29045
11596
5363
813
105
8
1
-1.3%
0.3%
7.3%
11.0%
92.0%
98.7%
Oct 2009
233176
115703
80627
50241
27644
10939
4987
747
116
15
2
-1.4%
0.2%
0.6%
-1.7%
88.3%
93.3%
Jul 2009
223976
114740
81404
51440
28371
10934
4910
697
110
10
3
-1.0%
-2.4%
-2.8%
-3.6%
89.0%
93.1%
Apr 2009
230607
115460
80661
50313
27651
10915
4929
709
108
9
3
-6.1%
-0.5%
-2.9%
-2.5%
90.1%
95.3%
Jan 2009
242320
122172
85254
52767
28845
11563
5267
782
105
12
4
-2.2%
-0.9%
8.5%
9.7%
93.1%
98.5%
Oct 2008
235552
117906
81798
50420
27510
10921
5022
775
129
14
4
-4.0%
-0.5%
1.2%
-1.0%
89.3%
93.3%
Jul 2008
220777
115159
82209
51742
28720
11202
5132
692
109
6
4
-2.1%
0.2%
-1.6%
0.4%
89.7%
95.4%
Apr 2008
245346
123643
85923
52368
28305
10967
4900
699
94
7
3
1
-4.1%
-4.1%
-1.4%
-3.9%
95.8%
95.7%
Jan 2008
243986
124325
87146
53783
29286
11665
5331
796
98
5
3
0.0%
3.1%
9.4%
11.0%
94.9%
99.1%
Oct 2007
242142
122421
85218
52028
28314
10979
4937
705
85
6
3
2
16.8%
12.0%
0.5%
-0.7%
92.9%
93.6%
Jul 2007
219886
116910
83942
52971
29244
11185
4983
648
89
6
3
29.9%
20.2%
-1.6%
-2.0%
91.6%
94.8%
Apr 2007
245936
127570
89598
55183
29612
11439
5014
650
89
6
2
67.6%
48.9%
0.8%
-0.3%
100.0%
99.3%
Jan 2007
231701
122599
87115
53920
29300
11311
4953
627
70
2
99.4%
54.5%
9.6%
8.3%
94.6%
95.6%
Oct 2006
190934
102120
72969
46068
25446
9805
4392
564
72
4
1
166.0%
105.8%
1.4%
-0.4%
79.3%
82.9%
Jul 2006
155667
87590
64639
42207
23871
9305
4001
479
57
6
2
175.1%
119.1%
3.2%
0.8%
70.7%
78.6%
Apr 2006
130005
72569
53474
34906
19735
7682
3409
398
56
3
1
1
215.2%
137.3%
5.4%
1.1%
59.6%
66.3%
Jan 2006
96517
57438
43690
29643
17428
7319
3357
470
61
5
1
258.3%
218.1%
15.9%
16.4%
47.7%
61.9%
Oct 2005
60141
35905
27436
18824
11251
4765
2203
298
39
7
174.8%
144.0%
11.4%
9.1%
30.1%
40.4%
Jul 2005
48030
30115
23494
16498
10045
4247
1953
277
34
6
2
207.6%
164.4%
16.3%
10.6%
26.0%
36.3%
Apr 2005
34556
21660
16965
11987
7471
3237
1494
204
26
1
198.8%
161.7%
23.0%
23.1%
19.1%
28.2%
Jan 2005
25351
15646
12192
8582
5358
2301
1029
129
17
1
326.9%
237.4%
2.0%
-4.3%
13.3%
19.0%
Oct 2004
19403
12652
9985
7146
4483
1953
933
135
18
1
1
423.0%
378.7%
8.2%
0.1%
10.9%
16.5%
Jul 2004
13815
9424
7639
5555
3560
1606
771
141
17
1
432.3%
395.7%
15.7%
13.6%
8.5%
13.9%
Apr 2004
10397
7000
5677
4159
2736
1237
579
78
5
637.3%
486.3%
-6.3%
-4.9%
6.4%
10.8%
Jan 2004
5076
3480
2856
2182
1457
682
308
40
2
262.4%
258.9%
8.5%
2.2%
3.1%
5.9%
Oct 2003
3429
2319
1909
1433
903
408
180
24
2
307.0%
193.5%
10.2%
1.9%
2.1%
3.5%
Jul 2003
2565
1736
1435
1097
738
324
152
19
418.1%
310.1%
15.0%
4.9%
1.6%
2.7%
Apr 2003
1265
913
770
618
428
211
105
10
292.9%
427.5%
6.9%
4.7%
0.9%
1.9%
Jan 2003
1391
958
788
599
408
190
91
11
1
300.0%
533.3%
44.3%
28.7%
0.8%
1.7%
Oct 2002
766
548
469
370
251
139
63
13
4
1
1
223.4%
892.9%
7.0%
3.4%
0.5%
1.1%
Jul 2002
567
341
277
211
141
79
36
2
346.8%
7800.0%
19.8%
41.2%
0.3%
0.7%
Apr 2002
330
235
196
162
109
40
12
1
716.7%
1900.0%
-1.5%
-20.0%
0.2%
0.3%
Jan 2002
361
249
197
149
96
30
7
1870.0%
2900.0%
-1.6%
-16.1%
0.2%
0.2%
Oct 2001
265
176
145
111
65
14
3
-
-
24.8%
62.5%
0.2%
0.1%
Jul 2001
166
84
62
37
20
1
-
-
79.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
Apr 2001
41
31
24
17
7
2
-
-
-4.2%
-
0.0%
0.0%
Jan 2001
20
13
10
7
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
0.0%
0.0%
Most edited articles
Table out of order. Data collection needs to be revised.
For some projects up to date and much more extensive database reports are published from the toolserver, e.g. for English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedias are initially ordered by number of speakers of the language
Speakers: Number of speakers of a language is the estimated total of primary and
secondary speakers, is in many cases a very rough estimation (based on
the page on the English Wikipedia about that language) Regions are
parts of the world where the language is spoken in substantial amounts
(compared to total number of speakers). Regions where a language gained
presence only by a recent diaspora are generally not included. Region codes: AFAfrica, ASAsia, EUEurope, NANorth America, OCOceania, SASouth America, WWorld Wide, CLConstructed Language
Generated on Friday June 29, 2012 21:14 from recent database dump files. Data processed up to Thursday May 31, 2012
Please note that the lengthy dump process (many weeks) means a delay in publishing these statistics is always to be expected.
The longest word in any of the major English languagedictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles,[7] specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.
The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English, and
has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended
meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.[4]
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Consisting of a series of Latin words meaning "nothing"
and defined as "the act of estimating something as worthless"; its usage
has been recorded as far back as 1741.[8][9][10][11]
Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"
James Joyce made up nine 101-letter words in his novel Finnegans Wake,
the most famous of which is
Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.
Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic
thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. Sylvia Plath made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, when the protagonist was reading Finnegans Wake.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is "a
word that you say when you don't know what to say." The idea and
invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman.
Advertising coinages
In 1973, Pepsi's advertising agency Boase Massimi Pollitt used a 100-letter but several-word term
"Lipsmackinthirstquenchinacetastinmotivatingoodbuzzincooltalkinhighwalkinfastlivinevergivincoolfizzin"
(read: Lip smackin' thirst quenchin' ace tastin' motivatin' good
buzzin' cool talkin' high walkin' fast livin' ever givin' cool fizzin')
in TV and film advertising.[12]
The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing
words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes.
This is sometimes referred to as agglutinative construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes pseudo (false, spurious) and anti (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. A word like anti-aircraft (pertaining to the defense against aircraft) is easily extended to anti-anti-aircraft (pertaining to counteracting the defense against aircraft, a legitimate
concept) and can from there be prefixed with an endless stream of
"anti-"s, each time creating a new level of counteraction. More
familiarly, the addition of numerous "great"s to a relative, e.g.
great-great-great-grandfather, can produce words of arbitrary length.
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" is the longest common example of a word formed by agglutinative construction, as follows (the numbers succeeding the word refer to the number of letters in the word):
establish (9)
to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin stare, to stand)
Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides is the longest accepted binomial name. It's a species of soldier fly[14]
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, at 52 letters, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).[15] The word is composed of the following elements:
John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one
sexmilliaquingentsexagintillion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is
the name for 103(6560+1) = 1019683. Under the long number scale, it would be 106(6560) = 1039360.
Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one
word, as is sometimes done. An example of this is
sodiummetadiaminoparadioxyarsenobenzoemethylenesulphoxylate, an
arsenic-containing drug. There are also other chemical naming systems,
using numbers instead of "meta", "para" etc. as descriptive dividers,
breaking up the name, which then no longer can be considered a single
long word.
The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine which is involved in striated muscle formation. Its empirical formula is C132983H211861N36149O40883S693. A 1,185-letter example, Acetylseryltyrosylseryliso...serine, refers to the coat protein of a certain strain of tobacco mosaic virus and was published by the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts Service in 1964 and 1966.[17] It marks the longest published word before in 1965, the Chemical
Abstracts Service overhauled its naming system and started discouraging
excessively long names.
The words Internationalization and localization are abbreviated "i18n" and "l10n", respectively, the embedded number
representing the number of letters between the first and the last.
The 58-character name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the famous name of a town on Anglesey, an island of Wales. This place's name is actually 51 letters long, as certain character groups in Welsh are considered as one letter, for instance ll, ng and ch.
It is generally agreed, however, that this invented name, adopted in
the mid-19th century, was contrived solely to be the longest name of any
town in Britain. The official name of the place is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, commonly abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or the somewhat jocular Llanfair PG.
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts.
It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries – Neutral Meeting Grounds"
and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the
water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake
is also known as Lake Webster.[19] The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are Winchester-on-the-Severn, a town in Maryland, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, a notable place in Texas history.
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya
Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan
Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit is the ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand; it has the Guinness World record for longest place name in the world, not in English however.
Words with certain characteristics of notable length
Strengths is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel.
Rhythms is the longest word in the English language containing none of the five recognised vowels.
Schmaltzed and strengthed appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in OED; but if squirrelled is pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in SOED for squirrel), it is the longest.
Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels,
and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word"
itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus. However, this is arguably both Latin and a proper noun. There are several six-letter English words with their letters in alphabetical order, including almost, biopsy, and chintz.[23]
The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all five vowels and the semivowely.
The longest single palindromic word in English is rotavator, another name for a rotary tiller for breaking and aerating soil.
Typed words
The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts,[24] and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses.[23] Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion.[25] and phyllophyllin
The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. Similar words with 10 letters include: pepperwort, perpetuity, proprietor, requietory, repertoire, tripertite, pourriture and (fittingly) typewriter. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
The longest using only the middle row is shakalshas (10 letters). Nine-letter words include flagfalls, galahads and alfalfas.
Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed. Exceptions might include ZZZ, seen in some dictionaries to denote sleep, or Canadian broadcast station call letters (such as CBBX).[26]
The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are antiskepticism and leucocytozoans respectively.[23]
On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are epopoeia, jipijapa, peekapoo, and quiaquia.[27] Other such long words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.[28] Kikuyu is typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest
one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the
right-hand side, and so the longest "right-handed" word is crwth.
Common words in general text
Ross Eckler has noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to
occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by
casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use
an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to
be encountered in general text are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.[29]
A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose
found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday
basis is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters.[30]
Humour
Smiles, according to an old riddle, may be considered the longest word in English, as there is a mile between the first and last letter. A retort asserts that beleaguered is longer still, since it contains a league. The riddle and both jocular answers date from the 19th century.[31][32]
In the old time radio retrospective, Golden Radio, comedian Jack Benny jokes that "the longest word in the English language is the one that follows, 'Now, here's a word from our sponsor.'"
^ abCoined
around 1935 to be the longest word; press reports on puzzle league
members legitimized it somewhat. First appeared in the MWNID supplement,
1939. Today OED and several others list it, but citations are almost
always as "longest word". More detail at pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
^The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. [1]
^In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd Discussion between Sen. Moynihan and Sen. Byrd "Mr. President, may I
say to the distinguished Senator from New York, I used that word on the
Senate floor myself 2 or 3 years ago. I cannot remember just when or
what the occasion was, but I used it on that occasion to indicate that
whatever it was I was discussing it was something like a mere trifle or
nothing really being of moment." Congressional Record June 17, 1991, p.
S7887, and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry,
albeit sarcastically. December 6, 1995, White House Press Briefing in
discussing Congressional Budget Office estimates and assumptions: "But
if you – as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference
is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification
going on here."
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Longest word in English" article dated 2011-01-08, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources.(October 2010)
Artix Entertainment, LLC. (often shortened to AE) is an indie game development company that works primarily with browser-based role-playing games. As of September 2010, the company has over 150 million users in their games.[1]
Artix Entertainment, LLC was founded by Adam Bohn (better known to
players as Artix von Krieger in his games) in 2002. The company develops
four single-player games (AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest and WarpForce) and four MMORPGs (HeroSmash, EpicDuel, "Pony vs Pony" and AdventureQuest Worlds). They are currently working on a 3D Game ( AQ3D ). Including an interactive sword-slashing game ( Blade Haven ). They currently employ 48 workers and over 60 volunteers. Worldwide,
there are over 118 million registered players in all AE games.[2]
AdventureQuest was Artix Entertainment's first project. The
game is set in the fictional world of "Lore", a tongue-in-cheek
reference to the original game name, Lands of Rising Evil. While it is
free to play, players may upgrade their characters to become
[[AdventureQuest Guardians in order to receive in-game benefits. As of
July 14, 2010, the server cap was removed.
WarpForce
Artix Entertainment's expansion to AdventureQuest, WarpForce, was released on July 17, 2009. It is a sequel to AdventureQuest, specifically relating to the recently-completed five-year Devourer story arc in AdventureQuest, and many crossovers between the two are planned. It was built with the same game engine as AdventureQuest and, like AdventureQuest and Artix Entertainment's other single-player RPGs, is free to play
with an optional one-time fee. Updates are on a monthly basis, but are
intended to be much larger than weekly updates.
After AdventureQuest gained popularity, Artix Entertainment began to develop DragonFable, set in the same universe. Unlike AdventureQuest which featured a 2D background with the player clicking the edges of the screen or doors to move around, DragonFable has a 2.5D movement system. Unlike AdventureQuest,
it does not have a server cap. Though it also has a daily exp. and gold
cap, similar to other AE games, to reduce the exp. abuse in the game
(commonly known as "Error Saving Exp" code 500.83).
MechQuest
The third game, MechQuest is a science fiction RPG set in the same universe as the previous two games. MechQuest's game system is a fusion between AdventureQuests' and DragonFable's, it is the prequel to AdventureQuest and DragonFable set 5,000 years before the former and 4,995 years before the latter. Players can control their own giant robot (called mechs in the game) to fight evil bad guys invading the city.
Nic Stransky complimented the graphics and simplicity of the game,
but wrote that melee could feel inconsistent and that players may wish
for more strategy.[3]
AdventureQuest Worlds is the 4th game made by Artix
Entertainment and a browser MMORPG. It is also the first multiplayer
MMORPG created by the company. The game was released on October 10,
2008. Like its predecessors, it uses 2D-3D animation, although in a much
simpler style to account for the increased server load and incorporates
elements of all three previous games in its story. Unlike its
predecessors, however, membership upgrades are not a one-time payment,
but are instead purchased only for a certain number of months.
Play is similar to many MMORPGs, with players being able to chat and fight both in-game monsters and other players,
in limited areas. Characters can be customized in appearance and gear,
and character classes are available to train in game. Combat is not turn-based as in Artix Entertainment's other RPGs, but is real-time and allows for group battles. Special events take place often, with
many holidays being celebrated in-game. Other special events include
wars, in which players collaborate to defeat enough "waves" of monsters
to win the war over several days, and live events with guest stars like Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll, George Lowe, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, the cast of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ayi Jihu, ArcAttack, They Might Be Giants, and Michael Sinterniklaas as the voice of Deady.
EpicDuel
On December 2, 2009, Artix Entertainment announced that they were taking on a new MMORPG, EpicDuel, which they acquired from Epic Inventions LLC, who were developing the game independently. This is now their sixth major RPG. EpicDuel's battle system is primarily based on player versus player gameplay. By February 20 over 350000 Play everyday.
HeroSmash
HeroSmash is a superhero-themed MMORPG that has entered beta testing, based on AdventureQuest Worlds. Beta
stage is playable to all players in the game that possesses a Master
account. The game was originally going to be called SuperHeroQuest, but "SuperHero" was a trademark from DC Comics and Marvel Comics which stopped Artix Entertainment from using the name they wanted.[4]
AdventureQuest 3D: Legend of Lore
Artix Entertainment is currently working on their first 3D game, AdventureQuest 3D,
due to be released for alpha testing to all players who have purchased
any packages in any of the games created by Artix Entertainment.[5]
OverSoul
An upcoming game by Artix Entertainment's artist, Milton
Pool(Miltonius/Nulgath). The game is known to be a multiplayer PVP and
PVE game where the player uses cards. Some connection(s) with EbilCorp.
Master account minigames
In early 2010, the BattleOn Portal was created in hopes of providing
"One Login to Rule Them All!" where players could connect all of their
game accounts to one master account. Work had then begun on creating a
system where newly-created mini-games could be created, and progress
could be saved on the master account.
The first of these minigames is Bladehaven. The beta testing for Bladehaven began on Thursday, October 14, 2010, where only paying customers of
Artix Entertainment's other games were allowed to participate.[6] On Friday, November 5, 2010, Bladehaven was completed and released to
the public. Guests are allowed to play, but they would encounter
advertisements and the inability to gain Master Account Experience for
achievements, unless they registered a Master Account.
Other games
A test Guardian-only game known as ZardWars was developed in order to test how the servers would react to more than one database.
Another Guardian-only game called ArchKnight was made, though it was replaced by DragonFable before the game could be sufficiently developed, with the promise that ArchKnight would be worked into the new game. On 19 February 2010, the ArchKnight game and quest chain was continued and finished in DragonFable, and was made accessible only to those with upgrades in AdventureQuest and DragonFable.[7]
In addition to their main projects, Artix Entertainment used to
develop content for a minigame site, EbilGames. There are nine minigames
available on the site.
Artix Entertainment's artist and animator, Lucas Lee(better known as
Xyo) started a 2D Side-Scroller RPG. Later due to some issues with the
game he cancelled the project. The Demo Edition of his game is still
playable on his personal website.
==
Videos
Artix Entertainment has also released two animated shorts. The first, Artix Vs. the Undead, was made as a teaser for the DoomWood storyline in DragonFable. The second short, Death from Above, was released as a sneak peek to the MechQuest storyline and was developed by J6 of the Artix Entertainment staff, and can be viewed in the game MechQuest. A lot of the games have now started to broadcast live through Livestream featuring the staff members of the particular game. The main thing
recorded is drawings from Flash CS3, CS5 etc. During the time, sometimes
the staff ask the people watching what the drawn item should be named.
Payment
Payment in AE games consists mostly of both a one-time payment (or subscription, in the case of AdventureQuest Worlds and HeroSmash) to unlock extra content. Most games also have "secondary currencies" (microtransactions) which are gained through offers or from spending real world money. These currencies can be used to buy in-game items.
AExtras
AExtras is a system of gaining the previously payment-based secondary
currencies in Artix Entertainment's games. It was first introduced in AdventureQuest Worlds before becoming available for all its major games, in addition to
BattleOn Games. In December 2010 it was discontinued in all but the
Master Account System to encourage users to connect their accounts and
earn rewards from there. It allows players to gain free secondary
currency or membership through the completion of offers from third-party
sites; players are given a list of offers which they may complete for
rewards. The feature has been criticised for allowing offers from
companies who on-sell user information.[citation needed]
This article is about the website. For the namesake company that owns the site, see Facebook, Inc.. For the type of photographic directory, see Face book.
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc.[3] As of May 2012, Facebook has over 900 million active users, more than half of them using Facebook on a mobile device.[4] Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends,
and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they
update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user
groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other
characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People
From Work" or "Close Friends". The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some university
administrations in the United States to help students get to know each
other. Facebook allows any users who declare themselves to be at least
13 years old to become registered users of the site.[5]
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[6] The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to
Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area,
the Ivy League, and Stanford University.
It gradually added support for students at various other universities
before opening to high school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13
and over. However, according to a May 2011 Consumer Reports survey, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts and 5 million under 10, violating the site's terms of service.[7]
A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.[8]Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How
on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug
our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"[9]Critics, such as Facebook Detox,[10] state that Facebook has turned into a national obsession that results
in vast amounts of time lost and innately encourages narcissism. Quantcast estimates Facebook has 138.9 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in May 2011.[11] According to Social Media Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the U.S. population had a Facebook account.[12] Nevertheless, Facebook's market growth started to stall in some
regions, with the site losing 7 million active users in the United
States and Canada in May 2011.[13]
Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not,
and "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses,
placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the
'hotter' person"[14][15]
To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images. Harvard at that time did not have a student "facebook"
(a directory with photos and basic information), though individual
houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s.
Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four
hours online.[16][17]
The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers,
but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration.
Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security,
violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.[18] Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final, by uploading 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section.[17] He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.
The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new
website in January 2004. He was inspired, he said, by an editorial in The Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident.[19] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.[20]
Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com, while he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.[21] The three complained to the Harvard Crimson, and the newspaper began an investigation. The three later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling.[22]
Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.[23] Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help
promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[24] It soon opened to the other Ivy League schools, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[25][26]
Facebook was incorporated in mid-2004, and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president.[27] In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California.[24] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[28] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[29]
Facebook launched a high-school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[39] At that time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.[40] Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[41] Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address.[42][43]
On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6%
share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied
value of around $15 billion.[44] Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international ads on Facebook.[45] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[46] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time.[47] In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc., an exchange for shares of privately held companies, Facebook's value was $41 billion (slightly surpassing eBay's) and it became the third largest U.S. Web company after Google and Amazon.[48]
Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.[49]
In March 2011 it was reported that Facebook removes approximately
20,000 profiles from the site every day for various infractions,
including spam, inappropriate content and underage use, as part of its
efforts to boost cyber security.[50]
Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion pageviews in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website in the world.[53] It should however be noted that Google and some of its selected
websites are not counted in the DoubleClick rankings. According to the
Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the
second most accessed website in the US.[54]
In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, an online mobile store
which sells applications that connect to Facebook. The store will be
available to iPhone, Android and mobile web users.[55] In April, Facebook bought the application Instagram for US$1 billion.[56]
Facebook, Inc. held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the
company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly
listed public company.[58]
In April 2012, Facebook acquired the mobile customer loyalty firm Tagline.[59]
In May 2012, the company settled a class action lawsuit regarding the
use of member's images in ads called "sponsored stories" for $10
million.[60]
Facebook bought facial-recognition technology company Face.com in June 2012.[61]
Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests,
contact information, and other personal information. Users can
communicate with friends and other users through private or public
messages and a chat feature. They can also create and join interest
groups and "like pages" (called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some
of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.[62] A 2012 Pew Internet and American Life study identified that between
20–30% of Facebook users are "power users" who frequently link, poke,
post and tag themselves and others.[63]
Privacy Settings
To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose
their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of
their profile.[64] The website is free to users, and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads.[65] Facebook requires a user's name and profile picture (if applicable) to
be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information
they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through
their privacy settings.[66]
Comparison with Myspace
The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two Web sites is the level of customization.[67] Another difference is Facebook's requirement that users give their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not make.[68] MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook allows only plain text.[69] Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see;[70]Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification then tells a user that they have been poked);[71]Photos, where users can upload albums and photos;[72] and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.[73] Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user's profile can
also view that user's Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users
to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited
to textual content only.[70]
News Feed
On September 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced, which appears on every user's homepage and highlights
information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of
the user's friends.[74] This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by
creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract
attention to their profile or cause.[75] Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users;
some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information,
others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track
individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and
conversations with other users).[76]
In response, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to
include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users
have been able to control what types of information are shared
automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set
categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of
activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added
friends.[77]
On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent[78] on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in
which links are provided so that one user can participate in the same
activity of another user.[79] The patent may encourage Facebook to pursue action against websites
that violate its patent, which may potentially include websites such as
Twitter.[80]
One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos.[81] Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr,
which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to
upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60 photos
per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200 photos
per album.[82][83][84][85]
Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the
groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an
album can be set so that only the user's friends can see the album,
while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users
can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to
"tag",
or label, users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user's
friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a
notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them
a link to see the photo.[86] On 7th June 2012,facebook launched its App Center to its users. It will
help the users in finding games and other applications with ease.[87]
Facebook Notes
Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature
that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import
blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.[42] During the week of April 7, 2008, Facebook released a Comet-based[88]instant messaging application called "Chat" to several networks,[89] which allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based instant messengers.
Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their
friends that appear on the recipient's profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to
purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.[90][91] On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace, which lets users post free classified ads.[92] Marketplace has been compared to Craigslist by CNET,
which points out that the major difference between the two is that
listings posted by a user on Marketplace are seen only by users in the
same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be
seen by anyone.[93]
On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant
redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and
Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections,
and an effort was made to create a "cleaner" look.[94] After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began
migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008.[95] On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.[96]
Facebook Username
On June 13, 2009, Facebook introduced a "Usernames" feature, whereby pages can be linked with simpler URLs such as http://www.facebook.com/facebook instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=20531316728.[97] Many new smartphones offer access to Facebook services through either their Web browsers or
applications. An official Facebook application is available for the
operating systems Android, iOS, and webOS. Nokia and Research In Motion both provide Facebook applications for their own mobile devices. More
than 425 million active users access Facebook through mobile devices
across 200 mobile operators in 60 countries.[98]
Facebook Messages
On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced a new "Facebook Messages"
service. In a media event that day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "It's true
that people will be able to have an @facebook.com email addresses, but
it's not email". The launch of such a feature had been anticipated for
some time before the announcement, with some calling it a "Gmail
killer". The system, to be available to all of the website's users,
combines text messaging, instant messaging,
emails, and regular messages, and will include privacy settings similar
to those of other Facebook services. Codenamed "Project Titan",
Facebook Messages took 15 months to develop.[99][100]
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.[101]
Voice Calls
Since April 2011 Facebook users have had the ability to make live
voice calls via Facebook Chat, allowing users to chat with others from
all over the world. This feature, which is provided free through
T-Mobile's new Bobsled service, lets the user add voice to the current
Facebook Chat as well as leave voice messages on Facebook.[102]
Video Calling
On July 6, 2011, Facebook launched its video calling services using
Skype as its technology partner. It allows one to one calling using a
Skype Rest API.[103]
Facebook Subscribe
On September 14, 2011, Facebook launched a Subscribe button. The
feature allows for users to follow public updates, and these are the
people most often broadcasting their ideas.[104] There were major modifications that the site released on September 22, 2011.[105]
As reported by TechCrunch on February 15, 2012, Facebook is introducing ‘Verified Account’ concept like that of Twitter & Google+.
Though as of March 3, 2012, verified accounts don’t get any badges or
denotations, but such accounts will get more priority in ‘Subscription
Suggestions’ of Facebook.[106]
On March 6, 2012, Facebook officially launched Messenger for Windows, which gives users of Windows 7 access to some Facebook services without using a web browser.[107]
Privacy
According to comScore, an internet marketing research company, Facebook collects as much data from its visitors as Google and Microsoft, but considerably less than Yahoo!.[108] In 2010, the security team began expanding its efforts to reduce the risks to users' privacy,[109] but privacy concerns remain. On November 6, 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Beacon,
which was an ultimately failed attempt to advertise to friends of users
using the knowledge of what purchases friends made. As of March 2012,
Facebook's usage of its user data is under close scrutiny.[110]
FTC settlement
On November 29, 2011, Facebook agreed to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises.[111]
Technical aspects
Facebook is built in PHP which is compiled with HipHop for PHP, a source code transformer built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into C++. The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.[112]
Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an
interview in 2012 with Chuck Rossi, a build engineer at Facebook,
Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to
the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based
release system. Rossi stated that it takes approximately 15 minutes to
build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release
process is zero downtime and new changes to Facebook are rolled out
daily.[112]
Reception
Facebook popularity. Active users of Facebook increased from just a million in 2004 to over 750 million in 2011.[113]
Registered Facebook users by age as of 2010.
According to comScore,
Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique
visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008.[114] ComScore reports that Facebook attracted 130 million unique visitors in May 2010, an increase of 8.6 million people.[115] According to Alexa,
the website's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in
worldwide traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007, and is
currently 2nd.[116]Quantcast ranks the website 2nd in the U.S. in traffic,[117] and Compete.com ranks it 2nd in the U.S.[118] The website is the most popular for uploading photos, with 50 billion uploaded cumulatively.[119] In 2010, Sophos's
"Security Threat Report 2010" polled over 500 firms, 60% of which
responded that they believed that Facebook was the social network that
posed the biggest threat to security, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter,
and LinkedIn.[109]
Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada,[120] the United Kingdom,[121] and the United States.[122][123][124][125] In regional Internet markets, Facebook penetration is highest in North
America (69 percent), followed by Middle East-Africa (67 percent), Latin
America (58 percent), Europe (57 percent), and Asia-Pacific (17
percent).[126]
The website has won awards such as placement into the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by PC Magazine in 2007,[127] and winning the "People's Voice Award" from the Webby Awards in 2008.[128] In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based
company specializing in research concerning the college student market,
Facebook was named the second most popular thing among undergraduates,
tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.[129]
On March 2010, Judge Richard Seeborg issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v. Facebook, Inc., the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook's Beacon program.
In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie "Best Overall Startup Or Product" for the third year in a row[130] and was recognized as one of the "Hottest Silicon Valley Companies" by Lead411.[131] However, in a July 2010 survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index,
Facebook received a score of 64 out of 100, placing it in the bottom 5%
of all private-sector companies in terms of customer satisfaction,
alongside industries such as the IRS e-file system, airlines, and cable companies.
The reasons why Facebook scored so poorly include privacy problems,
frequent changes to the website's interface, the results returned by the
News Feed, and spam.[132]
In December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world's first legal judgement that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding.[133] In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David
Gendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the
company Axe Market Garden via Facebook.[134][135] Employers (such as Virgin Atlantic Airways)
have also used Facebook as a means to keep tabs on their employees and
have even been known to fire them over posts they have made.[136]
By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that
the generic verb "facebooking" had come into use to describe the process
of browsing others' profiles or updating one's own.[137] In 2008, Collins English Dictionary declared "Facebook" as its new Word of the Year.[138] In December 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared its word of the year to be the verb "unfriend", defined as "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, 'I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.'"[139]
In early 2010, Openbook was established, an avowed parody (and privacy advocacy) website[140] that enables text-based searches of those Wall posts that are available to "Everyone", i.e. to everyone on the Internet.
Writers for The Wall Street Journal found in 2010 that Facebook apps were transmitting identifying
information to "dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies".
The apps used an HTTP referrer which exposed the user's identity and sometimes their friends'.
Facebook said, "We have taken immediate action to disable all
applications that violate our terms".[141]
In May 2012, the countries with the most Facebook users were:[142]
Facebook has met with controversies. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including the People's Republic of China,[144] Iran,[145] Uzbekistan,[146] Pakistan,[147] Syria,[148] and Bangladesh on different bases. For example, it was banned in many
countries of the world on the basis of allowed content judged as
anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination. It has also been
banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during work
hours.[149] The privacy of Facebook users has also been an issue, and the safety of user accounts has been
compromised several times. Facebook has settled a lawsuit regarding
claims over source code and intellectual property.[150] In May 2011 emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making
critical allegations about Google's privacy policies; however it was
later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant
Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as
"a new level skullduggery" and which Daily Beast called a "clumsy smear".[151]
In July 2011, German authorities began to discuss the prohibition of
events organized on Facebook. The decision is based on several cases of
overcrowding by people not originally invited.[152][153] In one instance, 1,600 "guests" attended the 16th birthday party for a
Hamburg girl who accidentally posted the invitation for the event as
public. After reports of overcrowding, more than a hundred police were
deployed for crowd control. A policeman was injured and eleven
participants were arrested for assault, property damage and resistance
to authorities.[154] In another unexpectedly overcrowded event, 41 young people were arrested and at least 16 injured.[155]
In May 2011, HCL Technologies announced that approximately 50% of British employers had banned Facebook from the workplace.[156] Facebook has been blamed for lower worker productivity and has been
called a national obsession by anti-Facebook blogs such as Facebook
Detox.[157]
A 2011 study in the online journal First Monday, "Why Parents
Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences
of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," examines how parents
consistently enable children as young as 10 years old to sign up for
accounts, directly violating Facebook's policy banning young visitors.
This policy technically allows Facebook to avoid conflicts with the 1998
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), requiring that minors
aged 13 or younger gain explicit parental consent to access commercial
websites. Of the more than 1,000 households surveyed for the study, more
than three-quarters (76%) of parents reported that their child joined
Facebook when she was younger than 13, the minimum age in the site's
terms of service. The study notes that, in response to widespread
reports of underage users, a Facebook executive has said that "Facebook
removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." The study's
authors also note, "Indeed, Facebook takes various measures both to
restrict access to children and delete their accounts if they join." The
findings of the study raise questions primarily about the shortcomings
of federal law, but also implicitly continue to raise questions about
whether or not Facebook does enough to publicize its terms of service
with respect to minors. Only 53% of parents said they were aware that
Facebook has a minimum signup age; 35% of these parents believe that the
minimum age is a site recommendation (not a condition of site use), or
thought the signup age was 16 or 18, and not 13.[158]
In November 2011, several Facebook users reported that their accounts
were hacked and their profile pictures were replaced with pornographic
images. For more than a week, users' news feeds were spammed with
pornographic, violent and sexual contents. It has been reported that
more than 200,000 accounts in Bangalore, India were hacked. Facebook has denied the claims, citing that "safety of the users was on the top of their priority list".[159][160]
There has been much user discontent over Facebook's mandatory changeover to the new Timeline profile. Some Facebook users reported discontent with having many
Facebook status updates and photos from the past easily visible.[161][162]
According to a leading counter terrorism expert, terrorists are using
Facebook for hiring loners from western nations like Australia.[163]
Impact
Media impact
In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and
creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook.[164] The company began its push by inviting a select group of British
advertising leaders to meet Facebook's top executives at an
"influencers' summit" in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved
in campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear.[165] News and media outlets such as the Washington Post,[166] Financial Times[167] and ABC News[168] have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles.
Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in
various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook
allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and
other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is
access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests
and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to
reunite lost family members and friends because of the widespread reach
of its network. One such reUNION was between John Watson and the
daughter he had been seeking for 20 years. They met after Watson found
her Facebook profile.[169] Another father-daughter reUNION was between Tony Macnauton and Frances
Simpson, who had not seen each other for nearly 48 years.[170]
Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because
they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives,
while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies
because people are not directly communicating with each other. Some
studies have named Facebook as a source of problems in relationships.
Several news stories have suggested that using Facebook can lead to
higher instances of divorce and infidelity, but the claims have been questioned by other commentators.[171][172]
Facebook's role in the American political process was demonstrated in January 2008, shortly before the New Hampshire primary, when Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the "back to back" January 5 Republican and Democratic debates.[173][174][175]Charles Gibson moderated both debates, held at the Dana Center for the Humanities at
Saint Anselm College. Facebook users took part in debate groups
organized around specific topics, register to vote, and message
questions.[176]
ABCNews.com reported in 2012 that the Facebook fanbases of political
candidates have relevance for the election campaign, including:
Allows politicians and campaign organizers to understand the interests and demographics of their Facebook fanbases, as with Wisdom for Facebook, to better target their voters.
Provides a means for voters to keep up-to-date on candidates'
activities, such as connecting to the candidates' Facebook Fan Pages.
Unless you get out of Facebook and into someone’s face, you really have not acted.
Over a million people installed the Facebook application "US Politics
on Facebook" in order to take part, and the application measured users'
responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates.[178] This debate showed the broader community what many young students had
already experienced: Facebook as a popular and powerful new way to
interact and voice opinions. An article by Michelle Sullivan of
Uwire.com illustrates how the "Facebook effect" has affected youth
voting rates, support by youth of political candidates, and general
involvement by the youth population in the 2008 election.[179]
In February 2008, a Facebook group called "One Million Voices Against
FARC" organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians
marched in protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC (from the group's Spanish name).[180] In August 2010, one of North Korea's official government websites and the official news agency of the country, Uriminzokkiri, joined Facebook.[181]
In 2011 there was a controversial ruling by French government to
uphold a 1992 decree which stipulates that commercial enterprises should
not be promoted on news programs. President Nicolas Sarkozy's
colleagues have agreed that it will enforce a law so that the word
"Facebook" will not be allowed to be spoken on the television or on the
radio.[182]
In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political action committee under the name FB PAC.[183] In an email to The Hill,
a spokesman for Facebook said "FB PAC will give our employees a way to
make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates
who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy
while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and
connected."[184]
In popular culture
At age 102, Ivy Bean of Bradford,
England joined Facebook in 2008, making her one of the oldest people
ever on Facebook. An inspiration to other residents of the care home in
which she lived,[185] she quickly became more widely known and several fan pages were made in her honor. She visited the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, in Downing Street early in 2010.[186] Some time after creating her Facebook page, Bean joined Twitter, when
she passed the maximum number of friends allowed by Facebook. She became
the oldest person to ever use the Twitter website. At the time of her
death in July 2010, she had 4,962 friends on Facebook and more than
56,000 followers on Twitter. Her death was widely reported in the media
and she received tributes from several notable media personalities.[187]
On May 16, 2011, an Israeli couple named their daughter after the
Facebook "like" feature. They explained that it wasn't to advertise for
Facebook, but because they fancied the meaning behind the word.[193][194]
^An "active user" is defined by Facebook as a user who has visited the website in the last 30 days.
^"Monthly
growth" is the average percentage growth rate at which the total number
of active users grows each month over the specified period.
^This
value is from an investment document. The date is from when the
document was revealed to the public, not the actual date that the
website reached this many users.
^Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; et al. (December 11, 2009). "THE 100 Greatest Movies, TV Shows, Albums, Books,
Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music Videos, and Trends
that entertained us over the 10 Years". Entertainment Weekly (New York) ((1079/1080):74–84).
^Hoffman, Claire (June 28, 2008). "The Battle for Facebook". Rolling Stone (New York). Archived from the original on July 3, 2008. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
^Brown, Steven E.F. (June 17, 2009). "Facebook grows as MySpace cuts back". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"The Conference Board report on first quarter online users in the U.S.
showed Facebook with an even larger lead, with 78 percent of social
network participants, followed by MySpace (42 percent), LinkedIn (17 percent) and Twitter (10 percent)."
^Hasselback, Drew (June 17, 2009). "Comscore says Facebook has surpassed MySpace for U.S. users". National Post (Toronto). Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"Comscore says Facebook surpassed MySpace among U.S. users in May,
while Nielsen figures that actually happened back in January."[dead link]
^Wood, Cara (August 31, 2009). "Keeping pace with mainstream social media". Direct Marketing News (New York). Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"The giant in the space remains Facebook, which gets 87.7 million
unique viewers per month, according to ComScore. MySpace, with nearly
70 million unique monthly visitors, has seen growth stagnate over the
past year."
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Facebook" article dated August 15, 2009, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
In a philosophical context it may refer to: (1) the whole of the physical Universe, or (2) an ontological world (see world disclosure). In a theological context, world usually refers to the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred. The "end of the world" refers to scenarios of the final end of human history, often in religious contexts.
World history is commonly understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia, from the first civilizations to the present.
In terms such as world religion, world language, and world war, world suggests international or intercontinental scope without necessarily implying participation of the entire world.
In terms such as world map and world climate, world is used in the sense detached from human culture or civilization, referring to the planet Earth physically.
The corresponding word in Latin is mundus, literally "clean, elegant", itself a loan translation of Greek cosmos "orderly arrangement." While the Germanic word thus reflects a mythological notion of a "domain of Man" (compare Midgard), presumably as opposed to the divine sphere on the one hand and the chthonic sphere of the underworld on the other, the Greco-Latin term expresses a notion of creation as an act of establishing order out of chaos.
'World' can also be used attributively, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as world community or world canonical texts.[5]
By extension, a 'world' may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited, especially in the context of science fiction or futurology.
'World', in original sense, when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of humanexperience.
The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of career, in all its social aspects, to distinguish it from home life and academic study.
In philosophy, the term world has several possible meanings. In some contexts, it refers to everything that makes up reality or the physical universe. In others, it can mean have a specific ontological sense (see world disclosure). While clarifying the concept of world has arguably always been among the basic tasks of Western philosophy, this theme appears to have been raised explicitly only at the start of the twentieth century[6] and has been the subject of continuous debate. The question of what the world is has by no means been settled.
Parmenides
The traditional interpretation of Parmenides'
work is that he argued that the every-day perception of reality of the
physical world (as described in doxa) is mistaken, and that the reality
of the world is 'One Being' (as described in aletheia): an unchanging,
ungenerated, indestructible whole.
Plato
In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato distingues between forms and ideas and imagines two distinct worlds : the sensible world and the intelligible world.
Hegel
In Hegel's philosophy of history, the expression Weltgeschichte ist Weltgericht (World History is a tribunal that judges the World) is used to assert
the view that History is what judges men, their actions and their
opinions. Science is born from the desire to transform the World in
relation to Man; its final end is technical application.
Schopenhauer
The World as Will and Representation is the central work of Arthur Schopenhauer.
Schopenhauer saw the human will as our one window to the world behind
the representation; the Kantian thing-in-itself. He believed, therefore,
that we could gain knowledge about the thing-in-itself, something Kant
said was impossible, since the rest of the relationship between
representation and thing-in-itself could be understood by analogy to the
relationship between human will and human body.
Wittgenstein
Two definitions that were both put forward in the 1920s, however,
suggest the range of available opinion. "The world is everything that is
the case," wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein in his influential Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, first published in 1922. This definition would serve as the basis of logical positivism,
with its assumption that there is exactly one world, consisting of the
totality of facts, regardless of the interpretations that individual
people may make of them.
Heidegger
Martin Heidegger,
meanwhile, argued that "the surrounding world is different for each of
us, and notwithstanding that we move about in a common world".[7] The world, for Heidegger, was that into which we are always already
"thrown" and with which we, as beings-in-the-world, must come to terms.
His conception of "world disclosure" was most notably elaborated in his 1927 work Being and Time.
Freud
In response, Freud proposed that we do not move about in a common
world, but a common thought process. He believed that all the actions of
a person are motivated by one thing: lust. This led to numerous
theories about reactionary consciousness.
Other
Some philosophers, often inspired by David Lewis, argue that metaphysical concepts such as possibility, probability and necessity are best analyzed by comparing the world to a range of possible worlds; a view commonly known as modal realism.
Religion and mythology
It has been suggested that World (theology) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2010.
^Jean
Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrandt. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols.
Editions Robert Lafont S. A. et Editions Jupiter: Paris, 1982. Penguin
Books: London, 1996. pp.142-145
This article compares the size of Wikipedia with other encyclopedias and information collections.
Source material from which Wikipedia statistics in this article are derived is available;[1] the Footnote on WikiStatistics section at the end of this page provides technical discussion of this article.
Currently, the English Wikipedia alone has over 3,988,312 articles of any length, and the combined Wikipedias for all other languages
greatly exceed the English Wikipedia in size, giving a combined total of
more than 8 billion words in 19 million articles in approximately 270 languages.[2] The English Wikipedia alone has over 2.5 billion words,[3] over 50 times as many as the next largest English-language encyclopedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, and more than the enormous 119-volume Spanish-language Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana.
In 2005 the English-language Wikipedia more than doubled in size, and many smaller wikipedias have grown by a higher multiple.
As an example, in June 2011, there were more than 11 million edits in all Wikipedias and 3.6 million in the English version.[2][3]
Wikipedia is still in need of much expansion and improvement.
Many of the articles are of poor quality and some mainstream
encyclopedia topics are not covered adequately. In addition, the average
article length is only a little over half the size of that in Encyclopædia Britannica, although many major articles are considerably longer.[citation needed] Over time the balance of the editorial effort is expected to slowly
tilt towards a greater emphasis on increasing the quality, scope,
classification and interlinkage of existing articles. However, new
articles will probably always be created in large numbers, as
Wikipedia's conventions on acceptable article topics incorporate huge
numbers of potential new articles every year (newly prominent people, current events, media products,
physical products, etc). In mid 2006 the rate of new article creation
was still rising, but only slowly. As of January 2007 it looks as if the
rate of article creation may have peaked in mid 2006, though it would
be premature to state that it did so for certain. See Wikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia's growth for more on Wikipedia's growth rate and expected future size.
Other online encyclopedic resources
Nevertheless, there are many other online databases which combine several encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries and allow users to search all of the works simultaneously. One example is Oxford Reference Online — a combined database of 221 encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries, offering a total of 1.4 million articles as of 2011, with expansions planned for the future.[4] Another example is Xrefplus, which offers access to 262 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.[5] This all added up to about 2.9 million entries when the database had 225 titles.[6] There also is HighBeam Research and GaleNet. GaleNet — which is likely the largest named so far — offers users the ability to search several encyclopedia databases, including the Biography Resource Center (1,335,000 people), Gale Virtual Reference Library (594 reference books),[7] and the Science Resource Center (51 titles),[8] among others.
Paper encyclopedias
The largest paper encyclopedia ever produced is possibly the Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in 1407 in 11,095 books, 370 million Chinese characters.[9] The individual books that made up the encyclopedia were small by modern
standards; the work was twelve times the size of the 20 million word
French Encyclopédie,[10] giving a total of 240 million words, or 21,600 words per book, although it is unclear if that is how it differs from the Encyclopédie in size. It is also unclear if it is twelve times larger than the original 28-volume version of the Encyclopédie completed in 1772 or the 35-volume version completed in 1780. The Yung-lo ta-tien was a collection of excerpts and entire existing works, rather than an
original work. Only two copies were made and all that survives is a
small fraction of one copy.
This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page.(April 2009)
Numbers regarding total characters are based on an estimated average
word length of five, plus a space, or six characters per word.
*Classical Chinese is a very compact language. The result is very short in size for the same content.
†It is said that Yongle is larger than Siku, but it is uncertain how they were compared.
‡Kenneth F. Kister, Kister's best encyclopedias: a comparative guide to general and specialized encyclopedias, (1994) p. 450. [Article count is for the 82-volume edition, rather than the 119-volume one.]
**Number of encyclopedic articles. The Nationalencyklopedin contains a total of 356,000 entries.
††Kister, op. cit., p. 365.
**Includes 10,000 historical archives.
‡‡Advertised as containing "over 63,000
articles...with 36,000-plus map locations, and over 29,000
editor-approved Web site links." The 2006 Premium CD-ROM had 68,000
articles.[16]
⁑Advertised as containing 41,500 articles written
by 6,803 authors, 60 million of words, 350 million of characters,
360,000 links, 122,000 definitions in the included dictionary, 130,000
bibliographical references.[17]
Size of other information collections
Note that Wikipedia is neither a dictionary nor a web index; these figures are just for order-of-magnitude comparison.
Astronomy
The Guide Star Catalog II has entries on 998,402,801 distinct astronomical objects searchable online.
5.5 TB of astronomical images (covering the whole night sky in several colours) are available online.[18]
Biology
The World Resources Institute claims that approximately 1.4 millionspecies have been named, out of an unknown number of total species. A 2011
study says there are 8,700,000 species (6,500,000 land species,
2,200,000 marine species).[19]
GenBank, an online database of DNA sequences from over 260,000 species ([1]), has (as of January 2008) over 110 million entries (sequence records) covering over 100 gigabases.
As of August 2011, GeoNames ([2])
contains over 10 million geographical names and consists of 7.5 million
unique features whereof 2.8 million populated places and 5.5 million
alternate names.
Internet
Over 25 billion web pages with over 1 trillion unique URLs were known to Google on February 24, 2006.
Netcraft logged roughly 92,615,362 distinct websites in 28 August 2006.
As of August 2006, the Open Directory Project web index claims to have over 590,000 categories for 4 million websites.
As of August 2011, Internet Archive claims to have indexed over 150 billion pages, +548,000 moving images, +82,000 concerts, +948,000 recordings and +2,945,000 texts.
Language
The Oxford Dictionary of English (formerly The New Oxford Dictionary of English) claims 355,000 definitions, and four million words of text.[3]
The British Library is known to hold over 150 million items.
The Library of Congress claims that it holds approximately 119 million items, 12 million of which are electronically searchable.
Copac is a searchable electronic catalogue of over 31 million books held in libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland (includes all electronic records from the British Library)
Music
The freeDB database holds information for around 1,579,205compact discs. Many of the disks are duplicates, however, so the number of unique CDs is unclear.
The All Music Guide database contains entries for 834,069unique albums, and 14,642,322 credits (as of June 2005).
As of August 2011, Jamendo project contains over 50,000 free and open albums.
People
Thomson-Gale's Biography Resource Center contains over 1,335,000 biographies. 335,000 are essays, while over a million are thumbnail entries.[5]
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has over 50,000 articles on famous Britons, in 50 million words (implying an average article size of 1000 words).
The Espacenet free online service contains records on more than 70 million patent publications from the European Patent Office patent databases.
The Inspec database contains over 11 million abstracts.
The Compendex database contains over 9 million records.
The Elsevier BIOBASE database contains over 4.1 million records.
The IEEE Xplore database contains over 2 million records.
The cost of a printed Wikipedia
Evaluating the cost of a printed Wikipedia is fraught with
difficulties. As of 14 March 2010 there were approximately 14 billion
characters so assuming 5,000 characters per page that would yield 2.8
million pages. If you then add 25% for extra space for photos, tables,
and diagrammes that would yield 3.5 million pages. This would produce
8,750 volumes of 400 pages each. As an example, allowing US$0.05 per
page would yield a cost of US$175,000 without binding.
Statistics for this page are taken from the Article count (alternate) table and from the Words table.
Excluding redirect pages, there are roughly (using figures from September 1, 2006):
1.4 million articles that have at least a single link.
1.3 million articles that have at least a single link and 200 readable characters (roughly equivalent to at least 33 words).
Taking the difference of these two figures, there are about:
100,000 articles that have at least a single link but fewer than 200 characters.
There is also an uncounted number of articles which have no links.
The current statistics provide no indication of the size of this last
category. The 609 million words in fact span the 1.3 million bona fide articles, the remaining 100,000 linked articles, and the unknown number
of articles without links. A rough estimate of the word count in the
latter two categories is ten million words. Dividing the remaining 600
million words by 1.3 million gives a mean article length of about 460
words.
Further, of the articles on the English Wikipedia, perhaps 36,000 are "data dumped" gazetteer entries about towns and cities in the United States. It is
controversial whether gazetteer entries should count towards the number
of "real" encyclopedia articles; however, their statistical significance
is very much less now than in October 2002 when they were added. Very
many have been colonised by Wikipedians who have transformed them to varying extents, including to an unimpeachably encyclopedic status.
Partially filled rows for recent months can also occur. In that case
only selected data were collected for one or more large projects, due to
time constraints.
This report has been regenerated after recovery from recent major data collection bug. Thank you for your patience.
Note: figures for first months are too low. Revision history was not always preserved in early days.
x < 0% 0% < x < 25% 25% < x < 75% 75% < x
Wikipedians (registered users, incl. bots) A = Wikipedians who edited at least 10 times since they arrived
B = Increase in wikipedians who edited at least 10 times since they arrived
C = Wikipedians who contributed 5 times or more in this month
D = Wikipedians who contributed 100 times or more in this month
Articles (excl. redirects) E = Articles that contain at least one internal link
F = Articles that contain at least one internal link and 200 characters readable text, disregarding wiki- and html codes, hidden links, etc.; also headers do not count (other columns are based on the official count method)
G = New articles per day in this month
H = Mean number of revisions per article
I = Mean size of article in bytes
J = Percentage of articles with at least 0.5 Kb readable text (see F)
K = Percentage of articles with at least 2 Kb readable text (see F)
Database L = Edits in past month (incl. redirects, incl. unregistered contributors, incl. bots)
M = Combined size of all articles (incl. redirects)
N = Total number of words (excl. redirects, html/wiki codes and hidden links)
Links O = Total number of internal links (excl. redirects, stubs and link lists)
P = Total number of links to other Wikipedias
Q = Total number of images presented
R = Total number of links to other sites
S = Total number of redirects
Edit activity levels of registered users and bots per group of namespaces
Articles = namespace 0 only.
YoY = Year over Year change
MoM = Month over Month change, for first 28 days of each month, to allow fair comparison between consecutive months
PoM = Percentage of Maximum, (= highest value ever in that column), again for first 28 days of each month
PoM = Note how because of this
normalization a short month can have PoM 100% even when the absolute
editor count in the left section doesn't show the highest (full month)
value for that column
Users
Trends
Edits ≥
1
3
5
10
25
100
250
1000
2500
10000
25000
100000
5 YoY
100 YoY
5 MoM
100 MoM
5 PoM
100 PoM
May 2012
219426
109745
77222
48545
26842
10665
4995
804
167
8
4
-0.9%
1.7%
0.2%
-0.7%
84.3%
91.4%
Apr 2012
212794
106750
75197
47526
26508
10557
4776
735
143
10
1
-2.2%
1.6%
0.5%
0.1%
84.1%
92.0%
Mar 2012
215648
108508
76332
48061
26857
10755
5009
756
152
12
3
-5.4%
-0.5%
-3.7%
-2.6%
83.7%
92.0%
Feb 2012
217803
108428
76049
47667
26605
10538
4844
753
126
8
1
-2.7%
-0.0%
1.0%
-1.7%
87.0%
94.5%
Jan 2012
226937
112980
79163
49551
27812
11257
5297
874
167
12
3
-4.0%
-1.3%
5.5%
6.9%
86.1%
96.1%
Dec 2011
210006
105458
74448
47219
26460
10608
4878
751
136
16
2
1.1%
2.6%
-2.0%
-0.5%
81.6%
89.9%
Nov 2011
216813
106901
74733
46797
26011
10327
4694
729
138
11
1
0.6%
-0.3%
1.1%
1.5%
83.3%
90.4%
Oct 2011
219426
107793
75167
47049
26300
10474
4819
757
137
7
2
0.3%
-1.9%
-1.0%
-1.9%
82.4%
89.1%
Sep 2011
216182
105879
74353
46414
25906
10332
4701
732
128
8
1
1
1.2%
-2.9%
-0.3%
-1.3%
83.2%
90.8%
Aug 2011
218311
108604
76652
48538
27279
10888
4986
765
136
7
2
0.6%
-1.4%
-0.1%
-0.1%
83.5%
92.1%
Jul 2011
213989
107875
76073
48335
27075
10777
4838
766
139
14
3
1.3%
2.4%
-2.0%
0.2%
83.6%
92.1%
Jun 2011
218181
108553
76179
48110
26800
10537
4790
714
137
6
1
-1.1%
-1.3%
0.5%
3.0%
85.2%
91.9%
May 2011
228270
111996
77894
48470
26595
10487
4681
759
122
7
1
-5.3%
-6.2%
-1.5%
-1.7%
84.9%
89.2%
Apr 2011
225584
110857
76914
47889
26441
10390
4624
677
115
8
2
-4.5%
-5.6%
-2.2%
-2.2%
86.1%
90.8%
Mar 2011
239009
116660
80652
49947
27457
10804
4948
752
134
10
-3.4%
-4.5%
-3.8%
-4.2%
88.1%
92.8%
Feb 2011
226271
111735
78182
48656
26860
10542
4815
688
129
9
1
-1.6%
-3.1%
1.9%
-0.3%
91.5%
96.9%
Jan 2011
232989
116703
82426
51479
28344
11400
5286
850
159
11
4
-2.0%
-1.7%
11.5%
10.8%
89.9%
97.2%
Dec 2010
207074
104354
73625
46585
26078
10344
4719
743
128
9
1
-6.3%
-2.0%
-2.9%
-3.7%
80.6%
87.7%
Nov 2010
213838
106175
74286
46321
25872
10354
4727
738
126
7
-7.5%
-2.8%
0.7%
-0.3%
83.0%
91.1%
Oct 2010
214546
106986
74956
47233
26378
10676
4947
770
129
10
1
-7.0%
-2.4%
0.3%
-2.0%
82.4%
91.3%
Sep 2010
208872
104345
73436
46394
26224
10643
4938
748
144
11
2
-6.6%
-2.3%
-1.2%
-0.4%
82.2%
93.1%
Aug 2010
212304
107593
76158
48354
27362
11038
5046
827
148
16
-6.1%
-1.3%
1.2%
4.7%
83.2%
93.5%
Jul 2010
209053
105791
75107
47605
26607
10527
4828
736
121
9
-7.7%
-3.7%
-4.5%
-4.6%
82.2%
89.4%
Jun 2010
218191
108962
76994
48056
26839
10671
4815
717
120
12
-6.2%
-3.3%
-4.6%
-2.1%
86.0%
93.7%
May 2010
236867
117540
82284
51415
28395
11184
5078
791
134
9
3
-1.1%
-1.2%
0.1%
-0.8%
90.2%
95.7%
Apr 2010
233959
115746
80563
50057
27584
11006
5073
769
122
10
-0.1%
0.8%
-1.2%
0.4%
90.1%
96.5%
Mar 2010
241559
119762
83481
51741
28480
11313
5241
817
128
12
1
-1.6%
-1.3%
-1.9%
-3.9%
91.2%
96.1%
Feb 2010
230376
113928
79439
49454
27529
10878
4786
697
96
8
1
-1.5%
2.0%
1.1%
1.3%
93.0%
100.0%
Jan 2010
243000
120467
84139
52472
29045
11596
5363
813
105
8
1
-1.3%
0.3%
7.3%
11.0%
92.0%
98.7%
Apr 2012
212794
106750
75197
47526
26508
10557
4776
735
143
10
1
-2.2%
1.6%
0.5%
0.1%
84.1%
92.0%
Jan 2012
226937
112980
79163
49551
27812
11257
5297
874
167
12
3
-4.0%
-1.3%
5.5%
6.9%
86.1%
96.1%
Oct 2011
219426
107793
75167
47049
26300
10474
4819
757
137
7
2
0.3%
-1.9%
-1.0%
-1.9%
82.4%
89.1%
Jul 2011
213989
107875
76073
48335
27075
10777
4838
766
139
14
3
1.3%
2.4%
-2.0%
0.2%
83.6%
92.1%
Apr 2011
225584
110857
76914
47889
26441
10390
4624
677
115
8
2
-4.5%
-5.6%
-2.2%
-2.2%
86.1%
90.8%
Jan 2011
232989
116703
82426
51479
28344
11400
5286
850
159
11
4
-2.0%
-1.7%
11.5%
10.8%
89.9%
97.2%
Oct 2010
214546
106986
74956
47233
26378
10676
4947
770
129
10
1
-7.0%
-2.4%
0.3%
-2.0%
82.4%
91.3%
Jul 2010
209053
105791
75107
47605
26607
10527
4828
736
121
9
-7.7%
-3.7%
-4.5%
-4.6%
82.2%
89.4%
Apr 2010
233959
115746
80563
50057
27584
11006
5073
769
122
10
-0.1%
0.8%
-1.2%
0.4%
90.1%
96.5%
Jan 2010
243000
120467
84139
52472
29045
11596
5363
813
105
8
1
-1.3%
0.3%
7.3%
11.0%
92.0%
98.7%
Oct 2009
233176
115703
80627
50241
27644
10939
4987
747
116
15
2
-1.4%
0.2%
0.6%
-1.7%
88.3%
93.3%
Jul 2009
223976
114740
81404
51440
28371
10934
4910
697
110
10
3
-1.0%
-2.4%
-2.8%
-3.6%
89.0%
93.1%
Apr 2009
230607
115460
80661
50313
27651
10915
4929
709
108
9
3
-6.1%
-0.5%
-2.9%
-2.5%
90.1%
95.3%
Jan 2009
242320
122172
85254
52767
28845
11563
5267
782
105
12
4
-2.2%
-0.9%
8.5%
9.7%
93.1%
98.5%
Oct 2008
235552
117906
81798
50420
27510
10921
5022
775
129
14
4
-4.0%
-0.5%
1.2%
-1.0%
89.3%
93.3%
Jul 2008
220777
115159
82209
51742
28720
11202
5132
692
109
6
4
-2.1%
0.2%
-1.6%
0.4%
89.7%
95.4%
Apr 2008
245346
123643
85923
52368
28305
10967
4900
699
94
7
3
1
-4.1%
-4.1%
-1.4%
-3.9%
95.8%
95.7%
Jan 2008
243986
124325
87146
53783
29286
11665
5331
796
98
5
3
0.0%
3.1%
9.4%
11.0%
94.9%
99.1%
Oct 2007
242142
122421
85218
52028
28314
10979
4937
705
85
6
3
2
16.8%
12.0%
0.5%
-0.7%
92.9%
93.6%
Jul 2007
219886
116910
83942
52971
29244
11185
4983
648
89
6
3
29.9%
20.2%
-1.6%
-2.0%
91.6%
94.8%
Apr 2007
245936
127570
89598
55183
29612
11439
5014
650
89
6
2
67.6%
48.9%
0.8%
-0.3%
100.0%
99.3%
Jan 2007
231701
122599
87115
53920
29300
11311
4953
627
70
2
99.4%
54.5%
9.6%
8.3%
94.6%
95.6%
Oct 2006
190934
102120
72969
46068
25446
9805
4392
564
72
4
1
166.0%
105.8%
1.4%
-0.4%
79.3%
82.9%
Jul 2006
155667
87590
64639
42207
23871
9305
4001
479
57
6
2
175.1%
119.1%
3.2%
0.8%
70.7%
78.6%
Apr 2006
130005
72569
53474
34906
19735
7682
3409
398
56
3
1
1
215.2%
137.3%
5.4%
1.1%
59.6%
66.3%
Jan 2006
96517
57438
43690
29643
17428
7319
3357
470
61
5
1
258.3%
218.1%
15.9%
16.4%
47.7%
61.9%
Oct 2005
60141
35905
27436
18824
11251
4765
2203
298
39
7
174.8%
144.0%
11.4%
9.1%
30.1%
40.4%
Jul 2005
48030
30115
23494
16498
10045
4247
1953
277
34
6
2
207.6%
164.4%
16.3%
10.6%
26.0%
36.3%
Apr 2005
34556
21660
16965
11987
7471
3237
1494
204
26
1
198.8%
161.7%
23.0%
23.1%
19.1%
28.2%
Jan 2005
25351
15646
12192
8582
5358
2301
1029
129
17
1
326.9%
237.4%
2.0%
-4.3%
13.3%
19.0%
Oct 2004
19403
12652
9985
7146
4483
1953
933
135
18
1
1
423.0%
378.7%
8.2%
0.1%
10.9%
16.5%
Jul 2004
13815
9424
7639
5555
3560
1606
771
141
17
1
432.3%
395.7%
15.7%
13.6%
8.5%
13.9%
Apr 2004
10397
7000
5677
4159
2736
1237
579
78
5
637.3%
486.3%
-6.3%
-4.9%
6.4%
10.8%
Jan 2004
5076
3480
2856
2182
1457
682
308
40
2
262.4%
258.9%
8.5%
2.2%
3.1%
5.9%
Oct 2003
3429
2319
1909
1433
903
408
180
24
2
307.0%
193.5%
10.2%
1.9%
2.1%
3.5%
Jul 2003
2565
1736
1435
1097
738
324
152
19
418.1%
310.1%
15.0%
4.9%
1.6%
2.7%
Apr 2003
1265
913
770
618
428
211
105
10
292.9%
427.5%
6.9%
4.7%
0.9%
1.9%
Jan 2003
1391
958
788
599
408
190
91
11
1
300.0%
533.3%
44.3%
28.7%
0.8%
1.7%
Oct 2002
766
548
469
370
251
139
63
13
4
1
1
223.4%
892.9%
7.0%
3.4%
0.5%
1.1%
Jul 2002
567
341
277
211
141
79
36
2
346.8%
7800.0%
19.8%
41.2%
0.3%
0.7%
Apr 2002
330
235
196
162
109
40
12
1
716.7%
1900.0%
-1.5%
-20.0%
0.2%
0.3%
Jan 2002
361
249
197
149
96
30
7
1870.0%
2900.0%
-1.6%
-16.1%
0.2%
0.2%
Oct 2001
265
176
145
111
65
14
3
-
-
24.8%
62.5%
0.2%
0.1%
Jul 2001
166
84
62
37
20
1
-
-
79.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
Apr 2001
41
31
24
17
7
2
-
-
-4.2%
-
0.0%
0.0%
Jan 2001
20
13
10
7
2
1
1
-
-
-
-
0.0%
0.0%
Most edited articles
Table out of order. Data collection needs to be revised.
For some projects up to date and much more extensive database reports are published from the toolserver, e.g. for English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedias are initially ordered by number of speakers of the language
Speakers: Number of speakers of a language is the estimated total of primary and
secondary speakers, is in many cases a very rough estimation (based on
the page on the English Wikipedia about that language) Regions are
parts of the world where the language is spoken in substantial amounts
(compared to total number of speakers). Regions where a language gained
presence only by a recent diaspora are generally not included. Region codes: AFAfrica, ASAsia, EUEurope, NANorth America, OCOceania, SASouth America, WWorld Wide, CLConstructed Language
Generated on Friday June 29, 2012 21:14 from recent database dump files. Data processed up to Thursday May 31, 2012
Please note that the lengthy dump process (many weeks) means a delay in publishing these statistics is always to be expected.
The longest word in any of the major English languagedictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles,[7] specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.
The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English, and
has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended
meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.[4]
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Consisting of a series of Latin words meaning "nothing"
and defined as "the act of estimating something as worthless"; its usage
has been recorded as far back as 1741.[8][9][10][11]
Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"
James Joyce made up nine 101-letter words in his novel Finnegans Wake,
the most famous of which is
Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.
Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic
thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. Sylvia Plath made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, when the protagonist was reading Finnegans Wake.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is "a
word that you say when you don't know what to say." The idea and
invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman.
Advertising coinages
In 1973, Pepsi's advertising agency Boase Massimi Pollitt used a 100-letter but several-word term
"Lipsmackinthirstquenchinacetastinmotivatingoodbuzzincooltalkinhighwalkinfastlivinevergivincoolfizzin"
(read: Lip smackin' thirst quenchin' ace tastin' motivatin' good
buzzin' cool talkin' high walkin' fast livin' ever givin' cool fizzin')
in TV and film advertising.[12]
The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing
words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes.
This is sometimes referred to as agglutinative construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes pseudo (false, spurious) and anti (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. A word like anti-aircraft (pertaining to the defense against aircraft) is easily extended to anti-anti-aircraft (pertaining to counteracting the defense against aircraft, a legitimate
concept) and can from there be prefixed with an endless stream of
"anti-"s, each time creating a new level of counteraction. More
familiarly, the addition of numerous "great"s to a relative, e.g.
great-great-great-grandfather, can produce words of arbitrary length.
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" is the longest common example of a word formed by agglutinative construction, as follows (the numbers succeeding the word refer to the number of letters in the word):
establish (9)
to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin stare, to stand)
Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides is the longest accepted binomial name. It's a species of soldier fly[14]
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, at 52 letters, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).[15] The word is composed of the following elements:
John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one
sexmilliaquingentsexagintillion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is
the name for 103(6560+1) = 1019683. Under the long number scale, it would be 106(6560) = 1039360.
Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one
word, as is sometimes done. An example of this is
sodiummetadiaminoparadioxyarsenobenzoemethylenesulphoxylate, an
arsenic-containing drug. There are also other chemical naming systems,
using numbers instead of "meta", "para" etc. as descriptive dividers,
breaking up the name, which then no longer can be considered a single
long word.
The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine which is involved in striated muscle formation. Its empirical formula is C132983H211861N36149O40883S693. A 1,185-letter example, Acetylseryltyrosylseryliso...serine, refers to the coat protein of a certain strain of tobacco mosaic virus and was published by the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts Service in 1964 and 1966.[17] It marks the longest published word before in 1965, the Chemical
Abstracts Service overhauled its naming system and started discouraging
excessively long names.
The words Internationalization and localization are abbreviated "i18n" and "l10n", respectively, the embedded number
representing the number of letters between the first and the last.
The 58-character name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the famous name of a town on Anglesey, an island of Wales. This place's name is actually 51 letters long, as certain character groups in Welsh are considered as one letter, for instance ll, ng and ch.
It is generally agreed, however, that this invented name, adopted in
the mid-19th century, was contrived solely to be the longest name of any
town in Britain. The official name of the place is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, commonly abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or the somewhat jocular Llanfair PG.
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts.
It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries – Neutral Meeting Grounds"
and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the
water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake
is also known as Lake Webster.[19] The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are Winchester-on-the-Severn, a town in Maryland, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, a notable place in Texas history.
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya
Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan
Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit is the ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand; it has the Guinness World record for longest place name in the world, not in English however.
Words with certain characteristics of notable length
Strengths is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel.
Rhythms is the longest word in the English language containing none of the five recognised vowels.
Schmaltzed and strengthed appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in OED; but if squirrelled is pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in SOED for squirrel), it is the longest.
Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels,
and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word"
itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus. However, this is arguably both Latin and a proper noun. There are several six-letter English words with their letters in alphabetical order, including almost, biopsy, and chintz.[23]
The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all five vowels and the semivowely.
The longest single palindromic word in English is rotavator, another name for a rotary tiller for breaking and aerating soil.
Typed words
The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts,[24] and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses.[23] Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion.[25] and phyllophyllin
The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. Similar words with 10 letters include: pepperwort, perpetuity, proprietor, requietory, repertoire, tripertite, pourriture and (fittingly) typewriter. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
The longest using only the middle row is shakalshas (10 letters). Nine-letter words include flagfalls, galahads and alfalfas.
Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed. Exceptions might include ZZZ, seen in some dictionaries to denote sleep, or Canadian broadcast station call letters (such as CBBX).[26]
The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are antiskepticism and leucocytozoans respectively.[23]
On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are epopoeia, jipijapa, peekapoo, and quiaquia.[27] Other such long words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.[28] Kikuyu is typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest
one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the
right-hand side, and so the longest "right-handed" word is crwth.
Common words in general text
Ross Eckler has noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to
occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by
casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use
an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to
be encountered in general text are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.[29]
A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose
found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday
basis is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters.[30]
Humour
Smiles, according to an old riddle, may be considered the longest word in English, as there is a mile between the first and last letter. A retort asserts that beleaguered is longer still, since it contains a league. The riddle and both jocular answers date from the 19th century.[31][32]
In the old time radio retrospective, Golden Radio, comedian Jack Benny jokes that "the longest word in the English language is the one that follows, 'Now, here's a word from our sponsor.'"
^ abCoined
around 1935 to be the longest word; press reports on puzzle league
members legitimized it somewhat. First appeared in the MWNID supplement,
1939. Today OED and several others list it, but citations are almost
always as "longest word". More detail at pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
^The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. [1]
^In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd Discussion between Sen. Moynihan and Sen. Byrd "Mr. President, may I
say to the distinguished Senator from New York, I used that word on the
Senate floor myself 2 or 3 years ago. I cannot remember just when or
what the occasion was, but I used it on that occasion to indicate that
whatever it was I was discussing it was something like a mere trifle or
nothing really being of moment." Congressional Record June 17, 1991, p.
S7887, and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry,
albeit sarcastically. December 6, 1995, White House Press Briefing in
discussing Congressional Budget Office estimates and assumptions: "But
if you – as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference
is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification
going on here."
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Longest word in English" article dated 2011-01-08, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources.(October 2010)
Artix Entertainment, LLC. (often shortened to AE) is an indie game development company that works primarily with browser-based role-playing games. As of September 2010, the company has over 150 million users in their games.[1]
Artix Entertainment, LLC was founded by Adam Bohn (better known to
players as Artix von Krieger in his games) in 2002. The company develops
four single-player games (AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest and WarpForce) and four MMORPGs (HeroSmash, EpicDuel, "Pony vs Pony" and AdventureQuest Worlds). They are currently working on a 3D Game ( AQ3D ). Including an interactive sword-slashing game ( Blade Haven ). They currently employ 48 workers and over 60 volunteers. Worldwide,
there are over 118 million registered players in all AE games.[2]
AdventureQuest was Artix Entertainment's first project. The
game is set in the fictional world of "Lore", a tongue-in-cheek
reference to the original game name, Lands of Rising Evil. While it is
free to play, players may upgrade their characters to become
[[AdventureQuest Guardians in order to receive in-game benefits. As of
July 14, 2010, the server cap was removed.
WarpForce
Artix Entertainment's expansion to AdventureQuest, WarpForce, was released on July 17, 2009. It is a sequel to AdventureQuest, specifically relating to the recently-completed five-year Devourer story arc in AdventureQuest, and many crossovers between the two are planned. It was built with the same game engine as AdventureQuest and, like AdventureQuest and Artix Entertainment's other single-player RPGs, is free to play
with an optional one-time fee. Updates are on a monthly basis, but are
intended to be much larger than weekly updates.
After AdventureQuest gained popularity, Artix Entertainment began to develop DragonFable, set in the same universe. Unlike AdventureQuest which featured a 2D background with the player clicking the edges of the screen or doors to move around, DragonFable has a 2.5D movement system. Unlike AdventureQuest,
it does not have a server cap. Though it also has a daily exp. and gold
cap, similar to other AE games, to reduce the exp. abuse in the game
(commonly known as "Error Saving Exp" code 500.83).
MechQuest
The third game, MechQuest is a science fiction RPG set in the same universe as the previous two games. MechQuest's game system is a fusion between AdventureQuests' and DragonFable's, it is the prequel to AdventureQuest and DragonFable set 5,000 years before the former and 4,995 years before the latter. Players can control their own giant robot (called mechs in the game) to fight evil bad guys invading the city.
Nic Stransky complimented the graphics and simplicity of the game,
but wrote that melee could feel inconsistent and that players may wish
for more strategy.[3]
AdventureQuest Worlds is the 4th game made by Artix
Entertainment and a browser MMORPG. It is also the first multiplayer
MMORPG created by the company. The game was released on October 10,
2008. Like its predecessors, it uses 2D-3D animation, although in a much
simpler style to account for the increased server load and incorporates
elements of all three previous games in its story. Unlike its
predecessors, however, membership upgrades are not a one-time payment,
but are instead purchased only for a certain number of months.
Play is similar to many MMORPGs, with players being able to chat and fight both in-game monsters and other players,
in limited areas. Characters can be customized in appearance and gear,
and character classes are available to train in game. Combat is not turn-based as in Artix Entertainment's other RPGs, but is real-time and allows for group battles. Special events take place often, with
many holidays being celebrated in-game. Other special events include
wars, in which players collaborate to defeat enough "waves" of monsters
to win the war over several days, and live events with guest stars like Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll, George Lowe, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, the cast of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ayi Jihu, ArcAttack, They Might Be Giants, and Michael Sinterniklaas as the voice of Deady.
EpicDuel
On December 2, 2009, Artix Entertainment announced that they were taking on a new MMORPG, EpicDuel, which they acquired from Epic Inventions LLC, who were developing the game independently. This is now their sixth major RPG. EpicDuel's battle system is primarily based on player versus player gameplay. By February 20 over 350000 Play everyday.
HeroSmash
HeroSmash is a superhero-themed MMORPG that has entered beta testing, based on AdventureQuest Worlds. Beta
stage is playable to all players in the game that possesses a Master
account. The game was originally going to be called SuperHeroQuest, but "SuperHero" was a trademark from DC Comics and Marvel Comics which stopped Artix Entertainment from using the name they wanted.[4]
AdventureQuest 3D: Legend of Lore
Artix Entertainment is currently working on their first 3D game, AdventureQuest 3D,
due to be released for alpha testing to all players who have purchased
any packages in any of the games created by Artix Entertainment.[5]
OverSoul
An upcoming game by Artix Entertainment's artist, Milton
Pool(Miltonius/Nulgath). The game is known to be a multiplayer PVP and
PVE game where the player uses cards. Some connection(s) with EbilCorp.
Master account minigames
In early 2010, the BattleOn Portal was created in hopes of providing
"One Login to Rule Them All!" where players could connect all of their
game accounts to one master account. Work had then begun on creating a
system where newly-created mini-games could be created, and progress
could be saved on the master account.
The first of these minigames is Bladehaven. The beta testing for Bladehaven began on Thursday, October 14, 2010, where only paying customers of
Artix Entertainment's other games were allowed to participate.[6] On Friday, November 5, 2010, Bladehaven was completed and released to
the public. Guests are allowed to play, but they would encounter
advertisements and the inability to gain Master Account Experience for
achievements, unless they registered a Master Account.
Other games
A test Guardian-only game known as ZardWars was developed in order to test how the servers would react to more than one database.
Another Guardian-only game called ArchKnight was made, though it was replaced by DragonFable before the game could be sufficiently developed, with the promise that ArchKnight would be worked into the new game. On 19 February 2010, the ArchKnight game and quest chain was continued and finished in DragonFable, and was made accessible only to those with upgrades in AdventureQuest and DragonFable.[7]
In addition to their main projects, Artix Entertainment used to
develop content for a minigame site, EbilGames. There are nine minigames
available on the site.
Artix Entertainment's artist and animator, Lucas Lee(better known as
Xyo) started a 2D Side-Scroller RPG. Later due to some issues with the
game he cancelled the project. The Demo Edition of his game is still
playable on his personal website.
==
Videos
Artix Entertainment has also released two animated shorts. The first, Artix Vs. the Undead, was made as a teaser for the DoomWood storyline in DragonFable. The second short, Death from Above, was released as a sneak peek to the MechQuest storyline and was developed by J6 of the Artix Entertainment staff, and can be viewed in the game MechQuest. A lot of the games have now started to broadcast live through Livestream featuring the staff members of the particular game. The main thing
recorded is drawings from Flash CS3, CS5 etc. During the time, sometimes
the staff ask the people watching what the drawn item should be named.
Payment
Payment in AE games consists mostly of both a one-time payment (or subscription, in the case of AdventureQuest Worlds and HeroSmash) to unlock extra content. Most games also have "secondary currencies" (microtransactions) which are gained through offers or from spending real world money. These currencies can be used to buy in-game items.
AExtras
AExtras is a system of gaining the previously payment-based secondary
currencies in Artix Entertainment's games. It was first introduced in AdventureQuest Worlds before becoming available for all its major games, in addition to
BattleOn Games. In December 2010 it was discontinued in all but the
Master Account System to encourage users to connect their accounts and
earn rewards from there. It allows players to gain free secondary
currency or membership through the completion of offers from third-party
sites; players are given a list of offers which they may complete for
rewards. The feature has been criticised for allowing offers from
companies who on-sell user information.[citation needed]
This article is about the website. For the namesake company that owns the site, see Facebook, Inc.. For the type of photographic directory, see Face book.
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc.[3] As of May 2012, Facebook has over 900 million active users, more than half of them using Facebook on a mobile device.[4] Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends,
and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they
update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user
groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other
characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People
From Work" or "Close Friends". The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some university
administrations in the United States to help students get to know each
other. Facebook allows any users who declare themselves to be at least
13 years old to become registered users of the site.[5]
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[6] The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to
Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area,
the Ivy League, and Stanford University.
It gradually added support for students at various other universities
before opening to high school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13
and over. However, according to a May 2011 Consumer Reports survey, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts and 5 million under 10, violating the site's terms of service.[7]
A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.[8]Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How
on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug
our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"[9]Critics, such as Facebook Detox,[10] state that Facebook has turned into a national obsession that results
in vast amounts of time lost and innately encourages narcissism. Quantcast estimates Facebook has 138.9 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in May 2011.[11] According to Social Media Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the U.S. population had a Facebook account.[12] Nevertheless, Facebook's market growth started to stall in some
regions, with the site losing 7 million active users in the United
States and Canada in May 2011.[13]
Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not,
and "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses,
placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the
'hotter' person"[14][15]
To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images. Harvard at that time did not have a student "facebook"
(a directory with photos and basic information), though individual
houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s.
Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four
hours online.[16][17]
The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers,
but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration.
Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security,
violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.[18] Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final, by uploading 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section.[17] He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.
The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new
website in January 2004. He was inspired, he said, by an editorial in The Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident.[19] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.[20]
Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com, while he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.[21] The three complained to the Harvard Crimson, and the newspaper began an investigation. The three later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling.[22]
Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.[23] Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help
promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[24] It soon opened to the other Ivy League schools, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[25][26]
Facebook was incorporated in mid-2004, and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president.[27] In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California.[24] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[28] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[29]
Facebook launched a high-school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[39] At that time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.[40] Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[41] Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address.[42][43]
On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6%
share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied
value of around $15 billion.[44] Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international ads on Facebook.[45] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[46] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time.[47] In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc., an exchange for shares of privately held companies, Facebook's value was $41 billion (slightly surpassing eBay's) and it became the third largest U.S. Web company after Google and Amazon.[48]
Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.[49]
In March 2011 it was reported that Facebook removes approximately
20,000 profiles from the site every day for various infractions,
including spam, inappropriate content and underage use, as part of its
efforts to boost cyber security.[50]
Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion pageviews in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website in the world.[53] It should however be noted that Google and some of its selected
websites are not counted in the DoubleClick rankings. According to the
Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the
second most accessed website in the US.[54]
In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, an online mobile store
which sells applications that connect to Facebook. The store will be
available to iPhone, Android and mobile web users.[55] In April, Facebook bought the application Instagram for US$1 billion.[56]
Facebook, Inc. held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the
company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly
listed public company.[58]
In April 2012, Facebook acquired the mobile customer loyalty firm Tagline.[59]
In May 2012, the company settled a class action lawsuit regarding the
use of member's images in ads called "sponsored stories" for $10
million.[60]
Facebook bought facial-recognition technology company Face.com in June 2012.[61]
Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests,
contact information, and other personal information. Users can
communicate with friends and other users through private or public
messages and a chat feature. They can also create and join interest
groups and "like pages" (called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some
of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.[62] A 2012 Pew Internet and American Life study identified that between
20–30% of Facebook users are "power users" who frequently link, poke,
post and tag themselves and others.[63]
Privacy Settings
To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose
their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of
their profile.[64] The website is free to users, and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads.[65] Facebook requires a user's name and profile picture (if applicable) to
be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information
they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through
their privacy settings.[66]
Comparison with Myspace
The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two Web sites is the level of customization.[67] Another difference is Facebook's requirement that users give their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not make.[68] MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook allows only plain text.[69] Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see;[70]Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification then tells a user that they have been poked);[71]Photos, where users can upload albums and photos;[72] and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.[73] Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user's profile can
also view that user's Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users
to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited
to textual content only.[70]
News Feed
On September 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced, which appears on every user's homepage and highlights
information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of
the user's friends.[74] This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by
creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract
attention to their profile or cause.[75] Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users;
some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information,
others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track
individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and
conversations with other users).[76]
In response, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to
include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users
have been able to control what types of information are shared
automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set
categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of
activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added
friends.[77]
On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent[78] on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in
which links are provided so that one user can participate in the same
activity of another user.[79] The patent may encourage Facebook to pursue action against websites
that violate its patent, which may potentially include websites such as
Twitter.[80]
One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos.[81] Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr,
which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to
upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60 photos
per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200 photos
per album.[82][83][84][85]
Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the
groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an
album can be set so that only the user's friends can see the album,
while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users
can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to
"tag",
or label, users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user's
friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a
notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them
a link to see the photo.[86] On 7th June 2012,facebook launched its App Center to its users. It will
help the users in finding games and other applications with ease.[87]
Facebook Notes
Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature
that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import
blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.[42] During the week of April 7, 2008, Facebook released a Comet-based[88]instant messaging application called "Chat" to several networks,[89] which allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based instant messengers.
Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their
friends that appear on the recipient's profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to
purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.[90][91] On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace, which lets users post free classified ads.[92] Marketplace has been compared to Craigslist by CNET,
which points out that the major difference between the two is that
listings posted by a user on Marketplace are seen only by users in the
same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be
seen by anyone.[93]
On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant
redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and
Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections,
and an effort was made to create a "cleaner" look.[94] After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began
migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008.[95] On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.[96]
Facebook Username
On June 13, 2009, Facebook introduced a "Usernames" feature, whereby pages can be linked with simpler URLs such as http://www.facebook.com/facebook instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=20531316728.[97] Many new smartphones offer access to Facebook services through either their Web browsers or
applications. An official Facebook application is available for the
operating systems Android, iOS, and webOS. Nokia and Research In Motion both provide Facebook applications for their own mobile devices. More
than 425 million active users access Facebook through mobile devices
across 200 mobile operators in 60 countries.[98]
Facebook Messages
On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced a new "Facebook Messages"
service. In a media event that day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "It's true
that people will be able to have an @facebook.com email addresses, but
it's not email". The launch of such a feature had been anticipated for
some time before the announcement, with some calling it a "Gmail
killer". The system, to be available to all of the website's users,
combines text messaging, instant messaging,
emails, and regular messages, and will include privacy settings similar
to those of other Facebook services. Codenamed "Project Titan",
Facebook Messages took 15 months to develop.[99][100]
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.[101]
Voice Calls
Since April 2011 Facebook users have had the ability to make live
voice calls via Facebook Chat, allowing users to chat with others from
all over the world. This feature, which is provided free through
T-Mobile's new Bobsled service, lets the user add voice to the current
Facebook Chat as well as leave voice messages on Facebook.[102]
Video Calling
On July 6, 2011, Facebook launched its video calling services using
Skype as its technology partner. It allows one to one calling using a
Skype Rest API.[103]
Facebook Subscribe
On September 14, 2011, Facebook launched a Subscribe button. The
feature allows for users to follow public updates, and these are the
people most often broadcasting their ideas.[104] There were major modifications that the site released on September 22, 2011.[105]
As reported by TechCrunch on February 15, 2012, Facebook is introducing ‘Verified Account’ concept like that of Twitter & Google+.
Though as of March 3, 2012, verified accounts don’t get any badges or
denotations, but such accounts will get more priority in ‘Subscription
Suggestions’ of Facebook.[106]
On March 6, 2012, Facebook officially launched Messenger for Windows, which gives users of Windows 7 access to some Facebook services without using a web browser.[107]
Privacy
According to comScore, an internet marketing research company, Facebook collects as much data from its visitors as Google and Microsoft, but considerably less than Yahoo!.[108] In 2010, the security team began expanding its efforts to reduce the risks to users' privacy,[109] but privacy concerns remain. On November 6, 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Beacon,
which was an ultimately failed attempt to advertise to friends of users
using the knowledge of what purchases friends made. As of March 2012,
Facebook's usage of its user data is under close scrutiny.[110]
FTC settlement
On November 29, 2011, Facebook agreed to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises.[111]
Technical aspects
Facebook is built in PHP which is compiled with HipHop for PHP, a source code transformer built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into C++. The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.[112]
Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an
interview in 2012 with Chuck Rossi, a build engineer at Facebook,
Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to
the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based
release system. Rossi stated that it takes approximately 15 minutes to
build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release
process is zero downtime and new changes to Facebook are rolled out
daily.[112]
Reception
Facebook popularity. Active users of Facebook increased from just a million in 2004 to over 750 million in 2011.[113]
Registered Facebook users by age as of 2010.
According to comScore,
Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique
visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008.[114] ComScore reports that Facebook attracted 130 million unique visitors in May 2010, an increase of 8.6 million people.[115] According to Alexa,
the website's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in
worldwide traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007, and is
currently 2nd.[116]Quantcast ranks the website 2nd in the U.S. in traffic,[117] and Compete.com ranks it 2nd in the U.S.[118] The website is the most popular for uploading photos, with 50 billion uploaded cumulatively.[119] In 2010, Sophos's
"Security Threat Report 2010" polled over 500 firms, 60% of which
responded that they believed that Facebook was the social network that
posed the biggest threat to security, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter,
and LinkedIn.[109]
Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada,[120] the United Kingdom,[121] and the United States.[122][123][124][125] In regional Internet markets, Facebook penetration is highest in North
America (69 percent), followed by Middle East-Africa (67 percent), Latin
America (58 percent), Europe (57 percent), and Asia-Pacific (17
percent).[126]
The website has won awards such as placement into the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by PC Magazine in 2007,[127] and winning the "People's Voice Award" from the Webby Awards in 2008.[128] In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based
company specializing in research concerning the college student market,
Facebook was named the second most popular thing among undergraduates,
tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.[129]
On March 2010, Judge Richard Seeborg issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v. Facebook, Inc., the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook's Beacon program.
In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie "Best Overall Startup Or Product" for the third year in a row[130] and was recognized as one of the "Hottest Silicon Valley Companies" by Lead411.[131] However, in a July 2010 survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index,
Facebook received a score of 64 out of 100, placing it in the bottom 5%
of all private-sector companies in terms of customer satisfaction,
alongside industries such as the IRS e-file system, airlines, and cable companies.
The reasons why Facebook scored so poorly include privacy problems,
frequent changes to the website's interface, the results returned by the
News Feed, and spam.[132]
In December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world's first legal judgement that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding.[133] In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David
Gendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the
company Axe Market Garden via Facebook.[134][135] Employers (such as Virgin Atlantic Airways)
have also used Facebook as a means to keep tabs on their employees and
have even been known to fire them over posts they have made.[136]
By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that
the generic verb "facebooking" had come into use to describe the process
of browsing others' profiles or updating one's own.[137] In 2008, Collins English Dictionary declared "Facebook" as its new Word of the Year.[138] In December 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared its word of the year to be the verb "unfriend", defined as "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, 'I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.'"[139]
In early 2010, Openbook was established, an avowed parody (and privacy advocacy) website[140] that enables text-based searches of those Wall posts that are available to "Everyone", i.e. to everyone on the Internet.
Writers for The Wall Street Journal found in 2010 that Facebook apps were transmitting identifying
information to "dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies".
The apps used an HTTP referrer which exposed the user's identity and sometimes their friends'.
Facebook said, "We have taken immediate action to disable all
applications that violate our terms".[141]
In May 2012, the countries with the most Facebook users were:[142]
Facebook has met with controversies. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including the People's Republic of China,[144] Iran,[145] Uzbekistan,[146] Pakistan,[147] Syria,[148] and Bangladesh on different bases. For example, it was banned in many
countries of the world on the basis of allowed content judged as
anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination. It has also been
banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during work
hours.[149] The privacy of Facebook users has also been an issue, and the safety of user accounts has been
compromised several times. Facebook has settled a lawsuit regarding
claims over source code and intellectual property.[150] In May 2011 emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making
critical allegations about Google's privacy policies; however it was
later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant
Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as
"a new level skullduggery" and which Daily Beast called a "clumsy smear".[151]
In July 2011, German authorities began to discuss the prohibition of
events organized on Facebook. The decision is based on several cases of
overcrowding by people not originally invited.[152][153] In one instance, 1,600 "guests" attended the 16th birthday party for a
Hamburg girl who accidentally posted the invitation for the event as
public. After reports of overcrowding, more than a hundred police were
deployed for crowd control. A policeman was injured and eleven
participants were arrested for assault, property damage and resistance
to authorities.[154] In another unexpectedly overcrowded event, 41 young people were arrested and at least 16 injured.[155]
In May 2011, HCL Technologies announced that approximately 50% of British employers had banned Facebook from the workplace.[156] Facebook has been blamed for lower worker productivity and has been
called a national obsession by anti-Facebook blogs such as Facebook
Detox.[157]
A 2011 study in the online journal First Monday, "Why Parents
Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences
of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," examines how parents
consistently enable children as young as 10 years old to sign up for
accounts, directly violating Facebook's policy banning young visitors.
This policy technically allows Facebook to avoid conflicts with the 1998
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), requiring that minors
aged 13 or younger gain explicit parental consent to access commercial
websites. Of the more than 1,000 households surveyed for the study, more
than three-quarters (76%) of parents reported that their child joined
Facebook when she was younger than 13, the minimum age in the site's
terms of service. The study notes that, in response to widespread
reports of underage users, a Facebook executive has said that "Facebook
removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." The study's
authors also note, "Indeed, Facebook takes various measures both to
restrict access to children and delete their accounts if they join." The
findings of the study raise questions primarily about the shortcomings
of federal law, but also implicitly continue to raise questions about
whether or not Facebook does enough to publicize its terms of service
with respect to minors. Only 53% of parents said they were aware that
Facebook has a minimum signup age; 35% of these parents believe that the
minimum age is a site recommendation (not a condition of site use), or
thought the signup age was 16 or 18, and not 13.[158]
In November 2011, several Facebook users reported that their accounts
were hacked and their profile pictures were replaced with pornographic
images. For more than a week, users' news feeds were spammed with
pornographic, violent and sexual contents. It has been reported that
more than 200,000 accounts in Bangalore, India were hacked. Facebook has denied the claims, citing that "safety of the users was on the top of their priority list".[159][160]
There has been much user discontent over Facebook's mandatory changeover to the new Timeline profile. Some Facebook users reported discontent with having many
Facebook status updates and photos from the past easily visible.[161][162]
According to a leading counter terrorism expert, terrorists are using
Facebook for hiring loners from western nations like Australia.[163]
Impact
Media impact
In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and
creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook.[164] The company began its push by inviting a select group of British
advertising leaders to meet Facebook's top executives at an
"influencers' summit" in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved
in campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear.[165] News and media outlets such as the Washington Post,[166] Financial Times[167] and ABC News[168] have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles.
Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in
various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook
allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and
other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is
access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests
and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to
reunite lost family members and friends because of the widespread reach
of its network. One such reUNION was between John Watson and the
daughter he had been seeking for 20 years. They met after Watson found
her Facebook profile.[169] Another father-daughter reUNION was between Tony Macnauton and Frances
Simpson, who had not seen each other for nearly 48 years.[170]
Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because
they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives,
while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies
because people are not directly communicating with each other. Some
studies have named Facebook as a source of problems in relationships.
Several news stories have suggested that using Facebook can lead to
higher instances of divorce and infidelity, but the claims have been questioned by other commentators.[171][172]
Facebook's role in the American political process was demonstrated in January 2008, shortly before the New Hampshire primary, when Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the "back to back" January 5 Republican and Democratic debates.[173][174][175]Charles Gibson moderated both debates, held at the Dana Center for the Humanities at
Saint Anselm College. Facebook users took part in debate groups
organized around specific topics, register to vote, and message
questions.[176]
ABCNews.com reported in 2012 that the Facebook fanbases of political
candidates have relevance for the election campaign, including:
Allows politicians and campaign organizers to understand the interests and demographics of their Facebook fanbases, as with Wisdom for Facebook, to better target their voters.
Provides a means for voters to keep up-to-date on candidates'
activities, such as connecting to the candidates' Facebook Fan Pages.
Unless you get out of Facebook and into someone’s face, you really have not acted.
Over a million people installed the Facebook application "US Politics
on Facebook" in order to take part, and the application measured users'
responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates.[178] This debate showed the broader community what many young students had
already experienced: Facebook as a popular and powerful new way to
interact and voice opinions. An article by Michelle Sullivan of
Uwire.com illustrates how the "Facebook effect" has affected youth
voting rates, support by youth of political candidates, and general
involvement by the youth population in the 2008 election.[179]
In February 2008, a Facebook group called "One Million Voices Against
FARC" organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians
marched in protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC (from the group's Spanish name).[180] In August 2010, one of North Korea's official government websites and the official news agency of the country, Uriminzokkiri, joined Facebook.[181]
In 2011 there was a controversial ruling by French government to
uphold a 1992 decree which stipulates that commercial enterprises should
not be promoted on news programs. President Nicolas Sarkozy's
colleagues have agreed that it will enforce a law so that the word
"Facebook" will not be allowed to be spoken on the television or on the
radio.[182]
In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political action committee under the name FB PAC.[183] In an email to The Hill,
a spokesman for Facebook said "FB PAC will give our employees a way to
make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates
who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy
while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and
connected."[184]
In popular culture
At age 102, Ivy Bean of Bradford,
England joined Facebook in 2008, making her one of the oldest people
ever on Facebook. An inspiration to other residents of the care home in
which she lived,[185] she quickly became more widely known and several fan pages were made in her honor. She visited the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, in Downing Street early in 2010.[186] Some time after creating her Facebook page, Bean joined Twitter, when
she passed the maximum number of friends allowed by Facebook. She became
the oldest person to ever use the Twitter website. At the time of her
death in July 2010, she had 4,962 friends on Facebook and more than
56,000 followers on Twitter. Her death was widely reported in the media
and she received tributes from several notable media personalities.[187]
On May 16, 2011, an Israeli couple named their daughter after the
Facebook "like" feature. They explained that it wasn't to advertise for
Facebook, but because they fancied the meaning behind the word.[193][194]
^An "active user" is defined by Facebook as a user who has visited the website in the last 30 days.
^"Monthly
growth" is the average percentage growth rate at which the total number
of active users grows each month over the specified period.
^This
value is from an investment document. The date is from when the
document was revealed to the public, not the actual date that the
website reached this many users.
^Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; et al. (December 11, 2009). "THE 100 Greatest Movies, TV Shows, Albums, Books,
Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music Videos, and Trends
that entertained us over the 10 Years". Entertainment Weekly (New York) ((1079/1080):74–84).
^Hoffman, Claire (June 28, 2008). "The Battle for Facebook". Rolling Stone (New York). Archived from the original on July 3, 2008. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
^Brown, Steven E.F. (June 17, 2009). "Facebook grows as MySpace cuts back". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"The Conference Board report on first quarter online users in the U.S.
showed Facebook with an even larger lead, with 78 percent of social
network participants, followed by MySpace (42 percent), LinkedIn (17 percent) and Twitter (10 percent)."
^Hasselback, Drew (June 17, 2009). "Comscore says Facebook has surpassed MySpace for U.S. users". National Post (Toronto). Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"Comscore says Facebook surpassed MySpace among U.S. users in May,
while Nielsen figures that actually happened back in January."[dead link]
^Wood, Cara (August 31, 2009). "Keeping pace with mainstream social media". Direct Marketing News (New York). Retrieved September 24, 2009.
"The giant in the space remains Facebook, which gets 87.7 million
unique viewers per month, according to ComScore. MySpace, with nearly
70 million unique monthly visitors, has seen growth stagnate over the
past year."
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Facebook" article dated August 15, 2009, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
In a philosophical context it may refer to: (1) the whole of the physical Universe, or (2) an ontological world (see world disclosure). In a theological context, world usually refers to the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred. The "end of the world" refers to scenarios of the final end of human history, often in religious contexts.
World history is commonly understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia, from the first civilizations to the present.
In terms such as world religion, world language, and world war, world suggests international or intercontinental scope without necessarily implying participation of the entire world.
In terms such as world map and world climate, world is used in the sense detached from human culture or civilization, referring to the planet Earth physically.
The corresponding word in Latin is mundus, literally "clean, elegant", itself a loan translation of Greek cosmos "orderly arrangement." While the Germanic word thus reflects a mythological notion of a "domain of Man" (compare Midgard), presumably as opposed to the divine sphere on the one hand and the chthonic sphere of the underworld on the other, the Greco-Latin term expresses a notion of creation as an act of establishing order out of chaos.
'World' can also be used attributively, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as world community or world canonical texts.[5]
By extension, a 'world' may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited, especially in the context of science fiction or futurology.
'World', in original sense, when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of humanexperience.
The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of career, in all its social aspects, to distinguish it from home life and academic study.
In philosophy, the term world has several possible meanings. In some contexts, it refers to everything that makes up reality or the physical universe. In others, it can mean have a specific ontological sense (see world disclosure). While clarifying the concept of world has arguably always been among the basic tasks of Western philosophy, this theme appears to have been raised explicitly only at the start of the twentieth century[6] and has been the subject of continuous debate. The question of what the world is has by no means been settled.
Parmenides
The traditional interpretation of Parmenides'
work is that he argued that the every-day perception of reality of the
physical world (as described in doxa) is mistaken, and that the reality
of the world is 'One Being' (as described in aletheia): an unchanging,
ungenerated, indestructible whole.
Plato
In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato distingues between forms and ideas and imagines two distinct worlds : the sensible world and the intelligible world.
Hegel
In Hegel's philosophy of history, the expression Weltgeschichte ist Weltgericht (World History is a tribunal that judges the World) is used to assert
the view that History is what judges men, their actions and their
opinions. Science is born from the desire to transform the World in
relation to Man; its final end is technical application.
Schopenhauer
The World as Will and Representation is the central work of Arthur Schopenhauer.
Schopenhauer saw the human will as our one window to the world behind
the representation; the Kantian thing-in-itself. He believed, therefore,
that we could gain knowledge about the thing-in-itself, something Kant
said was impossible, since the rest of the relationship between
representation and thing-in-itself could be understood by analogy to the
relationship between human will and human body.
Wittgenstein
Two definitions that were both put forward in the 1920s, however,
suggest the range of available opinion. "The world is everything that is
the case," wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein in his influential Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, first published in 1922. This definition would serve as the basis of logical positivism,
with its assumption that there is exactly one world, consisting of the
totality of facts, regardless of the interpretations that individual
people may make of them.
Heidegger
Martin Heidegger,
meanwhile, argued that "the surrounding world is different for each of
us, and notwithstanding that we move about in a common world".[7] The world, for Heidegger, was that into which we are always already
"thrown" and with which we, as beings-in-the-world, must come to terms.
His conception of "world disclosure" was most notably elaborated in his 1927 work Being and Time.
Freud
In response, Freud proposed that we do not move about in a common
world, but a common thought process. He believed that all the actions of
a person are motivated by one thing: lust. This led to numerous
theories about reactionary consciousness.
Other
Some philosophers, often inspired by David Lewis, argue that metaphysical concepts such as possibility, probability and necessity are best analyzed by comparing the world to a range of possible worlds; a view commonly known as modal realism.
Religion and mythology
It has been suggested that World (theology) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2010.
^Jean
Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrandt. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols.
Editions Robert Lafont S. A. et Editions Jupiter: Paris, 1982. Penguin
Books: London, 1996. pp.142-145
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