This year saw the official demise of former social giants MySpace and Friendster, and while Google got in the game with Google+, Facebook still reigned supreme, topping 800 million users.
That popularity was not without controversy, however. The social network was reprimanded by U.S. and European regulators on privacy-related issues and faced some backlash over its efforts to share more and more about its users' activities on sites and services beyond the confines of Facebook.com.
There were also the cultural tidbits, from Facebook being a breeding ground for narcissists to the theory that there are only four degrees of Facebook separation rather than six.
Facebook lawyers also kept busy—fending off what might be the final legal challenge from the Winklevoss twins, as well as a suit from a man who claimed to own 84 percent of the social network.
Let's take a look back at just some of the Facebook-related stories that made headlines this year.
What's New?
In the past few years, Facebook has made a number of changes to profiles and the news feed, and 2011 was no exception. Perhaps in response to the burgeoning Google+ and its Circles feature, Facebook provided more control over who can see what on a person's profile, but the biggest change this year was the addition of Facebook Timeline and expanded social sharing.
Facebook Timeline was announced in September, but only went live for everyone earlier this month. It completely revamps the usual Facebook profile, presenting your information as a digital "This is Your Life." You can drill down and quickly access every photo, status update, "like," or link shared in a given year or month. At this point, Timeline is still opt-in and you have seven days to peruse (and censor) a lifetime of Facebook posts before it gets published for your friends' viewing pleasure. (For more, see PCMag's Hands On With Facebook Timeline.)
Facebook sharing went beyond photos and status updates this year, however. The social network teamed up with a number of music, movie, and content services—like Spotify, Netflix, Pandora, and Yahoo News—to introduce Facebook-integrated apps that share your viewing, reading, and listening activity. Did you listen to Britney Spears on Spotify or watch an episode of "Parks and Recreation" on Hulu? With the Facebook apps enabled, that information will be shared with your friends.
The downside, of course, is that you might not want to share everything you've watched on Hulu or listened to on Spotify; Justin Bieber's Christmas album, anyone? Amidst backlash, Spotify provided the opportunity to de-link an account from Facebook and those with the Yahoo app can opt to read stories without sharing them to the social network, for example. If a friend shares a story via the Yahoo News app, however, you have to have the app installed in order to read it. That prompted CNET's Molly Wood to say in a column that Facebook had ruined sharing. But in an interview with Charlie Rose, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said this type of sharing is the future of Facebook.
Also making its debut this year was: video calls with Skype; an anti-bullying "social reporting" tool; Facebook Messenger; the Twitter-esque "Subscribe" option; an official iPad app (see slideshow above); and the promise of ads in the news feed by next year. We also saw the demise of Facebook's deals service and the standalone, location-based Places feature.
Continue Reading: With Success Comes Controversy>
With Success Comes Controversy
Privacy-related issues have long plagued Facebook and this year resulted in at least two slaps on the wrist from government agencies.
In late November, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with Facebook that requires the social network to be more transparent about its privacy policies. According to the FTC, Facebook "deceived customers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public."
Under the deal, Facebook will have to get consent from users before making changes that override existing privacy preferences, and every two years for the next 20 years Facebook will have to undergo independent privacy audits.
Just last week, meanwhile, Irish regulators announced that Facebook had agreed to be more transparent about its facial-recognition feature and how its European users' data is used.
Back in September, meanwhile, Facebook also issued a fix for Web cookies that continued to track browser activity after a user had logged out of the social-networking site. The move came after blogger and hacker Nik Cubrilovic published research that said: "Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit." Facebook insisted that its users' personal information was not compromised in any way.
In November, Facebook was flooded with pornographic and violent images, and the site later confirmed that it had been hit with "a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerability." The company said its efforts "drastically limited the damage caused by this attack," and that it had "identified those responsible."
That came several months after spam enthusiast Sanford Wallace turned himself in to the FBI after being indicted on charges of spamming Facebook users with millions of bogus messages.
You Own What?
The Facebook ownership case continued to make headlines this year, but it appears that Facebook has little to worry about. Paul Ceglia, who claims that an early contract with Zuckerberg gives him the right to 84 percent of Facebook, cycled through a handful of legal teams this year and Facebook lawyers recently said that the ink on the "contract" suggests it was only created in the last few years.
The duo who had a stronger argument regarding Facebook ownership, meanwhile—the Winklevoss twins—tried their hardest to keep the fight alive, but several courts struck down the twins' cases.
One stunt that did not land Facebook in court, however, was its Google smear campaign. In May, The Daily Beast and USA Today revealed that Facebook hired a PR firm to go after Google. PR firm Burson-Marsteller contacted a variety of news outlets pushing a story about how Google's "Social Circle" Gmail feature violates users' privacy. The pitch was made on behalf of an unnamed client that The Daily Beast later confirmed was Facebook. Both Facebook and Google declined to comment.
Smear campaigns and privacy snafus aside, however, Facebook shows no signs of slowing down, and early investors could become Facebook millionaires next year as the company heads toward an IPO.
What were your favorite Facebook stories from this year? Let us know in the comments. Also check out PCMag's Year in Review for Google and Apple.