How Facebook Has Evolved Over the Years

Facebook was created on February 4, 2004 and this month the behemoth social network is celebrating its 11th birthday. First debuting on the Harvard campus as “The Facebook,” the social networking powerhouse has become a tech giant.

This is how Facebook has changed over the last decade:

2004

The Facebook debuted on Feb. 4, 2004 at Zuckerberg’s alma mater, Harvard University. One month later, it also went live at Stanford, Columbia, and Yale, and continued to grow to support more than 800 college networks.

2005

This is what a typical profile looked like in 2005. Very reminiscent of Myspace, no? This is also the year that “The Facebook” opened up to high school students.

2006

On Sept 20, 2005 thefacebook.com officially dropped the “the” and became Facebook. This is the year Facebook opened to all students over 13 with a valid email address and when they allowed multiple photos on your profile page, allowing images to take a far more central place in the Facebook universe. This is also the year yours truly joined Facebook the summer before my senior in high school.

2007

This is the year the “mini-feed” was introduced, later known as the timeline. Several weeks after the Mini-Feed went live, Facebook moved beyond schools and opened to anyone with an email address. This year, video was introduced to Facebook as well as a Facebook app for iPhone. This is also the year yours truly joined Facebook as a senior in high school.

2008

This year, a new Facebook “wall” was introduced as well as a cleaner-looking profile with a menu bar up top.

2009

In March 2009, the Publisher tool from user profiles was added to the main homepage to let you post links, photos, videos, or write a note without an extra click. The Facebook homepage also updated in real-time, modeled after Twitter.

2010

Laying low for most of 2010 due to protests from all the changes in 2008 and 2009, Facebook introduced a new profile design in December of 2010, including photos and an “about” section displayed at the top of your profile.

2011

2011 was the year the “Timeline” was introduced. Designed to “tell the story of your life,” the Timeline featured a large cover photo and a Pinterest-like assortment of posts that scrolled back through your Facebook history.