What will the future of Facebook look like in a few years? I still remember when it was brand-spanking new. I was in the middle of college when someone told me about this website called “Facebook”. I was confused as to what the point of it was exactly. After all, I spoke to all of my friends via regular mail as well as by telephone and/or AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). What did I need this web site for? A few years later and now Facebook is one of the hottest social networking sites for everyone- including my parents! Who would have thought?

When Facebook first started out, it was strictly limited to those who were in college. In order to verify that you were actually a college student, you had to have a college email address (which typically ended in '.edu'). Back then, it would list the colleges on the site, and you could select yours from the menu; however, it didn't even have all of the colleges listed! It was that small! Today, this website has opened up to include people from all walks of life. And while Facebook is still, in large part, used by people who are in college- you don't need to be working on a college degree in order to be a member. In fact, increased numbers of people are now using Facebook to network for other reasons such as business.

When you initially register for Facebook, you have a choice as to what network (if any) you would like to be linked to. For instance, if you live in New York City and attend New York University (NYU), you have the option of listing your network with NYU or with New York City or with any other town/area that you would like. One thing that it has kept the same is the fact that in order to list yourself in a college network, you have to have a college email address. All of this aside, for a while there, many people weren't sure of the direction that this popular website was heading in. After all, there was the huge Myspace craze that people were falling over each other to join. The neat thing about My-space was the fact that it was so pliable. There weren't any real age restrictions (or at least no real age verifications in place) and you could essentially design your own web page to represent yourself on this social site. People were able to find old classmates, friends, family members, music bands and more.

Since Face book has come along, it presents a more “grown up” interface with a much more stringent set of restrictions and guidelines for how one's page will look. You may not be able to customize your Facebook homepage the same way that you would have had you worked on your My space page. However, this seems to be a small price to pay (if any) for devoted Face book users. There are some who have speculated that it has “sold out” by allowing non-college persons to join. However, only time will tell whether or not this has a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of the site to actually connect friends, family, colleagues and business partners.