Right from the beginning when the concept of Facebook came to Mark Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook), it had many interesting things that most people are not aware of. And surprisingly they keep on rolling new features from time to time. Here we have a mix of facts, some useful features, hacks, and tips to get to know and utilize your time on Facebook in a better way. So let’s begin with the history and how it was found.
How Facebook Started: Facemash
It all started with Facemash the predecessor of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg invented and launched Facemash on October 28, 2003. When he launched Facemash, he was in his second year of graduation at Harvard University. It was created to make out whether a person is hot or not.
1 How Facebook Started: Facemash2 In Between Facemash & Facebook: TheFacebook3 Interesting Facts About Facebook3.1 1. The Blue Color Of Facebook3.2 2. Do You Know Facebook Tracks Your Moves?3.3 3. Facebook Pays $500 As Reward If You Can Find A Bug3.4 4. Some Other Unkown Facts About Facebook3.5 Sources4 Interesting And Hidden Features Of Facebook4.1 1. Ways To Access Facebook Website4.2 2. One-Time Password4.3 3. Managing Notifications4.4 4. Making Some Of The Announcements Or Posts Private4.5 5. Some Additional Features5 Tips And Tricks That Can Be Handy5.1 1. See Every Post From Friends And Make Your News Feed Better5.2 2. Block Annoying Facebook Users5.3 3. Convert Your Profile Into A Page6 Ideas For Learning And Increasing Productivity On Facebook6.1 Hack 1: Turn Facebook Into An RSS Feed And Make It A Place Of Learning6.2 Hack 2: Turn Facebook Into A Skill Development Platform6.3 For The Geeks7 Wrapping Up
The website had the feature to upload pictures of two students, which visitors could compare and rate. Mark Zuckerberg faced charges of breach of security and violating privacy for stealing students’ pictures and using them on Facemash. Unfortunately, the site was shut down by the Harvard administration.
In Between Facemash & Facebook: TheFacebook
After Facemash, Mark Zuckerberg started writing code to build a new website. On February 4, 2004, he launched ‘Thefacebook’. He called the website ‘Thefacebook’ and was accessed by ‘www.Thefacebook.com’ URL. And as we all know it is now just Facebook. In 2005, the company removed ‘The’ from its name after buying the domain ‘facebook.com’ for $200,000.
Interesting Facts About Facebook
Now, let’s talk about some interesting facts that you may or may not know about this trending social media platform.
1. The Blue Color Of Facebook
Has anyone noted that right from the beginning when Facebook started, it has the same blue color? This is one of the most interesting facts about Facebook. Here’s why Facebook is blue in color.
2. Do You Know Facebook Tracks Your Moves?
Facebook keeps track of all the moves you do on the web. If you’re not using the Facebook website and reading some articles or other stuff on some other websites, even then Facebook is tracking you. All the websites that are connected to Facebook, via the share button, like button, etc. send your information without letting you know about it.
3. Facebook Pays $500 As Reward If You Can Find A Bug
Yes, that’s true. Facebook has a Bug Bounty Program under which if a person reports a bug found within the software and system then they will be rewarded. People say that Facebook pays $500 as the maximum reward, but actually, it is the minimum reward of the Bug Bounty Program. They have already paid $5000 to a person for only one really good report. And only one bounty per bug will be awarded by Facebook. Know more about the eligibility of the Facebook Bug Bounty Program & rewards.
4. Some Other Unkown Facts About Facebook
The total number of monthly active users – 2.32 billionNumber of monthly active users on mobile – 1.624 billionTotal of daily active users – 1.52 billionNumber of attempts to hack Facebook accounts daily – 6000,000Facebook earning per day – $23.3 millionTotal number of employees – 35,587 employeesMale vs Female users – 53% vs 47%The map in the Notification icon (globe) changes with the locationThe United States, India, and Brazil are the top 3 countries in terms of the number of users on Facebook respectivelySheryl Sandberg(CEO) of Facebook was the Best paid employee with $30.87 million in 2011The average age of a Facebook employee is 26 years
Sources
Facebook WikipediaStatista
All these data are as per the research in the year 2018. Facebook has improved a lot in terms of security and features to be provided to the users for a stress-free social experience. That said, let’s check out some of its cool, useful, and unknown features.
Interesting And Hidden Features Of Facebook
1. Ways To Access Facebook Website
People use Facebook day in day out, but many of them don’t know the other ways to access Facebook apart from “www.Facebook .com. Yes, you can access Facebook through “www.thefacebook.com“. Another way to access Facebook and the easiest one from the above two is “www.fb.com“. Yes, you can access Facebook simply by hitting fb.com.
2. One-Time Password
Accessing Facebook from a public machine? Not feeling comfortable in typing your password with doubts of it getting leaked? No issues! Facebook is providing you with an ‘OTP’ which you can use for one time login. All you need to do is request an ‘OTP’ sending a text to Facebook from your mobile. If you are in the US, you need to send a text message as ‘OTP’ to 32665. But if you are not in the US then just check out this list in the link given below. Facebook OTP Now if your mobile number is registered with Facebook, you will be provided with an 8 characters unique OTP, and if not then you’ll be getting an email with instructions on how to add your number & get the OTP. And in case you logged in to your Facebook account from any other device or PC and want to log out remotely without the device, then that can also be done.
3. Managing Notifications
Isn’t it’s annoying sometimes to get back to back notifications – 4 other’s commented on this post and that post? Want to get rid of this? You can change the notification settings for various events like Birthdays, Friends Posts, and more.
4. Making Some Of The Announcements Or Posts Private
Social networking adds up an extra amount of joy nowadays to your happiness when you announce publicly – ‘In a Relationship’, ‘married’, ‘engaged’ – you get a lot of blessings, wishes and it boosts up your excitement .. right? But what if the relationship ends and now it’s high time to mark its end on Facebook as well? Haha! do you want it to be public? No, I guess! Not to worry as you can change the relationship status secretly and even hide or share posts with selected friends.
5. Some Additional Features
Adding 4 At The End Of Facebook URL Will Direct You To Mark Zuckerberg ’s Wall
If you want to access the owner of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg’s wall, you don’t have to Google it or search from Facebook itself. You just have to add a number ‘4’ at the end of the Facebook URL (www.facebook.com/4) and it will direct to Mark Zuckerberg’s profile. If you notice the URL (www.facebook.com/4) will automatically get changed to the URL (www.facebook.com/zuck) the short name he has given to his profile. We are also not sure why he is using the number ‘4’ as his name code. To access the profile of Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, the co-founder of Facebook, you just have to add 5 and 6 respectively to the Facebook URL.
Security Enhanced
Facebook added a ‘security checkup’ tool through which you can check out your last login from an unknown device or browser and alerts every time when your account is accessed through any unfamiliar device or browser just like Gmail.
Tips And Tricks That Can Be Handy
1. See Every Post From Friends And Make Your News Feed Better
Never miss an update from your friends and clean up your Facebook news feed. Go to your Profile page on Facebook and click on Friends. Any friend who is not marked as a ‘Close Friend’ will not have a star next to their name. Click on the drop-down list next to a user and add them to one of the groups. Repeat for as many friends as you need. You can do the same for acquaintances. Now you will see ‘Close Friends’ and ‘Acquaintances’ on the left side of your Facebook homepage. Click on one of these to see every post that they share on Facebook. Comment on and like the updates that are relevant to you and very soon your Facebook news feed will improve to show you the updates you want to see.
2. Block Annoying Facebook Users
If you find someone on Facebook who is annoying or harassing you, you can block them. Go to their profile page and click or tap on the three dots to the right. Choose Block to no longer allow them to contact you. If they are harassing you, you should also report them. If enough people report this person, Facebook will eventually block them from accessing their platform by sending them to the so-called Facebook Jail.
3. Convert Your Profile Into A Page
You can easily download all the account information for your Facebook account and then convert it into a Facebook page without any additional effort.
Ideas For Learning And Increasing Productivity On Facebook
Facebook has recently turned 15 years old and it’s got a bad rap for being a highly unproductive environment. Check this article from CNBC, the title reads ‘Facebook turns 12 – Trillions in time wasted.’ Ouch. The article does have truth to it, but is it the reality? To be honest, it depends, and if you wish to make it productive then we can show you how to fix this. For instance, using these hacks will not only increase your productivity and help you in increasing your knowledge.
Hack 1: Turn Facebook Into An RSS Feed And Make It A Place Of Learning
After a while, we all get tired of liking our friends’ pictures and their baby photos. We log in multiple times during the day and scroll through the same feed. I have a friend who uses a cool hack to make Facebook a place of learning.
- Every time you add somebody on Facebook, quickly unfollow them without unfriending. You will still remain friends, but you won’t get their constant updates. On their profile page, you’ll see an option called “Follow”, when you mouse over that, you the following options like in the image below. Just click un-follow.
- Now go and like all the useful pages, publications, anything that piques your interest. How does your feed look now? It’s filled with publications that you like and maybe want to read about.
Hack 2: Turn Facebook Into A Skill Development Platform
Facebook has a lot of potential when it comes to learning. Sometimes it’s better than a niche website like Stackoverflow.com. People are on Facebook all the time and this means they can reply faster to your problems/queries etc. Take this as an example. Try to avoid generic groups and join more focused ones. If you are able to be engaging and help people out, people will help you back. We’ve created a list of groups for different niches that help you with skill development. Engineering and Exam Preparations Groups
Python ProgrammingC++ ProgrammingDjango ProgrammingGate Engineering Group
Note that this list will be kept updated based on the useful Facebook Groups we stumble upon.
For The Geeks
A lot of you are budding developers and would like to use your own tools and customize them based on your needs. We found a collection of Github repositories that have auto-responders when people wish you on your birthday. This requires some development knowledge. Here are the repositories.
- Repo By Sudip2. Repo By Spacharya3. Repo By Rishi That was our list of Hacks for improving your Facebook feed and hence, in turn, making you more productive while using Facebook. The tool of the DayWe have another interesting tool called Socialfixer. This tool helps you with the following.
Filter Your News FeedHide Posts You’ve Already ReadShow Full Pictures By HoveringStay On The Most Recent FeedHide Parts Of The PageThemesAnonymize For ScreenshotsAnimated GIFsIncrease The Font SizeAutomatically Retrieve More StoriesShow Time StampsReply And Quote CommentsEnhanced ChatFix TimelineCustomize Hash TagsQuick Navigation LinkCustom CSS
Wrapping Up
So these were some of the hidden facts, features, and tricks that you can use to improve your knowledge while using Facebook. How many of them do you already know? Have something to add? Share with us in the comments below. And if you are using the other apps from the Facebook family, check out our other posts: WhatsApp tips and tricks, Instagram tips and tricks. Happy chatting!
