The Facebook Effect, Essay Example

What are thecompany’s goals? How has this been communicated over time?

Facebook is a cordial networking site which was originated over ten years ago by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook had been initially designed to be a social network website for the student body which was in attendance at Harvard University. The success which had been experienced by Facebook at Harvard University caused Facebook to expand its scope to additional institutions of higher education. Facebook became available to the secondary schools in 2005 and one year later, Facebook had been made available to everyone (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Miller, 2011).

How has the Facebook website improved in appearance and functionality?

Facebook instated the Facebook Platform in 2007. This platform enabled the website developers to manufacture applications which could be applied to the networking site. Instead of being labels or widgets which were applied to decorate the Facebook page, the new applications allowed Facebookusers to interact by engaging in gift giving or interactingthrough the playing of games.  Facebook connect was started in 2008 which enabled Facebook to vie for users with Open Connect and Google Friends connect. Facebook started from its origins as a campus based network to becoming one of the most frequently used social networks (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Miller, 2011).

Facebook has been able to thrive due to its characteristics of appealing to businesses and individual consumers. The capacity of Facebook Connect to extend over the web and to be applied by means of a solitary login has caused Facebook to become very appealing to various user markets.The consumer image which has been sent by Facebook is that of a personal social newspaper. The conveyance of the consumer image of the personal social newspaper continues to the present day (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Miller, 2011).

Facebook Features

Are the rhetorical, textual and visual considerations kept in mind by the Facebook website? Does the site make good use of the visual and textual elements?

Facebook provides the registered consumersthe manner by which they may connect with individuals and organizations that they wish to communicate with. This can be conducted in a private or a public manner. The Facebook consumers have the option of interacting in games, demonstrating encouragement for celebrities and social endeavors, tagging and posting photographs, designing their pages and watching videos. The Facebook features possess privacy setting, however, they are complicated and difficult to establish. Facebook provides its registered consumers  with a manner of maintainingcontinuous contact with acquaintances, family members and friends.

Message and Comments

The Facebook consumers can apply a symbol which represents thumbs up in order to provide encouragement to the comments of others or pages. The content which is submitted by users has the possibility of expressing encouraging comments to disturbing replies. Facebook has been able to remain a benign form of expression. Nonetheless there are abusive users who express themselves through Facebook.

Sexual and Violent Content                                                                   

The Facebook consumers may publish photographs and messages which compose substantialsexual and violent expressions. There is a porn star application, however, nudity is prohibited. The majority of photos which contain sexual content include women who are photographed in lingerie or bikinis.

Language

Is relevant information readily accessible to readers? Is there extraneous or irrelevant information?How reliable is the information?

The language that is used on Facebook is unrestricted. The Facebook users are free to use any type of speech that they wish on the website.The text which is usedin theFacebookwebsite is easy to read. The instructions which are given for theprofiles, news, messages, events and friends are pretty easy to read. The color of the Facebookwebsite is maintained in blue and white. The colors of the website allow the visual considerations to be pretty straightforward. Pictures and comments can be posted in a box which is designated for consumer pictures and comments. There are currently no accommodations for visually challenged users (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Miller, 2011).

The information which can be found on Facebook is detailed by their formal slogan “Fix more, whine less”(Wu, 2011). The Facebook engineers attempt to maintain reliability on the site by applying the services of numerous infrastructure engineers and implementations which detect the errors and generate alarms in the engineering department at Facebook. These alarms are categorized with a severity level. Chat errors are continuously monitored by the Facebook engineering department. The engineering supervision at the Facebook website causes the website to be user friendly and very accessible (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Miller, 2011).

Part Two                

How could a new design or graphics improve/enhance this image? Is there anything you would add or eliminate?

TheFacebook website should be modified with the following implementations. It would be good to be able to seethose who leave positive comments in alphabetical order. This would be an assertive implementation. It would also be effective to have a chat option which can be reviewed in a manner similar to Skype. The survey polls which are conducted could be constructed within the Facebook page. The capacity of applying a search function for proprietary home feeds and walls by applying keywords on subjects of interests in addition to subjects which were enjoyed would be a welcome implementation. There should also be an option to post a comment to one´s self on their home page. This would be shown as an individual administrator on the Facebook website comments.

Does it accommodate people with disabilities and multicultural visitors? Overall, how usable is the website?

The Facebook website is currently available in a variety of languages. There are presently accommodations which are made through the Facebook website by the application of Braille Touch. Other additions to the Facebook page which would be convenient would be the capacity of sending invites for personal events simultaneously without receiving an admonishment for spamming. It would also be nice to be able to choose friends within a particular geographic area and apply an operation which would add list or formulate a new list. Filters which would be able to obscure texts which demonstrate that a person became a fan of another or a person became a friend of another. The capacity of uploading musical or audial files which would play on a page would be an interesting improvement. The ability of sending friendship requests to members of groups which are administrated would be a niceFacebookoption. The potential of being able to send friendship requests to members of groups which are managed and the fans pages which are administrated would be an interesting implementation.

Currently, it is not possible to communicate messages to more than twenty friends simultaneously on the Facebook website. This would be another improvement which would be worthwhile. The ability of receiving a customized feed when entering the home page,prior to viewing the changes in which the home page reveals the top news would be a welcomed improvement. This option should be facilitated with the capacity of being able to migrate to the most recent; the feeds of chosen friends could be demonstrated when opening Facebook. In addition the friends could be aggregated to distinct lists while reviewing their profile pages.The group feed option could also be modified in order to supervise the members of the groups and the groups of which the consumer is a member.

Conclusion

The Facebook page is a fairly well designed page with many implementations which are not found on other social networking websites. The recommendations which have been made could make the Facebook user page episode a more stimulating experience. Nevertheless, the Facebook website page is well organized, the texts are well delineated and the options are fairly straight forward. Presently, the option which should be improved is the security settings. These are currently the improvements which I would recommend to be made in the Facebook website.

References

Kirkpatrick, D. (2011). The Facebook effect. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

Miller, M. (2011). Facebook companion. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wu, Q. (2011). Keeping the site reliable while moving fast. Facebook Engineering.