facebook

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal
$25.00

The prototype that would become Facebook was launched at Harvard University in February 2004, running on a server in a dorm room. Now that Facebook has over 300 million users, it seems as if this vast social networking phenomenon might have invented itself in response to nature's abhorrence of a vacuum. Friendster and MySpace, launched in 2003, had already tested the potential of the market, but in 2008 Facebook gained the top spot and shows no sign of relinquishing it.

Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg was the creative force behind Facebook. His idea was a site where college students could link up, and after "going viral" at Harvard, it was launched in other university networks. In September 2006 Facebook gave open access to the the general public.

There's a good story here, I'm sure, even though author Ben Mezrich has chosen to focus on the sensational elements. The book lists a number of sources of information, including articles from the Harvard Crimson; and the acknowledgements include "inside sources" who have "asked to remain anonymous." Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook principals did not agree to be interviewed.

Here's what we know from "The Accidental Billionaires:"

> The founders were geeks whose driving force was the urge to meet girls and get laid
> The start-up period was marked by allegations of extreme treachery and large financial settlements--exaggerated, according to Facebook
> Palo Alto is a great party town
> Entrepreneur Sean Parker was an ace at raising money
> In 2007 Microsoft bought 1.6%- that's ONE point SIX percent -- of Facebook for $240 million, but that implied $15 billion value wasn't real money

"The Accidental Billionaires" was quite readable, if repetitive--they were geniuses! we're persuaded, so move on! Mezrich, a Harvard grad, found a winning formula in his 2007 book "Bringing Down The House;" that story about MIT students beating the casinos was the basis of the movie "21." Now he's done it again, and in 2010 "Billionaires" will hit the screens.

If you want a rollicking light read, I can recommend this book because it fits the niche nicely.

Linda Bulger, 2009

Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business
$24.99
I purchased this product hoping it would give me some strategies for marketing the small business I work for on Facebook. I was extremely disappointed with the lack of depth in the content. This book would be much more useful for people who have never used Facebook at all. I am a 22 year old Content Manager at a small direct marketing company and this book didn't tell me a single piece of information that I didn't already know. If you are considering buying this please realize that is covers only the most basic of Facebook marketing and for someone who has been using social marketing for years, it does not provide a single nugget of knowledge.

Facebook Me! A Guide to Having Fun with Your Friends and Promoting Your Projects on Facebook
$19.99
The book was received promptly and as advertised. The information is good, easy to access and understand. I returned a previous book because it wasn't user friendly and the info was incomplete. This book answers all the questions I have had. I keep it handy because I use it quite a lot. I recommend this book highly.

Building Facebook Applications For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
$29.99
I've been trying to learn about Facebook both from a user's perspective and that of a developer. Why? Because any service with 200 million users is something I will run into in my work - and it looks like fun.

I've read several books on Facebook application development and this is the best I've seen so far. (I still have several to go, so my opinion may change.)

Author Richard Wagner takes a matter of fact approach and begins with the essentials, something other books oddly fail to do. One immediate standout feature is Wagner's diagramming and explaining Facebook's application architecture. Several other books omit this entirely or give it short shrift. Wagner diagrams it plainly and clearly and it helps.

Wagner deliberately restricts the scope of his book, again in contrast to other authors who try to include something on every language usable with Facebook. I prefer Wagner's "small steps" first approach. It is much easier to deal with and offers more depth, I think.

He starts off with building a very simple Facebook application and then moves into specific discussions of the Facebook API, FBTML, FQL and FJS. Don't recognize these terms? Don't worry: Wagner explains them thoroughly in easily understandable language with plenty of examples and illustrations.

There's as lot more and all of it is good.

But there is a drawback: Facebook is in a constant state of development and things change, sometimes massively. That happened recently and has many people upset for a variety of reasons.

In any event, some of the thins in this book are obsolete. That doesn't detract from its overall usefulness, though.

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand the Facebook application development process.

Jerry