Facebook has announced two new features, one day apart. The first was the big announcement of the new Graph Search feature, which has the potential to turn Facebook into a social search engine. The next day, the addition of free calling on iPhone was announced. Ever since Facebook first launched on Feb. 4, 2004, it has made many advancements to its platform. Some of those technologies made the two new features possible.
Here are just a few of the major technological additions to Facebook over the years, that made free calling possible, and that created content which can be searched using Graph Search. Some of these are listed on Facebook’s Newsroom .
September 2004: The Wall was debuted. Facebook wouldn’t be what it is today without the Wall. That is what allowed users to post updates to friends’ profiles.
October 2005: Photos were introduced. Facebook would have been quite dull without this important addition. Wall posts and photos are two of the items that will be searchable in Graph Search.
May 24, 2007: The Facebook Platform was announced. This is what allowed programmers to create a slew of applications, expanding the reach and usability of Facebook. Many of the incredibly popular games played on Facebook were made possible because of the Platform.
April 6, 2008: Facebook Chat was launched. This was the precursor to Facebook’s video chat, and to their new free calling option for iPhone.
May 9, 2008: Facebook Connect was announced. This is the technology that allowed users to log in to other sites using their Facebook account, greatly expanding the Facebook empire across the Internet.
August 2009: Facebook acquired FriendFeed . At the time, Facebook users’ news feeds did not have real time updates, but FriendFeed’s did. Facebook’s news feeds now update in real time.
February 2010: Facebook acquired Octazen Solutions . Octazen created the nifty feature that allows users to log in to their other social networks and email accounts for the purpose of importing their contacts to Facebook.
April 2, 2010: Facebook announced its acquisition of Divvyshot . Facebook already allowed tagging of photos at the time, but Divvyshot allowed users to link photos with events and places, which Facebook now does as well.
April 21, 2010: Facebook introduced Instant Personalization . This is the technology that allows users to see their friends’ interactions with content on non-Facebook sites.
July 6, 2011: After partnering with Skype in June 2011, Facebook announced the addition of video chat. This brought Facebook one step closer to being rumored to create its own smartphone , and to free calling from iPhones.
Sept. 22, 2011: Facebook introduced its new Timeline for user profiles. The introduction was one of the biggest changes to the look of user profiles since the site was launched.
April 2012: Facebook acquired Instagram. Instagram has been very loosely integrated with Facebook, but deeper integration may allow Instagram photos to be incorporated within Graph Search.
Sept. 27, 2012: Facebook Gifts was launched, allowing users to buy real world gifts for friends. Graph Search has the potential to boost Gifts, as users will be able to more easily search for friends’ favorite brands, then buy items from those brands as gifts.
