> What made FB successful was that it was a platform that other developers could program for, so it filled up with games and quizzes. Farmville, "Which Harry Potter Friends Spice Girl Are You?" etc. was all the edge that it took to kill myspace, a site which seemed to stop any sort of development about 10 minutes after launch.
Even before that, it was a combination of exclusivity and social groups. When people found out there was a social network they weren't allowed into (when it required a *.edu email address to sign up for), they were curious and wanted in. For the people who could get in, Facebook had network pages tied to your email's domain so you had an immediate social group of people going to the same college/university as you, which was used for all sorts of things like planning events, coordination, sharing campus information, I believe it even had a full-on calendar for students to put things on.
The loss of the network pages was when I first started losing interest in Facebook.
Even before that, it was a combination of exclusivity and social groups. When people found out there was a social network they weren't allowed into (when it required a *.edu email address to sign up for), they were curious and wanted in. For the people who could get in, Facebook had network pages tied to your email's domain so you had an immediate social group of people going to the same college/university as you, which was used for all sorts of things like planning events, coordination, sharing campus information, I believe it even had a full-on calendar for students to put things on.
The loss of the network pages was when I first started losing interest in Facebook.