Facebook has been growing on a frantic pace with the rate of users ever increasing. Even though the official announcement is not out yet it is expected to be out within a week. . The social networking site announced that it had 400 million users early this year and has now managed to add another 100 million in less than half a year, the same time it took it to go from 300 million to 400 million.
The rumors have floated of the celebrations as the company has circulated a number of internal emails informing staff about the impending milestone and asking them to upload pictures to thank users. It has also sent out “thank you” emails to its employed developers for the vast amount of contributions they have made.
Facebook has also been asking its employees to come up with ways of thanking the users for taking the site places and making it so popular overnight.
Facebook is also expected to unveil a new tab design on August 1, probably right after the “500 million users” announcement is made. The occasion will also be marked with consumer initiative the “Facebook stories.” This will be centered on a variety of life stories from users about the impact of the social networking site on their lives.
In an interview Randi Zuckerberg one of the pioneers of the site said “As we anticipated our 500-million milestone, and we wanted to find a different way to announce and celebrate it. In the past, it’s been all about the numbers and milestones and we realized we had never taken the opportunity to celebrate users.” The stories will have two views–organized by by geographical location and by theme, such as “finding love,” “coping with grief” and “natural disasters.”
Facebook has been collecting such heart warming stories since quite some time but never had any time to bring them out. The section has about 200 stories and is asking users again for permission to feature them these have been released some of them on its blog from time to time.
Other can too add their stories to the list provided they do so within 420 characters. The story can also be linked to the user’s profile. Users can also “Like” stories and the most popular will be featured. Zuckerberg, said she would be adding her own story too and that her favorite one so far has been the story of a group that managed to save an old theatre in Kentucky with a little help from Facebook.
The site is expecting that the stories would appeal to one and all.Along with this Facebook currently has around 150 million mobile users, or addicts as they are called from 100 million in April. This segment is bringing many gains to the companies business as it is a fastest growing segment. It’s clear that the rapid increase in mobile use is the result of new handsets, nearly all of which include integrated Facebook support.