• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
What Facebook looked like 20 years ago is drastically different to what we use today

Home> Social Media> Facebook

Published 11:19 5 Feb 2024 GMT

What Facebook looked like 20 years ago is drastically different to what we use today

Mark Zuckerberg's game-changing social media platform is turning 20.

Prudence Wade

Prudence Wade

It's hard to believe it, but Facebook is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Who knew back in 2004, when it was created by a bunch of Harvard students in a dormitory, that it would become the massive social media phenomenon it is today.

And over the last two decades, the look of Facebook has been constantly changing. Back then, the site was so much more barebones - although that all-important blue and white color scheme was very much present and correct.

The Washington Post / Contributor / Getty

Advert

Famously, it also first launched as 'TheFacebook' rather than just 'Facebook' - after all, one of the most iconic parts of David Fincher's movie The Social Network is when Mark Zuckerberg is told to "drop the 'the'. Just Facebook - it's cleaner".

Plus, when the site first arrived it didn't have perhaps the single most iconic part of its web presence - the wall, which launched quite soon afterwards.

This was basically your profile's central page, made up of everyone's posts, thoughts and images sent to you - your one-stop way to catch up with what everyone had been up to.

The Washington Post / Contributor / Getty

Advert

Of course, at this point, the site was also primarily aimed at university students, and it would take a couple of years before it became available worldwide.

From there, it's a more familiar picture as massive crazes like Farmville took over the platform before subsiding, and the feed of posts and news steadily became more algorithmically organized, moving away from a straight timeline.

The Newsfeed became the default way to interact with Facebook, and after around 2010 the site started to look a lot more recognizable to those who use it today, albeit with way less elegant design and far fewer features (and therefore a little less clutter, some would say).

MediaNews Group/Mercury News via Getty Images / Contributor / Getty

Advert

Still, taking a look at those early versions of the site it's hard not to get nostalgic for how simple and blocky it all is, and how limited Facebook's scope was for many of us.

Of course, there is now a whole generation of teenagers who never even glimpsed this period in the world's biggest social network's growth. So, to them this is doubtless more of a time capsule to a bygone era.

All of this was before Facebook became Meta, before Messenger - and before it bought and integrated Instagram. It was a simpler time!

Featured Image Credit: The Washington Post / Contributor / NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
23 hours ago
a day ago
  • niabasic/Instagram
    2 hours ago

    Fans uncover shocking true identity of viral influencer dubbed 'world's most beautiful girl'

    She already has 2.7 million followers on TikTok alone

    Social Media
  • Tim Robberts / Getty
    23 hours ago

    Gen Z have savage new word to insult people going viral and you don't want to be called it

    Make sure you stay up to date with the latest slang

    Social Media
  • iShowSpeed / Twitch
    a day ago

    iShowSpeed shocks fans after drinking cows blood to join tribe in traditional ritual

    It's probably not on everyone's bucket list

    Social Media
  • Victoria Sirakova / Contributor / Getty
    a day ago

    MrBeast says he has 'negative money' right now as he admits he's borrowing cash

    The YouTuber admitted to 'borrowing money'

    Social Media
  • People in disbelief at what Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI just launched on Facebook
  • Facebook is bringing back iconic feature for the first time in 21 years to attract young people
  • Mark Zuckerberg admits reason he almost deleted every single person's Facebook friends in 2022
  • Facebook revives money-making feature two years after closure users say is a real 'slap in the face'