Facebook without the beta

Oct. 28, 2003: Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg invents Facemash, an online hot-or-not photo game compiled from various hacked dorm ID databases.

Feb. 4, 2004: Zuckerberg launches TheFacebook at www.thefacebook.com, the first recognizable incarnation of what we now know as Facebook. It was initially only open to Harvard students.

Summer 2004: Facebook formally incorporates to become Facebook, Inc., with Sean Parker as the new company’s first president.

September 2005: Facebook launches a high school version.

October 2005: Facebook drops the “The” from its name to become simply Facebook after purchasing www.facebook.com for $200,000.

Aug. 22, 2006: Bloggers’ egos inflate en masse as they migrate their Xanga and LiveJournal posts into Facebook’s new “Notes” feature.

Sept. 6, 2006: Developers announce the creation of the now-ubiquitous “News Feed.” Instead of stalking profiles, friends’ information comes straight to users’ home pages.

Sept. 26, 2006: Facebook officially opens itself to everyone 13 and older who has an e-mail address.

Feb. 8, 2007: Virtual gifts that users can send to their friends go on sale for the first time.

May 14, 2007: Facebook joins the free classified ads revolution with “Marketplace,” which allows users to shop and sell using their friend networks.

Dec. 13, 2007: Status updates no longer have to contain the word “is.”

April 23, 2008: Facebook stalking ratchets up another notch with the launch of the “Chat” application, which allows users to talk in real-time.

July 20, 2008: The Beta version of Facebook hits browsers, combining the “Mini Feed” and “Wall” into one giant social feed.