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It's hard to believe that Facebook launched ten years ago today. What started off as a way for college students to meet each other (and, ahem, hook-up) has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar company, and has made quite a few billionaires in its run. While Facebook has experienced tremendous success over the past decade, the company hasn't been without its fair share of failures and embarrassments as well. Not to rub salt on the wounds, here are 10 Fails That Defined the Facebook Era.
Facebook Places
In 2010, location-based services like Foursquare started to get popular. Facebook decided to capitalize on this hype and introduced Places. Places let users "check in" to specific restaurants, stores, and other locations and share that information with friends. Facebook discontinued Places in 2011. The company didn't give a reason, but it's likely because it went largely unused.
Beacon
Facebook Beacon was a new feature for Facebook's advertising platform. The idea was that Beacon would provide Facebook users with specialized and relevant ads based on other websites they visited. Beacon was launched on November 6, 2007, but quickly became a magnet for controversy. During its public release, Beacon became the target of a class action lawsuit and was shut down in September 2009. Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook's Blog in November 2011 that Beacon was a "mistake."
Docs
Facebook partnered with Microsoft in 2010 for Docs, an online productivity suite that was meant to make collaborating with colleagues and friends easier. The idea was for Facebook users to be able to discover, create, and share documents. It's still available today, but we're willing to bet it doesn't get nearly the same amount of usage as Google Docs or Microsoft Office. Plus, the marketing for Docs was practically non-existent.
Facebook Groups and Lists
Facebook Groups and Lists was a good way to connect to small groups of people. It let you join a community of people with shared interests or people you knew personally. Yet this feature was pretty much crushed with the launch of Facebook Pages. Pages took Groups' place by letting you follow a brand, celebrity, product, or person. It's only a matter of time until Groups is discontinued, or Facebook launches a new feature for students, since they're about the only ones left using it.
Facebook Email
Facebook Email still exists, but it's buried deeply within your Messages inbox. When you sign up for Facebook today, you receive an @facebook.com email address. You can use your @facebook.com email address to send and receive messages from any traditional email system like Hotmail, Yahoo! or Gmail. Despite this useful feature, Facebook email never took off. We're too used to our existing services. Do you actually know anyone that uses their Facebook email to send and receive messages? Us either.
Facebook Lite
During its rapid growth, Facebook began to expand into different countries that didn't have high-speed Internet. The company launched a "Lite" version of its website in 2009 that promised to be "less noisy" and "load quicker." The Lite version didn't work out nearly as well as Facebook hoped and was shut down a year later in 2010.
Facebook Gifts
When Facebook Gifts launched, it aimed to be a way for users to share virtual stickers on friends' wall. The "gifts" cost $1.00 to send, and Facebook hoped that gifting would take off and earn them some revenue. It didn't. No one wanted a virtual sticker on their profile that you had to pay to get. Facebook discontinued the Gifts feature in 2010. It later relaunched as a way to buy friends real goods like Starbucks gift cards and other physical items.
Facebook Deals
Facebook Deals was a way for the social network to take advantage of the popular fad of daily deals that were the pillars of companies such as LivingSocial and Groupon back in 2010. The promise was to give users an easy way to find relevant deals in their area, but despite a worldwide launch, Deals never really took hold. Facebook quietly removed the feature in 2011.
Facebook Home
Facebook Home turns your Android into a "Facebook phone." Home replaces your entire homescreen for easy access to Facebook services like Messages, Timeline, photos and more. The service came as the default OS on the "HTC First." Sales of the HTC First were low, and the phone was eventually considered a flop. You can still download Home if you have a compatible Android phone, but there's a good chance that this service might be headed for the graveyard, too. #RIP
Poke
At the end of 2012, Facebook quietly released the Poke app. Poke instantly received criticism because it was a blatant copy of the more popular Snapchat. Once the hype died down after the launch, Poke was quietly forgotten. In fact, in the year since it launch, Poke has never been updated.