In 2007, we popularized the term Social Graph to describe how Facebook maps out people’s connections. The idea is that these connections—whether friendships, affiliations or interests—exist already in the real world, and all we’re trying to do is map them out. We believe that connecting people to their friends is just the beginning, and we’re working hard on making Facebook a place for people to connect with and keep track of all the interests in their lives. We think that as it becomes easier to connect and share across the social graph, people—as well as companies, governments and other organizations—will share more information about what is happening with them. As this happens, the world will become more open and people will have a better understanding of everything that is going on around them. One way to think about this is as a timeline—or a stream. As people share more, the timeline gets filled in more and more with what is happening with everything you’re connected to. The pace of updates accelerates. This creates a continuous stream of information that delivers a deeper understanding for everyone participating in it. As this happens, people will no longer come to Facebook to consume a particular piece or type of content, but to consume and participate in the stream itself. In order to make this a reality, we must build Facebook to give everyone the power to share anything they want and connect with anyone they want. The way we’re doing that is to first extend people’s ability to connect with everything that interests them, and to give people a way to get updates from all of these connections. Then, we’re going to increase the pace of the stream, so you can immediately see what is going on around you.

Mark Zuckerberg : “Le “social graph” est l’ensemble des relations de toutes les personnes dans le monde. Il y en a un seul et il comprend tout le monde. Personne ne le possède. Ce que nous essayons de faire c’est de le modeler, de représenter exactement le monde réel en en dressant la carte (to mirror the real world by mapping it out).” Borgés n’en croirait pas ses oreilles… mais la réponse vaut sans doute son pesant de milliards. Zuckerberg dit qu’il va travailler pendant les trente prochaines années pour améliorer son produit et il a l’air sincère. S’il ne donne pas aussi vite qu’il le souhaite toutes les fonctionnalités que son public demande, c’est simplement qu’il ne sait pas comment faire. Après Jerry Yang et David Filo de Yahoo, Larry Page et Serguey Brin de Google les barons d’industrie en culotte courte qui veulent faire le bien ont toujours le vent en poupe.