Harvard student launches Thefacebook

A student at Harvard University has launched a website called Thefacebook, which lets students create profiles and connect with their classmates online.

Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old computer science student, launched the site from his room on 4 February, with help from friends including Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

An online yearbook

The site takes its name from the printed directories, known as facebooks, that many American universities give to new students, with their photographs and basic details.

Students can sign up using their Harvard email address and create a profile with a photograph, their interests, their courses and their contact details. They can search for other students, add them as friends and see who is in their classes.

Instant success

The site has proved hugely popular. Within weeks, more than half of Harvard's undergraduates are reported to have signed up, and Zuckerberg and his friends have begun opening it up to students at other universities, including Columbia, Stanford and Yale.

The site is free to use, and the team is running it on a small budget. Its founders say they are more interested in building something people want to use than in making money straight away.

Social networking

Thefacebook, now a month old, is one of a new wave of social networking websites. Friendster, launched in 2002, has attracted millions of users, and MySpace, which is popular with music fans, is growing quickly.

These sites allow people to connect with friends and friends of friends, share photographs and messages, and build a network of contacts online. Investors are taking an interest in the idea, although it is not yet clear how the sites will make money.

Privacy questions

The rise of such sites has raised questions about privacy. Users are sharing large amounts of personal information online, and critics warn that they may not realise who can see it.

Zuckerberg has faced criticism before. Last year he created a site called Facemash, which used students' photographs without permission to invite users to compare their looks. Harvard shut it down within days.

For now, Thefacebook is limited to university students. Its founders say they hope to extend it to more campuses in the months ahead, and have not ruled out moving to California to develop it further.