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HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY, FACEBOOK!

As you’d expect, the site looks completely different now compared when it first launched on 4 February, 2004.

But in case you haven’t been a loyal user since the beginning, we’ll give you a little tour of how the site evolved.

Check it out:

Remember when Facebook was called Thefacebook? It started at Harvard and slowly opened up to other colleges.

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Mark Zuckerberg originally described himself as not only the founder of Facebook, but also as the “Master and Commander” and “Enemy of the State”.

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We love this gem about “poking” from one of the original FAQ pages.

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Here’s what a Facebook group page looked like in 2005.

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For comparison, this is what a Facebook group page looks like today.

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Back in 2005, before the News Feed launched, Facebook was essentially just a collection of disconnected profiles.

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The company decided to drop the “the” from its name in 2005, after it bought the domain Facebook.com for $200,000.

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Source.

Check out Mark Zuckerberg’s profile in 2006.

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Facebook launched the News Feed to display all your friends’ activity in a single timeline in 2006.

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At the same time, Facebook introduced the Mini-Feed. But the entire concept of a News Feed resulted in some very public outrage.

Some users even went so far to call one of Facebook’s product managers the devil.

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In 2009, Facebook’s home page got a facelift. Posts started to stream through the News Feed in real-time.

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That same year, Facebook also introduced its algorithm for determining the order in which status updates should be displayed.

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In 2010, Facebook brought notifications to the top navigation bar following yet another redesign.

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Facebook also rolled out a new, more visual profile. It added a row of recently tagged images below your name and basic profile information.

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Facebook launched the News Ticker in 2011 so users could keep up with their friends while browsing through other parts of Facebook.

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The Facebook Timeline feels like it’s been around since the beginning. But it launched in 2011 to act as a virtual timeline of your entire life.

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Facebook started flooding the News Feed with sponsored stories in January 2012.

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Here’s what Facebook’s News Feed looks like today.

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This is what Facebook’s mobile app looked like when it first launched.

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It has been completely redesigned.

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Facebook also split its instant messaging into a different app called Messenger in 2011.

It’s now has more than 800 million monthly users.

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Facebook also owns a bunch of other popular apps, most notably Instagram, which the company bought for $1 billion (€894 million) in 2012.

With more than 400 million monthly users, that seems like a steal nowadays.

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Today, more than 1.5 billion people use the social network every single month.

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And more than 1.4 billion people use it on their mobile phones every month. Not bad, considering 12 years ago smartphones didn’t really exist.

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- Jillian D’Onfro

Read: Not content with number one albums, Taylor Swift is going to release her own game >

Read: Turns out Irish drivers want night vision and remote shutdown for their cars >

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