[tharris0101]

Here is what I don't get about this whole thing: Friendster - 2002 Myspace - 2003 LinkedIn - 2003

Not to mention the dozens of other social media clones around that time (I remember being members of countless social media sites in those days)

Its not like anyone at Harvard stumbled upon an amazing new idea that was going to change the game. They were building what they hoped would be better versions of things already out there. Mark registered thefacebook.com because "Face Book" is a very common phrase/object.

For better or worse, Zuckerberg won the social networking race. Congrats to him, everyone else at Harvard at that time trying to stake a claim needs to just get on with their lives.

[jacques_chester]

I remember thinking that nobody would ever overtake MySpace.

80 million users!

Facebook gives me great comfort that the race isn't always to the swift.

And the contrast between Facebook and the launch of Google Wave has demonstrated that having a dense social graph early is critical to success.

[jonny_eh]

I assumed he got thefacebook.com because facebook.com wasn't available.

[aheilbut]

and sixdegrees - 1996