• Time et al., Wednesday, December 15, 2010 2:41 PM

Capping off a colossal year for Facebook and its young CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

"For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them," Time explains. "For creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives."

Indeed, "Zuckerberg's accomplishments in 2010 are truly outstanding," writes Mashable. "He cemented Facebook's status as the biggest social network and one of the hottest Internet companies" -- not to mention being one of the world's youngest billionaires, and just recently pledging to give his fortune away.

CNet calls the nod "a testament to the rising power of a new generation of Silicon Valley innovation and how much the ways in which we communicate have been dramatically changed by the Web and digital media."

"Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, arguably one of Google's biggest threats in 2011," writes Search Engine Land.

"Zuckerberg isn't a surprising pick," notes an almost flippant TechCrunch, adding that the 26-year-old will join some other world leaders and business visionaries.

On the contrary, "In a year fraught with political turmoil and sweeping actions involving lightning-rod individuals, Zuckerberg was an unexpected choice," says CNet.

Of course, some are calling Zuckerberg a safe, even "establishment," choice compared to other Person of the Year contenders like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the Tea Party.

Better than "You," The Register jokes in reference to what it calls Time's "cringeworthy nod to the fashion for 'web 2.0' technologies" in 2006.

Read the whole story at Time et al. »