• BBC News, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 11:15 AM

Facebook is celebrating its fifth birthday this week. In five short years, the social network has gone "from a pet college project to a global communications platform," Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang tells the BBC. With 150 million worldwide users (about 1 in 5 Internet users), Facebook is now the Web's No. 1 social network, beating out News Corp.'s MySpace (130 million users) for top spot.

According to Owyang, who is conducting research on the future of social networks, Facebook has created an environment "where you can communicate with people you actually know. It's different from other places on the web where those people may not be truly your friend -- like on MySpace where there are a lot of celebs and fictional characters created by PR companies." As Professor B.J. Fogg, who runs a course at Stanford called the "Psychology of Facebook" tells the BBC: "Facebook has changed how people view the world. Today, a friend from any country is just a few clicks away. Facebook brings the world together -- one trusted place."

Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group thinks Facebook has plenty of room to grow: "Social networking is nowhere as big a deal as it's going to become," he says. "Right now Facebook is the predominant social network, the one the other social networks want to be." Brand consultant Phil Edelin thinks Facebook is well-positioned to keep its lead: "MySpace is like the messy teenager's room whereas Facebook is where people will find their mum, cousins and friends hanging out. It's like a hub," he says.

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