Facebook 2010: Year In Review

2010 was without a doubt the best year so far for social media, and Facebook in particular. So much has happened, we thought we’d give you a month-by-month review as seen through the eyes of Reface.me.

To start the new year on a good foot, Facebook makes it possible for users to reply to comments through e-mail. But it also toggles some privacy settings, making almost everything you put on your profile visible to the entire Internet… by default! Bad idea. The first two of many Facebook memes in 2010 develop in January; women around the world are revealing their bra color in a kaleidoscopic stream of status updates and about a week later, “Wayback Week” aka “Throwback Week” encourages ten thousands of users to use an old photo of themselves as their profile picture. Comedian Toby Turner uploads an hilarious parody commercial for a popular Facebook game to YouTube. After the success of his FarmVille commercial, he adds fake commercials for Café World and Mafia Wars.

Early February, Doppelgänger Week becomes the new craze, making people replace their profile picture with a famous person they’ve been told they look like. This meme is quickly followed by Urban Dictionary Week, Valentine’s Day Profile Pictures and Movie Line Week. For a moment, there doesn’t seem to come an end to these fads. However, the most crazy thing during reface.me’s 1st anniversary month was an onion ring drawing millions of Facebook fans. That’s only a small percentage of the 400 million users that are on Facebook by this time of the year, but still impressive for fast food.

The instant classic “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys gets a well-deserved and well-executed Facebook version. Since March, Facebook accepts bigger photos of up to 720 pixels, which in the age of megapixel cameras is still considered a thumbnail. We decide to reveal a hidden message on Facebook for laughs, but most people just conclude we’re perverts.

April will be remembered as the month in which “Fan” becomes “Like”, “Social Plugins” and “Instant Personalization” change the look and feel of almost the entire Internet, Like us on Facebook stickers change the look of store fronts, and South Park dedicates a whole episode to Facebook.

In retrospect, May appears to have been a baddest month for Facebook this year. A Facebook Chat exploit is discovered, a nasty virus and annoying spam affects many users, and it turns out  terrorists use Facebook. All this inspires Quit Facebook Day and the very entertaining Facebook Is A Stupid Idiot song. To save the day, Facebook introduces simplified privacy controls and free mobile access.

In June, we celebrate our second Upside Down Status Day which even see Facebook Pages and an aircraft pilot joining in on the fun. As soon as Facebook turns on the “Like” button for comments, the Facebook Fail Whale becomes one of the most liked comments of the month.

In July, Facebook reaches the 500 million users milestone which is reason enough for Kanye West to drop some new tracks live at their headquarters. For a rather silly reason, the social network kills off the legendary Facebook Gifts, and in personal news, our profile link prank gets noticed by Mashable.

Facebook Places launches in August with a rather familiar logo, and Facebook Credits Gift Cards are announced to hit a store near you soon.

Starting September, users can upload photos up to 2084 pixels, an almost 300% increase compared to the previous size limit.

On October 1st, The Social Network hits theaters worldwide and movie buffs agree that the Facebook Movie is likely going to grab a few Oscars in 2011. We decide to rename the month “Letterbombtober” because of the invention of the Facebook Letterbomb, and we have reason to celebrate because our Facebook Pages reaches 10,000 likes!

Facebook adds Check-in Deals to their Places feature and starts to roll out the new Facebook Messages system. November also sees the birth of the most viral Facebook meme of the year, the Cartoon Characters Profile Pictures which becomes a “volcano hot” trend by early December.

Mark Zuckerberg is named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2010 and the new Facebook profile layout rolls out in December. And boy, did you refacers hack your profiles and hack them good!

What was your favorite Facebook moment of 2010? And what are your predictions for 2011? Let’s hear it in the comments.