Take a quick trip down memory lane, back to the days of the mid-90s Internet era, with this fake commercial that imagines how Facebook would have been marketed in 1995.
As you might remember from watching The Social Network, the site was originally called The Facebook, until Napster cofounder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake, you go Justin Timberlake) told Mark Zuckerberg to drop the “The” and just call it “Facebook” because it would be cleaner. Well, in 1995, we’d definitely still be calling it The Facebook.
If the video seems at all familiar, that’s because it’s a direct parody of a real AOL commercial from 1995:
This Is What Your Facebook Profile Looked Like Over the Last 11 Years
The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004. Before people realized how awesome pictures are.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2005. Back when Facebook looked a little bit like MySpace. Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005. The "the" is finally dropped.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2006. You no longer need to be reminded "this is you" at the top of your profile page.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2007. Every profile update still had to begin with "is," forcing you to talk about yourself in the third person.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2008. The wall.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2009. It only took five years for Facebook to create easy-to-find privacy settings.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2010. Facebook starts to get pretty.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2011. Zuckerberg realizes that people love pictures, usually of animals.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2012. The timeline allows you (or your parents) to trace your life from birth to death.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014. Facebook introduced a new app, Paper, on Monday.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.Courtesy of Alex Fitzpatrick/Facebook