In 8 Years, Facebook Changed All We Do Online

Is Facebook worth the $100 billion or so its pending IPO suggests it is? Who the good gracious knows. But one thing we can all be certain about is how the social network has radically changed people's behavior and expectations online in the eight short years since it was a nary more than a twinkle in the eye of its baby-faced founder(s).

Those changes have had the monumental impact of facilitating the formation of entirely new industries and dramatically shifting the way brands market themselves online. There are things we do online today, that we take so much for granted that we forget that some of them didn't exist even as recently as two years ago. And others were so radical they inspired outright rebellions when they were first introduced. And yet all of these things are not only commonplace today, they are the presumed paradigms. To operate any differently would seem downright odd.