The growth and impact of Facebook is mind blowing, even for an industry that considers "overnight success" to be a long-range goal. Founded in a Harvard dorm room on February 4th 2004 by 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook announced in July 2010 that had it reached the milestone of 500 million registered users. Facebook isn't just an American success story, most users are outside of the United States and half of them log on every day.

Facebook has already made an irreversible impact on society, marketing and politics -- even facilitating political protests around the world in countries such as Colombia and Iran. Facebook is also changing our sense of identity: "I am on Facebook; therefore I am."