In fact over the last couple of days I have found Facebook to be very slow. I’m not sure if they are doing some form of maintenance or not but accessing applications has been very slow.

Applications are stored on third party servers so that would not be the problem. They only access Facebook for certain functions.

I have installed a Firefox Browser extension that blocks all adds from Facebook. Installing adblock plus did improve my Facebook speed somewhat although I am not sure what is causing the recent slowness.

Here is a link to Adblock Plus for anyone interested. It is also worth downloading ‘Element Hiding Helper‘ this one is particularly good for stubborn adds that will not disappear using Adblock Plus.

I found that Adblock Plus removed most of the advertisements with no trouble, but on a couple of applications I still had one add that would not go. With Element Hiding element it was easy to click around the add with my mouse and hide that advertisement too.

I now provide a professional queueing (queuing) service for a fee. I will queue for any legal reason  i.e

Sporting Events, Business and Corporate Meetings, Annual General meetings, Musical entertainment events.

I am based in Australia but will queue anywhere if  my travel expenses are paid.

Don’t waste your valuable time waiting in queues let someone else do it for you.

If you require someone to queue for you contact me for fee details etc.

email: info@afhit.com

Yahoo IM or MSN, phy2_99@yahoo.com

Phone 61 364241111

Please ask for Philip

People have spent a lot of money on this Facebook game making the developers rich over the last year or so.

The developers despite protests have now implemented new changes that only make it possible to level up at a very slow pace.

Newer players of the game will be at a severe disadvantage to other players and will have no chance to catch up owing to the new changes.

I have just finished reading their review section and I have never seen such a barrage of criticism in one place. The ranking system which gives reviewers the chance to review 1 to 5 stars is littered with 1 star reviews.

With most reviewers wanting to give the program zero stars but they are not offered that option.

When I started playing the game it was a simple game and fun to play. I think that’s what players liked. Now however its gone with extreme graphics  and is some absurd copy of Mafia Wars.

I’m sure if players had wanted to play Mafia Wars they would go to that game at least it does not pretend to be something else.

Some players have paid thousands of dollars to build up their character in this game and are now bitterly disappointed at being ignored by the developers.

The Disscussion board that used to accompany the mobwars site has also been closed down it would appear so because of the barrage of complaints.

It appears the developers of this game have decided to crawl into their shell and ignore all complaints. That decision may come back to bite them in the hip pocket.

I was playing this game on a regular basis but have now moved to other games with more responsive developers.

When you click the report button on someone’s profile you are given the option to block them or report them or both.

This is where the problem begins. If you you want to just block them that is fairly easy however if you want to report them then that is a different matter.

Recently I had a person repeatedly posting on my wall in a game application that I play I asked him to stop but he refused and started posting every few minutes harassing material.

I wanted to report him so that the behavior could not be repeated against some other person however when I tried to report the program asks for a defined set of areas of where the abuse is coming from then refers the user back to the application or area to post from a supposed report button in that area. Unfortunatly there is often no report button in other areas on facebook. You are provided with no other option to report anyone so you are only left with the block option.

This is what I reluctantly did to avoid further annoying messages.

I think Facebook needs to review their system so that reports of harassment can actually be sent.

I think they are avoiding a lot of work on their part by not providing this service easily. However it then means that numerous people have to put up with harassment from certain people before any action is taken.

Mafia Wars is available on Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, Sonico, and Yahoo!.[2] On April 8, 2009, Zynga released a version of the game as a free downloadable iPhone App.[3]

On Facebook alone, as of October 2009, Mafia Wars has more than 25.9 million monthly active accounts.[4] Some players and clans create multiple accounts to utilize the benefits of the three basic character builds available: Fearless, Maniac, and Mogul.
Gameplay

Mafia Wars is set in New York City and Little Italy, with the option for players to travel between New York, Cuba (level 35+), Moscow (level 70+) and Bangkok (upon unlocking items from New York levels, level 18+), and in 2010, Las Vegas. The game revolves around doing and mastering jobs in order to earn cash and experience, with the goal of establishing and advancing one’s criminal empire.[5] Players create mafias by recruiting players and using reward points to hire extra mafia members. Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster allow players to recruit from within their network of friends to build their mafia and fight against other players.[5][6] Players can also improve their stats by visiting the Godfather or making a micropayment.[5]

Click Here for Mafia Wars Blueprint Guide.

Gameplay revolves around timers: players have limited energy (for doing jobs), and health and stamina meters (for fighting other players), in a manner similar to an RPG game,[7] which slowly recharges over time. With the help of other mafia members that have been recruited, players can eventually fight other players, which may or may not result in the theft of cash, “icing”, or “death” of the other player. The game operates on a level up basis. The player earns experience points by completing jobs. Players who manage to complete special tasks (e.g., winning fights against bigger mafias or winning fifteen fights in a row) are labeled as having accomplished an “achievement”, resulting in a bonus for the player. As they level up, more jobs and features become available, such as the ability to visit Cuba to expand their criminal empire.[8]

After a significant in-game marketing blitz, Zynga added a new city, Moscow, on September 24, 2009.[9] Once a player reaches level 70, they are granted access to Moscow, and they get to choose between the Thieves in Law Vory or the Russian Mafiya.On January 20, 2010, Bangkok Beta was released with some players being granted acess to it, but some not. This is to prevent too many people from going to Bangkok which may cause the system to crash. [10]In Bangkok, players will be able to choose from the Triad and the Yakuza. One upcoming region is Las Vegas, coming out in an unknown exact date in 2010.[8][11] The current ranks/episodes are the following: Street Thug, Associate, Soldier, Enforcer, Hitman, Capo, Consigliere, Underboss, and Boss in New York; El Soldado, El Capitan, El Jefe, El Patron, El Padrino, and El Cacique in Cuba; Baklany, Boets, Brigadir, Avtoritet, Vor, and Pakhan in Moscow; Brawler, Criminal, Pirate, Commandant, Oyabun and Dragon Head in Bangkok.

Character Classes

There are three classes that a player has to choose from when they first start the game. Each class offers a reduced amount of recharge time to one of the three timers. The three classes are:

Maniac: This class has an energy recharge timer of 3 minutes, unlike the other two classes which have a timer of 5 minutes.

Mogul: This class receives money from properties every 54 minutes as opposed to the usual 60, as well as a 5% increase in profit from businesses in both Moscow and Cuba. Moguls with Rackets will get 10% more cash from their rackets.

Fearless: This class receives a health recharge time reduction (every 3 minutes as opposed to the usual 5).
Updating and server issues

Mafia Wars’ parent company, Zynga, has worked to adapt multiple changes within the game, introducing various “beta” features into the game, such as robbing (wherein players can rob each others’ property). These features are often removed without warning, and newer players have reported that the property and task interface is substantially different between that of newer players and those who have been playing for a time.

In October 2009 Rackets was added to New York and replaced the old properties method. New players had the new version while older ones retained properties. At first rackets appeared to be inferior to properties but has additional attack and defense bonuses that make it just as good, if not better.[12]

“However, in the same month, the ‘robbing’ feature was disabled. And in December 2009 “Mafia Mike’s” could be acquired just like any other property. Unlike before, when the purchase of a Mafia Mike’s was limited by the size of a player’s Mafia” according to Dan Hanes, coauthor of Mafia Wars Mastery.[13]
Lawsuit

The makers of a similar online game, Mob Wars, sued Zynga over their launch of Mafia Wars, accusing Zynga of copyright infringement. Zynga made some changes to Mafia Wars so it wouldn’t resemble Mob Wars as closely, but Mob Wars creator David Maestri moved forward with his lawsuit.[14] In September 2009, Maestri and Zynga settled the case for about $7–$9 million, less than the $10 million Maestri had originally demanded.[15]
Charity

On December 16, 2009, it was announced on the Official Blog that 50% of the sale of limited edition – Haitian Drum, will be donated to FATEM, a non-profit organization that works to provide economic advancements for the Haitian community of Mirebalais.[16][17]
On January 14, 2010, it was announced that 100% of all contributions to Zynga’s Haiti Relief Fund – provided by purchasing new limited edition item “Haitian Relief Drum”, will be donated to help the people of Haiti who are suffering from the devastating consequences of the earthquakes on January 12 and 20, 2010.[18]
References

1. ^ “Webby Nominees”. The Webby Awards. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=13. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
2. ^ “Mafia Wars on Zynga.com”. http://www.zynga.com/games/index.php?game=mafiawars. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
3. ^ “Mafia Wars by Zynga Hits the iPhone”. IGN. 2009-04-08. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/970/970977p1.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
4. ^ “The Top 25 Facebook Games September 2009″. http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/09/01/the-top-25-facebook-games-for-september-2009/. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
5. ^ a b c Boychuk, Ben. “Mob Games for the IPhone”. PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/165884/mob_games_for_the_iphone.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
6. ^ Graft, Kris. “Social Game Mafia Wars Hits 4 Million Daily Users”. Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24307. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
7. ^ The Leaf Chronicle: Facebook’s ‘Farmville’ not a laughing matter
8. ^ a b Yen, Tracy (2009-06-09). “Highly addictive Mafia Wars on Facebook” (in Examiner.com). http://www.examiner.com/x-13128-Facebook-Examiner~y2009m6d9-Highly-addictive-Mafia-Wars-on-Facebook. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
9. ^ “Mafia Wars Moscow: Exclusive First Look!”. http://blog.games.com/2009/09/23/mafia-wars-moscow-exclusive-first-look/.
10. ^ http://www.facebook.com/notes/mafia-wars/travel-to-bangkok-now/275302054911
11. ^ “Mafia Wars”. http://www.pinoywebsurfer.com/2009/06/glimpse-of-mafia-wars-cuba.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
12. ^ Mafia Wars Rackets
13. ^ Mafia Wars Strategy: Dan Hanes
14. ^ Mob Wars Creator Puts A Hit Out On Zynga, Sues For Copyright Infringement from TechCrunch.com (February 14, 2009)
15. ^ Zynga Settles Mob Wars Litigation As It Settles In To Playdom Fight
16. ^ Mafia Wars Charity Loot
17. ^ Haitian Drum
18. ^ http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/01/zynga-haiti-relief-fund.html

The Wikipedia article on this page is released under CC-BY-SA.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or

GNU Free Documentation License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

The original article may be found at this location:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_wars

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as “SMS of the Internet”[5] The use of Twitter’s application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often eclipses direct use of Twitter.

What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it’s not a social network, but it’s an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.
—Evan Williams [6]

History
A blueprint sketch, circa 2006, by Jack Dorsey, envisioning an SMS-based social network

Twitter began in a “daylong brainstorming session” that was……

Twitter ECourse

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held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo in an attempt to break a creative slump. During that meeting, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using a SMS service to communicate with a small group, a concept partially inspired by the SMS group messaging service TXTMob.[7]

The working name was just “Status” for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on … We liked the SMS aspect, and how you could update from anywhere and receive from anywhere.

We wanted to capture that in the name — we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word “twitch,” because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But “twitch” is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.
—Jack Dorsey[8]

The original product name or codename for the service was twttr, inspired by Flickr and the fact that American SMS short codes are five characters. The developers initially experimented with “10958? as a short code, though later changed it to “40404? for “ease of use and memorability.”[7] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST): “just setting up my twttr”.[9]

The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees, later launching publicly into a full-scale version in July 2006. In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assets—including Odeo.com and Twitter.com—from the investors and other shareholders.[10] Twitter later spun off into its own company in April 2007.[11]

The tipping point for Twitter’s popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. During the event usage went from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[12] “The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages,” remarked Newsweek’s Steven Levy. “Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it. Soon everyone was buzzing and posting about this new thing that was sort of instant messaging and sort of blogging and maybe even a bit of sending a stream of telegrams.”[13] Reaction at the festival was overwhelmingly positive. Laughing Squid blogger Scott Beale said Twitter “absolutely rul[ed]” SXSW. Social software researcher Danah Boyd said Twitter “own[ed]” the festival.[14] Twitter staff accepted their prize for the festival’s Web Award with the remark “we’d like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!”[15]
Finances
Twitter’s old San Francisco headquarters located on the 4th floor of 539 Bryant Street

In total, Twitter has raised over US$57 million from venture capitalists. The exact amounts of funding have not been publicly released. Twitter’s first round of funding was for an undisclosed amount that is rumored to have been between $1 million and $5 million.[16] Its B round of funding in 2008 was for $22 million[17] and its C round of funding in 2009 was for $35 million from Institutional Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital along with an undisclosed amount from other investors including Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital and Insight Venture Partners.[16] Twitter is backed by Union Square Ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital, and Bezos Expeditions.[18]

The Industry Standard has remarked that Twitter’s long-term viability is limited by a lack of revenue.[19] Twitter board member Todd Chaffee forecast that the company could make money from e-commerce noting that many users may want to buy items directly from Twitter since they already use it to get product recommendations and since companies already use it to promote products.[20]

Some of Twitter’s documents covering revenue and user growth were published on TechCrunch after they were retrieved by the hacker, Croll Hacker. These contained internal projections that in 2009 they would have revenues of $400,000 in the third quarter (Q3) and $4 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) along with 25 million users at the end of the year. The projections for the end of 2013 were $1.54 billion in revenue, $111 million in net earnings, and 1 billion users.[1] No information about how Twitter plans to achieve those numbers has been published. Biz Stone published a blog post suggesting legal action for revealing the details was a possibility.[21]
Technology
A Twitter profile

Twitter has been described as akin to a Web-based Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.[22] The Twitter Web interface uses the Ruby on Rails framework[23], deployed on a Ruby Enterprise Edition rather than a vanilla Ruby implementation for performance reasons[24].

From the spring of 2007 until 2008 the actual messages were handled by a Ruby persistent queue server called Starling[25] but since 2009 this has been gradually replaced with software written in Scala.[26] The service’s API allows other web services and applications to integrate with Twitter.[27] To group posts together by topic or type, users make use of hashtags, words or phrases prefixed with a #.[28] Similarly, the d sign followed by a username allows users to send messages privately to their followers. Otherwise, the @ sign followed by a username publicly states the attached tweets are a reply to (or just mention) any specific users (who can find such recent tweets logged in their interface). [29]

In late 2009, the new “Twitter Lists” feature was added, making it possible for users to follow (and mention/reply to) lists of authors instead of following individual authors. [3][4]

Through SMS, users can communicate with Twitter through five gateway numbers: short codes for the United States, Canada, India, New Zealand, and an Isle of Man-based number for international use. There is also a short code in the United Kingdom which is only accessible to those on the Vodafone, O2 [30] and Orange[31] networks. In India, since Twitter only supports tweets from Bharti Airtel,[32] an alternative platform was set up by a user to work on all networks.[33]
Character limit

The 140-character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages. The 140 character limit has also spurred the usage of URL shortening services such as bit.ly, goo.gl, and tr.im, and content hosting services, such as Twitpic and NotePub to accommodate multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters.

Twitter uses bit.ly for automatically shortening all URLs posted on its website. [34]
Interface
This section may not be warranted as a stand-alone section. Please attempt to diffuse its content into appropriate sections of the article. (January 2010)

Technology author Steven Johnson describes the basic mechanics of Twitter as “remarkably simple:”[35]

As a social network, Twitter revolves around the principle of followers. When you choose to follow another Twitter user, that user’s tweets appear in reverse chronological order on your main Twitter page. If you follow 20 people, you’ll see a mix of tweets scrolling down the page: breakfast-cereal updates, interesting new links, music recommendations, even musings on the future of education.

On April 30, 2009, Twitter tweaked its web interface, adding a search bar and a sidebar of Trending Topics—the most common phrases currently appearing in messages. “Every public update sent to Twitter from anywhere in the world 24/7 can be instantly indexed and made discoverable via our newly launched real-time search,” explained Biz Stone. “With this newly launched feature, Twitter has become something unexpectedly important—a discovery engine for finding out what is happening right now.”[36]
Content of tweets
Content of Tweets according to Pear Analytics.

San Antonio-based market research firm Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets (originating from the US and in English) over a 2-week period from 11:00a to 5:00p (CST) and separated them into six categories:[37]

* News
* Spam
* Self-promotion
* Pointless babble
* Conversational
* Pass-along value

The firm found that “pointless babble” was the largest category of Twitter content, making up 811 tweets or 40.55 percent of the total number of messages sampled.

Conversational messages accounted for 751 messages or 37.55 percent, tweets with “pass-along value” i.e. retweets – accounted for 174 messages or 8.70 percent, self-promotion by companies made up 117 tweets or 5.85 percent, spam was 75 tweets or 3.75 percent and tweets with news from mainstream media publications accounted for 72 tweets or 3.60 percent.[37]

Social networking researcher Danah Boyd responded to the Pear Analytics survey by arguing that what the Pear researchers labelled “pointless babble” is better characterized as “peripheral awareness” or “social grooming”.[38]
Rankings

Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis.[39] Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network[40] based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits.[40] In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent.[41] However, only 40 percent of Twitter’s users are retained.[42]
Demographics

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Most of Twitter’s usage share comes from older adults who might not have used other social sites before Twitter, said Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst studying social media. “Adults are just catching up to what teens have been doing for years,” he said.[43]

Just 11 percent of Twitter’s users are aged 12 to 17, according to comScore.[43]

comScore attributes this to Twitter’s “early adopter period” when the social network first gained popularity in business settings and news outlets, which resulted in an older-skewing early adopter profile. However, comScore as of late, has noted that as Twitter has begun to “filter more into the mainstream, along with it came a culture of celebrity as Shaq, Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher joined the ranks of the Twitterati.”[44]
Outages
The Twitter fail whale error message.

When Twitter experiences an outage, users see the “fail whale” error message image created by Yiying Lu,[45] an illustration of red birds using nets to hoist a whale from the ocean along with the text [46] “Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.”[46]

Twitter experienced approximately 98 percent uptime in 2007, or about six full days of downtime.[47] Twitter’s downtime was particularly noticeable during events popular with the technology industry such as the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo keynote address.[48][49] During May 2008 Twitter’s new engineering team made architectural changes to deal with the scale of growth. Stability issues resulted in down time or temporary feature removal.

In August 2008, Twitter withdrew free SMS services to users in the United Kingdom[50] and for approximately five months instant messaging support via a XMPP bot was listed as being “temporarily unavailable”.[51] On October 10, 2008, Twitter’s status blog announced that instant messaging (IM) service was no longer a temporary outage and needed to be revamped. Twitter aims to return its IM service at some point but says this requires some major work.[52]

On June 12, 2009, in what was called a potential “Twitpocalypse”, the unique identifier associated with each tweet exceeded the limit for 32-bit signed integers.[53] While Twitter itself was not affected, some third-party clients found that they could no longer access recent tweets. Patches were quickly released, though some iPhone applications had to wait for approval from the App Store.[54] On September 22, the identifier exceeded the limit for 32-bit unsigned integers, again breaking some third-party clients.[55]

On August 6, 2009, Twitter and Facebook suffered from a denial-of-service attack, causing the Twitter website to be offline for several hours.[56] It was later confirmed that the attacks were directed at one pro-Georgian user around the anniversary of the 2008 South Ossetia War, rather than the sites themselves.[57] A hacking attack was aimed at Twitter on 17 December 2009, replacing for nearly an hour the home website’s welcome screen with an image of a green flag and the caption “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.” It was unknown whether there was indeed any link between the hackers and Iran[58].
Privacy and security

Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties. The service considers that information an asset, and reserves the right to sell it if the company changes hands.[59] While Twitter displays no advertising, advertisers can target users based on their history of tweets and sometimes may quote tweets in ads.[60]

A security vulnerability was reported on April 7, 2007, by Nitesh Dhanjani and Rujith. Since Twitter used the phone number of the sender of an SMS message as authentication, malicious users could update someone else’s status page by using SMS spoofing.[61] The vulnerability could only be used if the spoofer knew the phone number registered to their victim’s account. Within a few weeks of this discovery Twitter introduced an optional personal identification number (PIN) that its users could specify to authenticate SMS-originating messages.[62]

On January 5, 2009, 33 high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised after a Twitter administrator’s password was guessed by a dictionary attack.[63] Falsified tweets—including sexually explicit and drug-related messages—were then sent from the accounts.[64]

Twitter launched the beta version of its Verified Accounts service on June 11, 2009, allowing famous or notable people to make it clear which Twitter accounts belongs to them. The home pages of these verified accounts display a badge to indicate this special status.[65]
Reception
Change of focus
A new mobile version of twitter.com

Twitter emphasized their news and information network strategy in November 2009 by changing the question it asks users for status updates from “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?”.[66][67] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, “best-of” list, saying, ” Limiting yourself to 140 characters–the maximum for messages on this diabolically addictive social-networking tool–is easy once you get the”[68]
Criticism

The Wall Street Journal wrote that social-networking services such as Twitter “elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel ‘too’ connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they’re having for dinner.”[69] “Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite ‘The Iliad’ “, said tech writer Bruce Sterling.[70] “For many people, the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd,” hypothesized writer Clive Thompson. “Why would you subject your friends to your daily minutiae? And conversely, how much of their trivia can you absorb? The growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme — the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world.”[71] On the other hand Steve Dotto opines that part of Twitter’s appeal is the challenge of trying to publish such messages in tight constraints.[72] “The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful,” says Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School.[73]

Nielsen Online reports that Twitter has a user retention rate of 40 percent. Many people drop the service after a month so the site may potentially reach only about 10% of all Internet users.[74] In 2009, Twitter won the “Breakout of the Year” Webby Award.[75][76]

During a February 2009 discussion on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, Daniel Schorr noted that Twitter accounts of events lacked rigorous fact-checking and other editorial improvements. In response, Andy Carvin gave Schorr two examples of breaking news stories that played out on Twitter and said users wanted first-hand accounts and sometimes debunked stories.[77]

In an episode of The Daily Show on February 26, 2009, guest Brian Williams derided tweets as only referring to the condition of the author in any given instant. Williams implied that he would never use Twitter because nothing he did was interesting enough to publish in Twitter format.[78]

During another episode of The Daily Show on March 2, 2009, host Jon Stewart negatively portrayed members of Congress who chose to “tweet” during President Obama’s address to Congress (on February 24, 2009) rather than pay attention to the content of the speech. The show’s Samantha Bee satirized media coverage of the service saying “there’s no surprise young people love it—according to reports of young people by middle aged people”.[79]

In March 2009, the comic strip Doonesbury began to satirize Twitter. Many characters highlighted the triviality of tweets although one defended the need to keep up with the constant-update trend.[80] SuperNews! similarly satirized Twitter as an addiction to “constant self-affirmation” and said tweets were nothing more than “shouts into the darkness hoping someone is listening”.[81]
Notable usage
This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (January 2010)
Use in campaigning

Twitter was used by candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign throughout the race. Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama used it for publicity.[82] The Nader–Gonzalez campaign updated its ballot access teams in real-time with Twitter and Google Maps.[83] Twitter use increased by 43 percent on the day of the United States’ 2008 election.[84]

In 2009, the Republican Party in Connecticut set up fake Twitter accounts in the names of 33 Democratic members of the state legislature.[85] The Republicans used the accounts to send out tweets in the names of the Democrats.[85] When Twitter, Inc. discovered the scheme, it shut down the 33 fake accounts, explaining the applicable company policy: “A person may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others.”[85] The Hartford Courant editorialized: “Republicans get an A for innovation but a D for ethics.”[86]
Use in legal proceedings

The first criminal prosecution arising from Twitter posts began in April 2009. Agents of the FBI arrested Daniel Knight Hayden. Hayden was accused of sending tweets threatening violence in connection with his plan to attend a Tea Party protest in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[87]

In July 2009, Horizon Realty Group, a Chicago real estate management company, sued a former tenant, Amanda Bonnen, for libel based on a Twitter message sent to friends. Horizon contends that Bonnen defamed Horizon by posting a tweet to her friends that said, “You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s ok.” Horizon asked for at least $50,000 for the alleged libel.[88] The lawsuit prompted widespread comment from journalists, bloggers, and legal experts.[89]
Use in education

The Distance College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, used Twitter with native Chinese students as a tool to train communicative and cultural competence. Students had to post a certain number of English tweets and react to the tweets of their fellow students. Twitter was viewed as a supplement to practice in authentic environment different aspects of the target language as it was taught in the classroom. [90]

The University of Vienna, Austria, used Twitter as an evaluation platform for student ratings. Every student had to send a tweet after each course unit with feedback to the teacher. Twitter turned out to be “a useful tool for evaluating a course formatively. Because of Twitter’s simple use and the electronic handling of data, the administrative effort remains small.”[91]

At the University of Texas at Dallas, Twitter has been incorporated into the actual classroom setting of History courses with big groups of students. This innovative approach gives more students the opportunity to express their views in class discussions. Another advantage of this approach is that the limit of characters forces them to get to the central point.[92]

According to telegraph.co.uk, Twitter is put on the new primary school curriculum. Children should be able to “organise and adjust” speaking and writing skills depending on the technology being used, including using “emails, messaging, wikis and twitters”. During the primary years, children should also be taught to speak, write and broadcast using “blogs, podcasts, websites, email [and] video”.[93]
Use in emergencies

Research reported in New Scientist in May 2008[94] found that blogs, maps, photo sites and instant messaging systems like Twitter did a better job of getting information out during emergencies than either the traditional news media or government emergency services. The study also found that those using Twitter during the fires in California in October 2007 kept their followers (who were often friends and neighbors) informed of their whereabouts and of the location of various fires minute by minute. Organizations that support relief efforts are also using Twitter. The American Red Cross started using Twitter[95] to exchange minute-to-minute information about local disasters including statistics and directions.[96]

During the 2008 Mumbai attacks eyewitnesses sent an estimated 80 tweets every 5 seconds. Twitter users on the ground helped compile a list of the dead and injured. In addition, users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals needing blood donations.[97] CNN called this “the day that social media appeared to come of age” since many different groups made significant use of Twitter to gather news and coordinate responses.[97]

In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 experienced multiple bird strikes and had to be ditched in the Hudson River. Janis Krums, a passenger on one of the ferries that rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating and sent it to Twitpic before any other media arrived at the scene.[98][99]

The Australian Country Fire Authority used Twitter to send out regular alerts and updates regarding the February 2009 Victorian bushfires.[100] During this time the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, also used his Twitter account to send out information on the fires, how to donate money and blood, and where to seek emergency help.[101]

Also in April, public health departments used Twitter to provide updates on H1N1 cases.[102]
Use in protest and politics

In June 2009, following allegations of fraud in the Iranian presidential election, protesters used Twitter as a rallying tool and as a method of communication with the outside world after the government blocked several other modes of communication.[103][104][105][106] On June 15 Twitter rescheduled a planned 90-minute maintenance outage after a number of Twitter users and the US State Department asked Twitter executives to delay the shutdown because of concerns about the service’s role as a primary communication medium by the protesters in Iran.[107][108] CNN’s coverage of the conflict was criticized in tweets with the hashtag #CNNfail.[109] Twitter was also used to organize DDoS attacks against Iranian government websites.[110]

In August 2009, when American opponents of President Barack Obama’s health insurance reform proposals attacked the British National Health Service, thousands of NHS users took part in a Twitter campaign expressing their support for the NHS with use of the #welovetheNHS hashtag. The hashtag was initiated by Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan, who said he wanted to use a twitter campaign “as a counterweight against the lies of the American right”.[111] The campaign also received the support of several politicians including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.[112][113][114]

New York City activist Elliot Madison used twitter to report an order to disperse message from the Pittsburgh police during the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh protests. Police raided Madison’s hotel room, and one week later Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. Police claim Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. The FBI took miscellany such as refrigerator magnets, and a Curious George stuffed animal, despite that the warrant issued actually asked for evidence that indicated that potentially there were violations of federal rioting laws. In light of the United States Department of State’s recent public support of twitter use in the politics of Iran, Moldova, and Honduras it is asked whether the State Department supports free speech in the United States.[115][116][117]

When The Guardian newspaper was served in October 2009 with an unprecedented “super-injunction” banning it from reporting on a parliamentary matter, it published a cryptic article reporting what little it could. The paper claimed that this case appears “to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights”.[118][119] Alan Rusbridger, the paper’s editor, credited Twitter users with taking the initiative to uncover the muck that the press was not allowed to print, namely that the injunction was taken out by the London solicitors Carter-Ruck on behalf of commodities trader Trafigura, who did not want public discussion of the 2006 Côte d’Ivoire toxic waste dump scandal and the resulting Minton Report (available on Wikileaks [120]) The reporting injunction was lifted the following day, as Carter Ruck withdrew it before The Guardian could challenge it in the High Court.[121] Rusbridger credited the rapid back-down of Carter-Ruck to Twitter[122], as did a BBC article[123]; the Wikipedia Reference Desk also quickly figured out what the cryptic article referred to[124].

Twitter came to the attention of the Canadian House of Commons in October 2009 when MP Ujjal Dosanjh apologized on the floor for improperly “tweeting about matters that ought not to have been tweeted about” during in camera proceedings of a parliamentary committee.[125][126]

In October 2009, Twitter once again came to the attention of the Canadian public when Vancouver Councilor Andrea Reimer tweeted regarding the British Columbia Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman’s weight[127] in response to provincial legislation proposed by Coleman to bring homeless people to shelters during extreme weather.[128] Reimer posted that instead of police bringing homeless people to shelters during extreme weather that she was thinking of introducing legislation to have the police bring Coleman to Jenny Craig, an international weight loss company, on his next visit to Vancouver.[128][129][130] Coleman responded by calling the comment amateurish and from a Councilor that “doesn’t know any better.”[127] Reimer later apologized for the posting.[128]

In December 2009, Supreme Federal Court of Brazil became the first court in the world to display items on the day planner of the ministers, to inform the actions that arrive daily to the Court, and the most important decisions made by them on Twitter.[131]

Late December 2009 the Ukrainian non-profit organization Interenet-Ukraine launched a project aimed at monitoring 2010 Ukrainian presidential election based on Twitter.[132]
Use in public relations

In Britain, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released a Twitter strategy written for the use of other departments. The strategy advised the departments on why Twitter was used by the Government and how they could tweet and promote their doing so effectively.[133] The ICAEW suggested that the document could also be useful to the private sector or as a general introduction to Twitter.[134]

In the United States, a number of environment agencies and NGOs are on Twitter. At the local level, police and fire departments are beginning to use Twitter to keep the public informed of incidents.[135] Some of these departments, such as the Los Angeles Fire Department, issue up to 10 tweets per day.

In October 2008, a draft U.S. Army intelligence report identified Twitter as a “potential terrorist tool”. The report said it “is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives.”[136][137]

David Saranga of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that on December 30, 2008, that Israel would be the first government to hold a worldwide press conference via Twitter to take questions from the public about the war against Hamas in Gaza.[138]
Use in reporting dissent

On April 10, 2008, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at University of California, Berkeley, and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government[clarification needed] protest. On his way to the police station Buck used his mobile phone to send the message “Arrested” to his 48 “followers” on Twitter. Those followers contacted U.C. Berkeley, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and a number of press organizations on his behalf. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his “followers” while being detained. He was released the next day from the Mahalla jail after the college hired a lawyer for him.[139]

On April 7, 2009, thousands of young anti-communist[according to whom?] protesters stormed the presidency and the parliament building in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, accusing the government of electoral fraud. Information about these events was disseminated through Twitter using hashtag #pman. This hashtag came from the name of the central square in Chisinau: Piata Marii Adunari Nationale.[140] Twitter was also used to mobilize for the protests.[141]
Use in space exploration
NASA’s Space Station crew tweetup, October 21, 2009.

In February 2009, NASA won a Shorty Award for its near real-time status updates in 2008 of the unmanned Mars Phoenix Lander mission.[142]

In May 2009, astronaut Mike Massimino used Twitter to send updates during the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission (STS-125), the first time Twitter was used by an astronaut in space.[143][144] The STS-125 mission marked another NASA/Twitter first–a post-mission tweetup held July 21, 2009, at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., attended by about 200 members of the general public. The crew of STS-125 was on hand for answer questions.[145]

On October 21, 2009, Nicole Stott and her Expedition 21 crewmate, Jeff Williams, participated in the first tweetup from the International Space Station with about 35 members of the public at NASA headquarters[146] This involved the first live Twitter connection for the astronauts[147]. Previously, astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle or ISS have sent the messages they desire to share as tweets to Mission Control which then posted the messages via the Internet to Twitter.[148]

In November 2009, the launch of STS-129 marked NASA’s fifth tweetup, and its first such event ever held during a Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.[149] One hundred members of the general public, representing Morocco, New Zealand and 21 U.S. states, in addition to the District of Columbia, attended the unprecedented two-day event and, for a time, the #nasatweetup hashtag reached #3 on Twitter’s trending topics.[150]
Used to survey opinion

During the CBC News television coverage of the Canadian federal election on October 14, 2008, the CBC cited tweets regarding Elizabeth May and Stéphane Dion along with a graph of items mentioned on Twitter as evidence that people were calling for Dion to step down in response to the election results.[151]
Similar services
Main article: Microblogging

A number of services like Twitter exist, including some which send text messages to multiple people at once. Some services use a similar concept as Twitter but add country-specific services or combine the micro-blogging facilities with other services, such as file sharing. Other services provide similar functionality, but are open source.[152] While on the other hand, some are within closed networks for corporations, nonprofits, universities, and other organizations.[153]
See also

* Comparison of micro-blogging services
* List of Twitter services and applications

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Twitter ECourse

This ECourse Will Train You How To Explode Your Twitter Following And Use Twitter To Generate Massive Income Using Twitter Approved Methods.

The Wikipedia article on this page is released under CC-BY-SA.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or
GNU Free Documentation License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

The original article may be found at this location:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University.[5] The website’s membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include (potentially) any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 350 million active users worldwide.[6]

The original concept for Facebook was borrowed from a product produced by Zuckerberg’s prep school Phillips Exeter Academy which for decades published and distributed a printed manual of all students and faculty at the Exeter, NH-based boarding school.

Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria,[7] China,[8] Vietnam,[9] and Iran.[10] It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service.[11] Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property.[12] The site has also been involved in controversy over the sale of fans and friends.[13]

A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace.[14] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, “best-of” list, saying, “How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers’ birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?”[15]

There have recently been reports of Facebook proposing an initial public offering (IPO), i.e. issue equity shares as stock to investors. However, Zuckerberg stresses that it will not be for a few more years, and the company is in no need of additional capital.[16][17] Also, some analysts fear the Facebook IPO might be a particularly weak one.[18]

History
Facemash
Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.

Mark Zuckerberg invented Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sophomore. The site represented a Harvard University version of Hot or Not, according to the Harvard Crimson.[19] That night, Zuckerberg was blogging about a girl who had dumped him and trying to think of something to do to get her off his mind:[20][21][22]

I’m a little intoxicated, not gonna lie. So what if it’s not even 10 p.m. and it’s a Tuesday night? What? The Kirkland [dorm] facebook is open on my desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.
—9:48 pm

Yea, it’s on. I’m not exactly sure how the farm animals are going to fit into this whole thing (you can’t really ever be sure with farm animals…), but I like the idea of comparing two people together.
—11:09 pm

Let the hacking begin.
—12:58 am

According to The Harvard Crimson, Facemash “used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the ‘hotter’ person.” To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard’s computer network and copied the houses’ private dormitory ID images.

Harvard at that time did not have a student directory with photos and basic information and the initial site generated 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.[23] That the initial site mirrored people’s physical community—with their real identities—represented the key aspects of what later became Facebook.[24]

“Perhaps Harvard will squelch it for legal reasons without realizing its value as a venture that could possibly be expanded to other schools (maybe even ones with good-looking people…),” Zuckerberg wrote in his personal blog. “But one thing is certain, and it’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually…”[25] The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy and faced expulsion, but ultimately the charges were dropped.[26]

Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final by uploading 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section.[24] He opened the site up to his classmates and people started sharing their notes. “The professor said it had the best grades of any final he’d ever given. This was my first social hack. With Facebook, I wanted to make something that would make Harvard (and more open that) more open,” Zuckerberg said in a TechCrunch interview.
Thefacebook
Thefacebook on February 12, 2004

The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He was inspired, he said, by an editorial in The Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident. “It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available,” the paper observed. “The benefits are many.”[20] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “Thefacebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com.[27] “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard,” Zuckerberg told The Harvard Crimson. “I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.”[28] “When Mark finished the site, he told a couple of friends. And then one of them suggested putting it on the Kirkland House online mailing list, which was, like, three hundred people,” according to roommate Dustin Moskovitz. “And, once they did that, several dozen people joined, and then they were telling people at the other houses. By the end of the night, we were, like, actively watching the registration process. Within twenty-four hours, we had somewhere between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred registrants.”[29]

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.[30] Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[31] This expansion continued when it opened to all Ivy League and Boston area schools, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[32] Facebook incorporated in the summer of 2004 and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company’s president.[33] In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California.[31] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[34]

Facebook launched a high school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[35] At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join.[36] Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[37] Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006 to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid e-mail address.[38][39] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it was to set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[40]
Financials
Entrance to Facebook’s current headquarters in the Stanford Research Park, Palo Alto, California
Another view of Facebook’s current headquarters

Facebook received its first investment of US$500,000 in June 2004 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[41] This was followed a year later by $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners, and then $27.5 million more from Greylock Partners.[41][42] A leaked cash flow statement showed that during the 2005 fiscal year, Facebook had a net loss of $3.63 million.[43]

With the sale of social networking website MySpace to News Corp on July 19, 2005, rumors surfaced about the possible sale of Facebook to a larger media company.[44] Zuckerberg had already said he did not want to sell the company, and denied rumors to the contrary.[45] On March 28, 2006, BusinessWeek reported that a potential acquisition of Facebook was under negotiation. Facebook reportedly declined an offer of $750 million from an unknown bidder, and it was rumored the asking price rose as high as $2 billion.[46]

In September 2006, serious talks between Facebook and Yahoo! took place concerning acquisition of Facebook, with prices reaching as high as $1 billion.[47] Thiel, by then a board member of Facebook, indicated that Facebook’s internal valuation was around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1 billion by 2015, comparable to Viacom’s MTV brand, a company with a shared target demographic audience.[48]

On July 17, 2007, Zuckerberg said that selling Facebook was unlikely because he wanted to keep it independent, saying “We’re not really looking to sell the company… We’re not looking to IPO anytime soon. It’s just not the core focus of the company.”[49]

In September 2007, Microsoft approached Facebook, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the company, offering an estimated $300–500 million.[50] That month, other companies, including Google, expressed interest in buying a portion of Facebook.[51]

On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.[52] However, Microsoft bought preferred stock that carried special rights, such as “liquidation preferences” that meant Microsoft would get paid before common stockholders if the company is sold. Microsoft’s purchase also included rights to place international ads on Facebook.[53]

In November 2007, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $60 million in Facebook.[54]

In August 2008, BusinessWeek reported that private sales by employees, as well as purchases by venture capital firms, had and were being done at share prices that put the company’s total valuation at between $3.75 billion and $5 billion.[53]

In October 2008, Zuckerberg said “I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did… In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today.”[55]

In August 2009, Facebook acquired social media real-time news aggregator FriendFeed,[56] a startup created by the former Google employee and Gmail’s first engineer Paul Buchheit who, while at Google, coined the phrase “Don’t be evil”.[57][58][59]

In September 2009, Facebook claimed that it had turned cash flow positive for the first time.[60]
Website
Facebook’s homepage features a login form on the top right for existing users and a registration form directly underneath for new visitors.

Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest and fan groups, some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.[61] To combat privacy concerns, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile.[62]

The website is free to users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads.[63] By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and “reasonable community limitations”.[64]

Microsoft is Facebook’s exclusive partner for serving banner advertising,[65] and as such Facebook only serves advertisements that exist in Microsoft’s advertisement inventory. According to comScore, an internet marketing research company, Facebook collects as much data from its visitors as Google and Microsoft, but considerably less than Yahoo!.[66]
Interface evolution

Facebook Lite

In August 2009, Facebook announced the rollout of a “lite” version of the site, optimized for users on slower or intermittent Internet connections. Facebook Lite offered fewer services, excluded most third-party applications and required less bandwidth.[67] A beta version of the slimmed-down interface was released first to invited testers,[68] before a broader rollout across users in the USA, Canada, and India.[67]
Features
Main article: Facebook features

The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization.[69] MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text.[70]

Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see;[71] Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual “poke” to each other (a notification then tells a user that they have been poked);[72] Photos, where users can upload albums and photos;[73] and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.[74] Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user’s profile can also view that user’s Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only.[71]

Over time, Facebook has added features to its website. On September 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced[by whom?], which appears on every user’s homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user’s friends.[75] Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, while others were concerned it made it too easy for other people to track down individual activities (such as changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users).[76] In response to this dissatisfaction, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site’s failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.[77]

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos.[78] Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60 photos per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200 photos per album.[79][80][81][82] Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user’s friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to “tag”, or label users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user’s friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.[83]

Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.[38] During the week of April 7, 2008, Facebook released a Comet-based[84] instant messaging application called “Chat” to several networks,[85] which allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based instant messengers.

Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient’s profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.[86][87] On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace, which lets users post free classified ads.[88] Marketplace has been compared to Craigslist by CNET, which points out that the major difference between the two is that listings posted by a user on Marketplace are only seen by users that are in the same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be seen by anyone.[89]

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced “Facebook Beta”, a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a “cleaner” look.[90] After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began migrating all users to the new version beginning in September 2008.[91]

On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook is testing out a new simpler signup process.[92] On June 13, 2009, Facebook introduced a “Usernames” feature, whereby pages can be linked with simpler URLs such as,Facebook.com as opposed to Facebook.com.[93]
Platform
Facebook mobile graphical user interface
Facebook’s former headquarters in downtown Palo Alto, California

Facebook launched the Facebook Platform on May 24, 2007, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features.[94][95] A markup language called Facebook Markup Language was introduced simultaneously; it is used to customize the “look and feel” of applications that developers create. Using the Platform, Facebook launched several new applications,[94][95] including Gifts, allowing users to send virtual gifts to each other, Marketplace, allowing users to post free classified ads, Events, giving users a method of informing their friends about upcoming events, and Video, letting users share homemade videos with one another.[96][97]

Applications that have been created on the Platform include chess, which both allow users to play games with their friends.[98] In such games, a user’s moves are saved on the website, allowing the next move to be made at any time rather than immediately after the previous move.[99]

By November 3, 2007, seven thousand applications had been developed on the Facebook Platform, with another hundred created every day.[100] By the second annual f8 developers conference on July 23, 2008, the number of applications had grown to 33,000,[101] and the number of registered developers had exceeded 400,000.[102]

Within a few months of launching the Facebook Platform, issues arose regarding “application spam”, which involves Facebook applications “spamming” users to request it be installed.[103] Application spam has been considered[by whom?] one of the possible causes to the drop in visitors to Facebook starting from the beginning of 2008, when its growth had fallen from December 2007 to January 2008, its first drop since its launch in 2004.

Facebook Connect was announced for the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DSi on June 1 at E3.[104]

On February 2, 2010, Facebook announce the release of HipHop as an opensource project.
Facebook on smartphones

Many new smartphones offer access to the Facebook services either through their web-browsers or applications. The Facebook iPhone app was launched August 2007 and as of July 2008 over 1.5 million people use it regularly.[105] A free application for the iPhone OS named “Facebook for iPhone” was launched July 2008.[105] Version 2.0 of this app was released in September 2008 and featured improved services such as being able to respond to friend requests and notifications.[106] Version 3.0 was released in August 2009 and added features such as events, and uploading video with a iPhone 3GS.[107]

Nokia offers a Facebook app on its Ovi Store for Nokia S60 devices such as the N97 and contains most of the functionality of the full website.[108]

Google’s Android 2.0 OS automatically includes an official Facebook app. The first device to use this is the Motorola Droid. The app has options to sync Facebook friends with contacts, which adds profile pictures and status updates to the contacts list. RIM also offers a Facebook application for the BlackBerry. It includes a range of functions, including an ability to integrate Facebook events into the BlackBerry calendar, and using Facebook profile pictures for Caller ID.[109]
Server infrastructure

At QCon San Francisco 2008,[110] Director of Engineering Aditya Agarwal indicated that the front-end servers are running a PHP LAMP stack with the addition of Memcache, and the back-end services are written in a variety of languages including C++, Java, Python and Erlang. Other components of the Facebook infrastructure (which have been released as open source projects) include Scribe, Thrift and Cassandra, as well as existing open-source components such as ODS.

In January 2010, Facebook confirmed it is building the company’s first custom data center in Prineville, Oregon.[111] When completed in June 2011, the 147,000-square-foot (13,700 m2) building will occupy 30 acres (12 ha) of the 124-acre (50 ha) site they purchased, and will house 35 employees.[112][113]
Downtime and outages

Facebook has had a number of outages and downtime large enough to draw some media attention. A 2007 outage resulted in a security hole that enabled some users to read other users’ personal mail.[114] In 2008, the site was inaccessible for about a day, from many locations in many countries.[115] In spite of these occurrences, a report issued by Pingdom found that Facebook had less downtime in 2008 than most social networking websites.[116] On September 16, 2009, Facebook started having major problems with loading when people signed in. On September 18, 2009, Facebook went down for the second time in 2009, the first time being when a group of hackers were deliberately trying to drown out a political speaker who had social networking problems from continuously speaking against the Iranian election results.[citation needed] In October 2009, an unspecified number of Facebook users were unable to access their accounts for over three weeks.[117][118][119][120][121]
URL shortener

On December 14, 2009 Facebook has launched its own URL shortener based on FB.me domain name.[122] From that point on, all links based on facebook.com can be accessed under fb.me, which is seven characters shorter.
Effect on politics

Facebook’s effect on the American political system became clear in 2008, as Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the “back to back” Republican and Democratic January 5, debates.[123][124][125] Charles Gibson moderated both debates, held at the Dana Center for the Humanities at Saint Anselm College. Facebook users could take part in debate groups organized around specific topics, register to vote, and message questions.[126] Over 1,000,000 people installed the facebook application – US politics and there was measurable responses to specific comments made by candidates during the debate.[127] This debate aside had shown many what young students had already known; Facebook was a new way to interact and voice opinions. An article written by Michelle Sullivan of Uwire.com illustrates how the “facebook effect” has affected youth voting rates, support and general involvement in the 2008 election.[128]
Reception

According to comScore, Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008.[129] ComScore reports that Facebook attracted 132.1 million unique visitors in June 2008, compared to MySpace, which attracted 117.6 million.[130]

According to Alexa, the website’s ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in terms of worldwide traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007, and is currently 2nd.[131] Quantcast ranks the website 4th in the U.S. in terms of traffic,[132] and Compete.com ranks it 2nd in the U.S.[133] The website is the most popular for uploading photos, with 14 million uploaded daily.[134]

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada,[135] the United Kingdom,[136] and the United States.[137][138][139][140] The website has won awards such as placement into the “Top 100 Classic Websites” by PC Magazine in 2007,[141] and winning the “People’s Voice Award” from the Webby Awards in 2008.[142] In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based company specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named the second most popular thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.[143]

By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that the generic verb “facebooking” had come into use to describe the process of browsing others’ profiles or updating one’s own.[144]

In 2008, The Collins English dictionary declared “Facebook” as their new Word of the Year.[145] In December 2009, The New Oxford American Dictionary declared their word of the year to be the verb “unfriend”:

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

Use by courts

In December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world’s first legal judgement that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding.[146]

In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David Glendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the company Axe Market Garden via Facebook.[147]
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Facebook
See also: Use of social network websites in investigations

Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years.
Children under 13

Facebook does not actively enforce the age limit, resulting in children under the age of 13 using it.[148] This has raised concerns in regard to the safety of children.[149]
Local Cases

In October 2005, the University of New Mexico blocked access to Facebook from its campus computers and networks.[150] It cited a violation of the university’s Acceptable Use Policy for abusing computer resources as the reason, stating the website forces use of the university’s credentials for activity not related to the university. The school later unblocked Facebook after the website rectified the situation by displaying a notice on the login page stating the credentials used on the website are separate from the ones used for their school accounts.[151] The Ontario government also blocked access to Facebook for its employees in May 2007, stating the website was “not directly related to the workplace”.[152]

On January 1, 2008, a memorial group on Facebook posted the identity of murdered Toronto teenager Stefanie Rengel, whose family had not yet given the Toronto Police Service their consent to release her name to the media, as well as the identities of her accused killers (Melissa Todorovic[153] and D.B.) — despite the fact that under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act, it is illegal to publish the name of an underage criminal.[154] While police and Facebook staff attempted to comply with the privacy regulations by deleting posts mentioning her name, they noted it was difficult to effectively police individual users who repeatedly republished the deleted information.[155]

In January 2010 in North Syracuse, New York a seventh grade student at Roxboro Road Middle School was suspended for creating a Facebook group page that libeled one of her teachers. The school’s principal said that the young girl’s intent was to “hurt her teacher” who had, apparently, angered her in some way. Twenty-five other students who had contributed to her page were given lesser punishments.[156] The Superintendent of the North Syracuse Central School District Dr. Jerome Melvin said that the comments on the page were “sexual in nature”. He has emphasized the seriousness of the case and expressed his hope that it will trigger parents into taking a more serious effort in monitoring their children’s internet activities.[157]

In March 2009 in Finland city of Kokkola had a temporary ban of Facebook usage; The reason was spread of viruses through Facebook usage. [158] [159]

In August 2009 US Marine Corps issued an immediate ban of internet social networking sites on marine corps enterprise network. [160]

In September 2009 Portsmouth City Council blocked access to the social networking sites, including Facebook. [161]

In October 2009 in Finland Central Finland Hospital District prevented usage of Facebook. The reason was the Facebook group of Hospital District, and joking about the patients in the group. Also sensitive patient information was discussed in the group, even though names of the patients were not mentioned in the group(s). [162] [163]

In Janurary 2010 in Finland city of Vaasa prevented Facebook usage from all workstations of the city; According to CIO of the city, the main reason was the level of overwhelming internet traffic from workstations to the Facebook service, and after technical measures to prevent Facebook usage the level of internet traffic was controllable. It remains to be seen, if these technical measures will be used indefinetely. [164]

In Janurary 2010 in Finland Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District prevented usage of Facebook and several other social media websites. The reasons were prevention of leakages of critical patient information and prevention of usage of Facebook during working hours. [165]
Studies

During 2007-2010 there has been some studies, mostly white papers by companies, about Facebook. [166] [167] [168] [169] [170] [171] [172] [173] [174] [175] [176]
Banned by governments

Because of the open nature of Facebook, several countries have banned access to it including Syria,[177] China,[8] Iran,[178] and Vietnam.[179]
Africa and Middle East

The Syrian government cited the ban was on the premise that the website promoted attacks on authorities.[177][180] The government also feared Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks on Facebook.[177] Facebook was also used by Syrian citizens to criticize the government, and public criticism of the Syrian government is punishable by imprisonment.[177]

On February 5, 2008, Fouad Mourtada, a citizen of Morocco, was arrested for the alleged creation of a faked Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco.[181][182][183][184][185][186][187]

During the 2009 election in Iran, the website was banned because of fears that opposition movements were being organized on the website. Access has since been reinstated.[178]
Far East

In China, Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots.[8] Huanqi.com had asserted that “Xinjiang Independence” activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network.[188]

In Vietnam, an unauthenticated document supposedly issued by the Ministry of Public Security dating August 27, 2009 instructing ISPs to block Facebook sparked shutdown fears.[9] Access to Facebook became intermittent in mid-November and major ISPs were swamped by complaints.[9] Some technicians confirmed being ordered by the government to block access to Facebook while government officials denied it.[179]
Beacon
Main article: Facebook Beacon

Facebook announced Facebook Beacon on November 7, 2007, a marketing initiative that allows websites to publish a user’s activities to their Facebook profile as “Social Ads” and promote products.[189] When launching Beacon, Facebook stated “no personally identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad”, and that “Facebook users will only see Social Ads to the extent their friends are sharing information with them.”[190] After Facebook was criticized for collecting more user information for advertisers than was previously stated, Zuckerberg publicly apologized on December 5, 2007 for the way Facebook launched Beacon, saying, “The problem with our initial approach of making it an opt-out system instead of opt-in was that if someone forgot to decline to share something, Beacon still went ahead and shared it with their friends.”[191][192]
Privacy

Several concerns have emerged regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining.[193] Two MIT students were able to download over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, New York University, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard University) using an automated shell script, as part of a research project on Facebook privacy published on December 14, 2005.[194] The possibility of data mining remains open, as evidenced in May 2008, when the BBC technology program “Click” demonstrated that personal details of Facebook users and their friends could be stolen by submitting malicious applications.[195]

Privacy proponents have criticized the site’s privacy agreement, which states: “We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile.”[196] Another clause that received criticism concerned Facebook’s right to sell a user’s data to private companies, stating: “We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.”[197] This concern was addressed by Facebook spokesman Chris Hughes who said, “Simply put, we have never provided our users’ information to third party companies, nor do we intend to.”[198]

Concerns have also been raised regarding the difficulty of deleting user accounts. Previously, Facebook only allowed users to “deactivate” their accounts so that their profile was no longer visible. However, any information the user had entered into the website and on their profile remained on the website’s servers. This outraged many users who wished to remove their accounts permanently, citing reasons such as the inability to erase “embarrassing or over-personal online profiles from their student days as they entered the job market, for fear employers would locate the profiles”.[199] Facebook changed its account deletion policies on February 29, 2008, allowing users to contact the website to request that their accounts be permanently deleted.[200] On May 7, 2009 it was revealed by the New York Times that a bug allowed personal e-mail addresses of Facebook users to be easily accessible. The bug was fixed “within hours of it being reported to us.”[201]

In July 2009 it became known that there were concerns by the Canadian Privacy Commission that Facebook was breaching several Canadian privacy laws by not deleting a user’s information when their account was deactivated and by giving “confusing or incomplete” information to subscribers. Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly was quoted as saying that “[Facebook] was working with the commission to resolve the issues”. The CPC gave Facebook 30 days before making further review and recommendations. If Facebook does not comply with the Canadian statutes, it is possible the issue could be taken to the federal courts.[202]

In December 2009, Facebook altered its privacy settings, in what was described by Gawker as Facebook’s Great Betrayal,[203] forcing user profile photos and friends lists to be visible in users’ public listing, even for users who had explicitly chosen to hide this information previously,[204] and making photos and personal information public unless users were proactive about limiting access.[205] For example, a user whose “Family and Relationships” information was set to be viewable by “Friends Only” would default to being viewable by “Everyone” (publicly viewable). That is, information such as the gender of partner you are interested in, relationship status, and family relations became viewable to those even without a facebook account. Facebook was heavily criticized[206] for both reducing its users’ privacy and pushing users to remove privacy protections. Groups criticizing the changes include the Electronic Frontier Foundation[204] and American Civil Liberties Union.[207] Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, had hundreds of personal photos and his events calendar exposed in the transition.[208][209] Facebook has since re-included an option to hide friends lists from being viewable; however, this preference is no longer listed with other privacy settings, and the former ability to hide the friends list from selected people among one’s own friends is no longer possible.[210] Journalist Dan Gillmor deleted his Facebook account over the changes, stating he “can’t entirely trust Facebook”[211] and Heidi Moore at Slate’s Big Money temporarily deactivated her account as a “conscientious objection”.[212] Other journalists have been similarly disappointed and outraged by the changes.[203] Defending the changes, founder Mark Zuckerberg said “we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”[213] The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched another investigation into Facebook’s privacy policies after complaints following the change.[214]

Also, in late 2009, regional networks were removed due to privacy concerns because of the increasing number of members of each regional network. Before this, information including friends lists, gender, and birthday were available for all members of a user’s region to see.
Teen suicide and relationships

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, England’s top Catholic bishop, placed a warning that Facebook and other social networking sites may lead teens to commit suicide. Nichols warned that social networking sites can damage intimate relationships and leave teenagers without strong social ties.[215]
Pro-mafia groups’ case

In Italy, the discovery of pro-mafia groups[216] caused an alert in the country[217][218][219] and brought the government, after a short debate,[220] to rapidly issue a law which will force ISPs to deny access to entire sites in case of refused removal of illegal contents; the removal can be requested by a prosecutor in any case there is a suspicion that criminal speech (apology or incitement to crime) is published on a website. The amendment was passed by the Senate on February 5, 2008, and now needs to be passed unchanged[221] by the Chamber of Deputies to become immediately effective.

Facebook and other websites, Google included,[222] criticized the amendment emphasizing the eventual effects on the freedom of speech of those users who do not violate any law.
Phishing

As predicted by Symantec in April 2007,[223] Facebook users all over the world suffered a massive phishing campaign, launched in May 2009 by Russian hackers from servers in Latvia and China, that led to thousands of accounts being hijacked.[224] Facebook was criticized[who?] for its late reaction to this issue and the fact that initially it merely tried to block the attack, rather than notifying users of the situation.
Holocaust denial groups

JIDF, an activist group fighting Antisemitism, has criticized Facebook for condoning and hosting Holocaust denial groups on its network, which are in violation of the Facebook Terms of Service. David Appletree, the founder of JIDF states, “Holocaust denial is hate speech and Antisemitism.”[225][226][227]

Prominent technology bloggers are also joining in to criticize Facebook. Brian Cuban, the brother of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, in his blog post says, “Holocaust denial is repulsive and ignorant”[228] and calls Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remove the groups.[229] Techcrunch CEO Michael Arrington says that Facebook’s stubbornness on not removing the groups is wrong and offensive.[230]
Lamebook

In April 2009, two Austin graphic designers created Lamebook, a blog where Facebook users can submit humorous entries from the social networking site. The site averages about 800,000 hits per day.[231]
Controversy
uSocial

In November 2009, Facebook sent social media marketing company uSocial a cease and desist notice regarding the sale of fans and friends on the site.[232] While uSocial claimed that they were not conducting any illegal activity,[233] they did remove the friend-selling service from their website.[234] However, they still continue to sell fans for Facebook pages.[citation needed]
Litigation
ConnectU
Main article: Criticism of Facebook#Connectu.com lawsuit

In 2004, ConnectU, a company founded by classmates of Zuckerberg, filed a lawsuit against Facebook. They claimed that Zuckerberg had broken an oral contract for them to build the Facebook site, copied their idea,[235] and used source code that belonged to them.[25][236][237][238] The parties reached a confidential settlement agreement in February 2008.[239] In 2008, they attempted unsuccessfully to rescind the settlement, claiming that Facebook had understated its valuation in connection with its settlement negotiations.[240][241][242][243][244] Despite the confidentiality agreement, a law firm that represented ConnectU inadvertently disclosed the $65 million settlement amount.[245]
StudiVZ

On July 18, 2008, Facebook sued StudiVZ in a California federal court, alleging that StudiVZ copied its look, feel, features, and services. StudiVZ denied the claims, and asked for declaratory judgment at the District Court in Stuttgart, Germany.[246] On September 10, 2009, a settlement was reached, resulting in StudiVZ paying an undisclosed sum to Facebook and both companies continuing business as usual.[247]
Grant Raphael

On July 24, 2008, the High Court in London ordered Grant Raphael to pay GBP £22,000 (about USD $43,700 at the then-current exchange rate) for breach of privacy and libel. Raphael had posted a fake Facebook page purporting to be that of a former schoolfriend and business colleague, Mathew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallen out in 2000. The fake page claimed that Firsht was homosexual and untrustworthy. The case is believed to be the first successful invasion of privacy and defamation verdict against someone over an entry on a social networking site.[248][249][250][251][252][253]
Adam Guerbuez

Facebook won a lawsuit against Canadian Adam Guerbuez, of Montreal, worth $873 million. Guerbuez had spammed the website with various advertisements including penis enhancements and marijuana. Guerbuez founded Atlantis Blue Capital.[254]
See also
San Francisco Bay Area portal
Companies portal

* Criticism of Facebook
* Facebook Beacon
* Facebook features
* MySpace

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189. ^ Facebook (2007-11-06). “Leading Websites Offer Facebook Beacon for Social Distribution”. Press release. http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=9166. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
190. ^ Facebook (2007-11-06). “Facebook Unveils Facebook Ads”. Press release. http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=9176. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
191. ^ Perez, Juan Carlos (2007-11-30). “Facebook’s Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought”. PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140182-c,onlineprivacy/article.html. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
192. ^ Zuckerberg, Mark (2007-12-05). “Thoughts on Beacon”. Facebook. http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7584397130. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
193. ^ Rampell, Catherine (2008-02-23). “What Facebook Knows That You Don’t”. The Washington Post: p. A15. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202630.html. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
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196. ^ “Facebook Privacy Policy”. Facebook. 2007-08-12. http://www.facebook.com/policy.php. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
197. ^ Roper, Eric (2005-11-14). “Employers, marketers and parents accessing Facebook database”. GW Hatchet. http://www.gwhatchet.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=65d53002-d568-4511-ade8-0d40866e6406. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
198. ^ Peterson, Chris (2006-02-13). “Who’s Reading Your Facebook?”. The Virginia Informer.
199. ^ Ramasastry, Anita (2008-02-29). “On Facebook Forever? Why the Networking Site was Right to Change its Deletion Policies, And Why Its Current Policies Still Pose Privacy Risks”. FindLaw. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20080229.html. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
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201. ^ Richmond, Rita (2009-05-07). “A Facebook “Bug” Revealed Personal E-mail Addresses”. New York Times. http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/a-facebook-bug-revealed-personal-e-mail-addresses/. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
202. ^ “Facebook ‘breaches Canadian law’”. BBC News Online. 2009-07-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8155367.stm. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
203. ^ a b Gawker.com
204. ^ a b “Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly | Electronic Frontier Foundation”. Eff.org. 2009-12-09. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/facebooks-new-privacy-changes-good-bad-and-ugly. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
205. ^ “What Does Facebook’s Privacy Transition Mean for You? | ACLUNC dotRights”. Dotrights.org. 2009-12-04. http://dotrights.org/what-does-facebooks-privacy-transition-mean-you. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
206. ^ “Facebook faces criticism on privacy change”. BBC News. 2008-12-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8405334.stm. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
207. ^ ACLU.org
208. ^ “Facebook CEO’s Private Photos Exposed by the New ‘Open’ Facebook”. Gawker.com. http://gawker.com/5423914/facebook-ceos-private-photos-exposed-by-the-new-open-facebook/gallery/. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
209. ^ “Facebook Backs Off as Founder’s Pictures Go Public – Yahoo! News”. News.yahoo.com. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20091212/tc_nf/70579. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
210. ^ McCarthy, Caroline. “Facebook backtracks on public friend lists | The Social – CNET News”. News.cnet.com. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10413835-36.html. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
211. ^ Mediactive.com
212. ^ TheBigMoney.com
213. ^ ReadWriteWeb.com
214. ^ SFgate.com
215. ^ Wynne-Jones, Jonathan (2009-08-01). “Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop Nichols”. Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5956719/Facebook-and-MySpace-can-lead-children-to-commit-suicide-warns-Archbishop-Nichols.html. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
216. ^ Some of the pro-mafia groups; one of them claims for Bernardo Provenzano’s sainthood.
217. ^ “Anger at pro-Mafia groups on Facebook”. 2009-01-09. http://www.france24.com/en/20090109-anger-mafia-groups-facebook-internet-italy. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
218. ^ “Italian authorities wary of Facebook tributes to Mafia”. 2009-01-20. http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/20/europe/mafia.1-411653.php. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
219. ^ “Italy Troubled Over Mafia On Facebook”. 2009-01-12. http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/01/12/italy-troubled-over-mafia-on-facebook. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
220. ^ “Italy Debates Law That May Block Access to Facebook”. 2009-02-11. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aTVfRMcum1Qk. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
221. ^ (Italian) The text approved by the Senate
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225. ^ The rise of Hate 2.0
226. ^ JIDF Letter to Facebook Regarding Illegal Content
227. ^ Holocaust Denial on Facebook is just the Tip of the Iceberg
228. ^ Facebook: Holocaust Denial Should Be Discussed Openly
229. ^ Open Letter To Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
230. ^ Facebook Remains Stubbornly Proud Of Position On Holocaust Denial
231. ^ Kopun, Francine (27 November 2009). “Nothing is off-limits in TMI culture”. http://www.thestar.com/living/article/730332–nothing-is-off-limits-in-tmi-culture. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
232. ^ Facebook Acts On Follower Trade
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Alongside his brothers, he made his debut as lead singer and youngest member of The Jackson 5 in 1964. He began his solo career in 1971. His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album ever, with Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995) among the world’s best-selling albums ever. He is sometimes credited with having elevated the music video from mere promotional tool into an art form: his videos for Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller made him the first African American artist to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical, vocal style and choreography are credited with having transcended generational, racial and cultural barriers.

Jackson is one of the few artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Other achievements include several Guinness World Records (including Most Successful Entertainer of All Time), Grammy Awards (including the Living Legend Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award) and 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, 24 in a solo capacity and including one as Artist of the Century. He had 17 number one singles in the US, including four as a member of the Jackson 5, and estimated world sales of 750 million records,[2] making him the highest-selling recording artist ever.[3]

Jackson’s personal life generated controversy for years. His changing appearance was noticed from the late 1970s onwards, with changes to his nose, and skin color, causing much media speculation. Though no charges were brought at the time, he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993. In 2005 he was tried and acquitted of similar charges. He married twice, first in 1994 and again in 1996. He brought up three children, one born to a surrogate mother. While preparing for the This Is It concert tour in 2009, Jackson died at the age of 50 after suffering from cardiac arrest. He reportedly had been administered drugs such as propofol and lorazepam, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. His death triggered an outpouring of grief from around the world, and his globally live-broadcast memorial service attracted an audience of up to one billion people.[4] His death also precipitated a huge surge in his album sales, resulting in his becoming the best-selling artist of 2009 in both the United States and globally, with sales in excess of 8.2 million units in the U.S.[5] Also in the United States, he became the first artist ever to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year.[6] Globally, he posthumously sold 29 million albums, and had an unprecedented eight of the top 25 best-selling albums worldwide.[7]

Life and career
Early life and The Jackson 5 (1958–1975)
Jackson’s childhood home in in Gary, Indiana

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, as the eighth of ten children in Gary, Indiana, an industrial suburb of Chicago, to an African American working-class family. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah’s Witness, and his father, Joseph Walter “Joe” Jackson, a steel mill worker who performed with an R&B band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and six brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Brandon (Marlon’s twin brother, who died shortly after birth)[8] and Randy.[9]

Jackson had a troubled relationship with his father, Joe. He stated that he was physically and emotionally abused during incessant rehearsals, with whippings, and name-calling, though he admitted his father’s strict discipline played a large role in his success.[10] In one altercation recalled by Marlon, Joseph held Michael upside down by one leg and “pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks”.[11] Joseph would also grab his sons and push them with great force against the wall. One night while Michael was asleep, Joseph climbed into his room through the bedroom window, wearing a fright mask and screamed, in hopes to scare him. He said he wanted to teach the children not to leave the window open when they went to sleep. For years afterward, Jackson said he suffered nightmares about being kidnapped from his bedroom.[11] Joseph acknowledged in 2003 that he regularly whipped Jackson as a child.[12]

Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in an interview with Oprah Winfrey broadcast on February 10, 1993 live from around the world. He admitted that he had often cried from loneliness and would sometimes even vomit when he saw his father. Jackson’s father was also said to have regularly made fun of Michael’s physical appearance, and called him “fat nose” in public on numerous occasions.[13] In fact, Michael Jackson’s deep dissatisfaction with his appearance, his nightmares and chronic sleep problems, his tendency to remain hyper-compliant especially with his father, and to remain child-like throughout his adult life are in many ways consistent with the effects of this chronic maltreatment he endured as a young child.[14] In an interview with Martin Bashir, later included in the 2003 broadcast of Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson acknowledged that his father hurt him when he was a child, but was nonetheless a “genius.” When Bashir dismissed the positive remark and continued asking about beatings, Jackson put his hand over his face and objected to the questions. He recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, and that “if you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you”.[15][16]

He showed talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates during a Christmas recital in kindergarten. In 1964, he and Marlon joined the Jackson 5 – a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing; at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals, and the group’s name was changed to The Jackson 5.[9] The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at a string of black clubs known as the “chitlin’ circuit”, where they often opened stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major local talent show with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)”, led by Michael.[17]

The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including “Big Boy”, for the local record label Steeltown in 1967, and signed with Motown Records in 1968.[9] Rolling Stone magazine later described the young Michael as “a prodigy” with “overwhelming musical gifts,” writing that he “quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer.”[18] The group set a chart record when its first four singles (“I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Save”, and “I’ll Be There”) peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[9]

Between 1972 and 1975, Jackson released four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben, released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise, and producing successful singles such as “Got to Be There”, “Ben”, and a remake of Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin”. The group’s sales began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown’s strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. Although they scored several top 40 hits, including the top 5 disco single “Dancing Machine” and the top 20 hit “I Am Love”, the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.[19]
Move to Epic and Off the Wall (1975–1981)

The Jackson 5 signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975, joining the Philadelphia International Records division, later Epic Records,[19] and renaming themselves The Jacksons.[20] They continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984, during which Jackson was the lead songwriter, writing hits such as “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)”, “This Place Hotel,” and “Can You Feel It”.[17]

In 1978, he starred as the scarecrow in the musical, The Wiz,[21] and it was here that he teamed up with Quincy Jones, who was arranging the film’s musical score. Jones agreed to produce Jackson’s next solo album, Off the Wall.[22] In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson’s second rhinoplasty and subsequent operations.[23]

Jones and Jackson produced the Off the Wall album together. At the album’s pre-release party, Michael, himself, stated that Little Richard had a “huge influence” on him.[24] Songwriters for the album included Jackson, Heatwave’s Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney. Released in 1979, it was the first album to generate four U.S. top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” and “Rock with You”.[25] It reached number three on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[26] In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”. That year, he also won Billboard Music Awards for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, also for “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”.[25] Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release.[27] In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit.[28]
Thriller and Motown 25 (1982–83)

In 1982, Jackson contributed the song “Someone In the Dark” to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record won a Grammy for Best Album for Children.[29] That same year Jackson issued his second Epic album, Thriller, which surprisingly became the most commercially successful album of all time with nearly no promotion. The album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks and 37 of those weeks at the peak position. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including “Billie Jean”, “Beat It,” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”[30] Thriller was certified for 29 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the United States. It is the best-selling album of all time in the United States.[31] It was, and currently remains, the best-selling album of all time, with 110 million copies worldwide.[32] Jackson’s attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point: approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record-breaking profits from sales of CDs and The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a documentary produced by Jackson and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the documentary sold over 350,000 copies in a few months. The era saw the arrival of novelties like dolls modeled after Michael Jackson, which appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12.[33] Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli writes that, “Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item — like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie — and started selling like a household staple.”[34]
MichaelJacksonMoonwalk.ogg
Play video
Jackson debuts the moonwalk during his performance on Motown 25

Time described Jackson’s influence at that point as “Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too”.[33] The New York Times wrote that, “in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else”.[35]

Jackson’s popularity would soar further. On March 25, 1983, he performed live on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, both with The Jackson 5 and on his own singing “Billie Jean”. Wearing a distinctive sequined glove, he debuted his signature dance move, the moonwalk, which former Soul Train dancer and Shalamar member, Jeffrey Daniel had taught him 3 years before. His performances during the event were seen by 47 million viewers, and drew comparisons to Elvis Presley’s and the The Beatles’ appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.[36] Anna Kisselgoff of the The New York Times said, “The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing.”[37] Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) noted Jackson had created a pivotal turning point in the history of popular music “in that [his performance] marked the shift of emphasis from musical performance to visual presentation. In stark contrast to the other, live, performances of Motown 25, Jackson performed to a pre-recorded soundtrack, lip-syncing to his multi-layered pre-recorded voice, thus indicating that the visual reenactment of music video imagery had become an integral, and perhaps dominant, part of live performance.”[38] From this performance emerged the origin of music video as the primary source through which artists promote popular music.
Pepsi, “We Are the World” and business career (1984–85)

On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial, overseen by executive Philip Dusenberry,[39] at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson’s hair on fire. He suffered second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and he also had his third rhinoplasty shortly thereafter.[23] Jackson never recovered from this injury. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, which now has a “Michael Jackson Burn Center” in honor of his donation.[40]
Jackson at the White House South Portico with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1984

On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.[41] Jackson won eight awards during the Grammys that year.

Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The Jacksons, showcased much of Jackson’s new solo material to more than two million Americans. He donated all the funds (around $8 million) raised from the Victory Tour to charity.[42] He also co-wrote the charity single “We Are the World” in 1985 with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in the U.S. and Africa. It became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 30 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.[43]

In 1985, ATV Music, a music publishing company owning thousands of music copyrights, including the Northern Songs catalogue that contained the majority of the Lennon/McCartney compositions recorded by The Beatles, was put up for sale.[44][45] Jackson had become interested in owning music catalogs after working with Paul McCartney in the early 1980s: Jackson had learned McCartney made approximately $40 million a year from other people’s songs. McCartney’s attorney assured Jackson’s attorney that McCartney was not interested in bidding on ATV: McCartney reportedly said “It’s too pricey”. However, McCartney later changed his mind and tried to persuade John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono to join him in a joint bid. Ono declined, and McCartney pulled out. Jackson eventually beat the rest of the competition in negotiations that lasted 10 months, purchasing the catalog for $47.5 million.[44][46]
Appearance, tabloids, Bad, autobiography and films (1986–87)
See also: Michael Jackson’s health and appearance

Jackson’s skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the mid 1980s, it gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he was bleaching his skin.[47] According to J. Randy Taraborrelli’s biography, in 1986, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission; both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight. (His long-term dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein confirmed this on Larry King Live, after his death.) The treatments he used for his condition further lightened his skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he could appear very pale.[48] The structure of his face had also changed: several surgeons speculated that he had undergone various nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips, and cheekbone surgery.[49]

Jackson lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for “a dancer’s body”.[50] Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem later in life.[51] Some medical professionals have further speculated that he was suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological condition whereby the sufferer dislikes his appearance and has no concept of how he is viewed by others.[48] Jackson claimed that he had only two rhinoplasties and no other surgery on his face, although at one point he mentioned having a dimple created in his chin.[50]
Jackson two years after he was diagnosed with vitiligo, here in the early stages of the disease

He became the subject of increasingly sensational reports. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, Jackson had disseminated the fabricated story himself.[52][53] When Jackson bought a chimpanzee called Bubbles from a laboratory, it was reported as an example of increasing detachment from reality.[54] It was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the “elephant man”) and although untrue, Jackson did not deny the story.[52][53] Although initially he saw these stories as publicity, he stopped leaking untruths to the press as they became more sensational, so the media began making up their own stories.[53][55][56]

These reports became embedded in the public consciousness, inspiring the nickname “Wacko Jacko,” which Jackson came to despise.[57] Responding to the gossip, Jackson remarked to a reporter:

Why not just tell people I’m an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They’ll believe anything you say, because you’re a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, “I’m an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight,” people would say, “Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He’s cracked up. You can’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.”[58]

Jackson wore a gold-plated military style jacket with belt in the Bad era

Jackson starred in the 3-D film Captain EO, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis at the time, and was later hosted in Disney theme parks. Disneyland featured the film in its Tomorrowland area for nearly 11 years, while Walt Disney World screened the film in its EPCOT theme park from 1986 to 1994.[59] With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson’s first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.[60] It had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success, spawning seven hit singles in the U.S., five of which (“I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana”) reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, more than any other album.[61] As of 2008, the album had sold 30 million copies worldwide.[62]

In 1987, Jackson disassociated himself from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in response to their disapproval of the Thriller video.[63] The Bad World Tour began on September 12 that year, finishing on January 14, 1989.[64] In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour.[65] He broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to an audience of 4.4 million people, and gained a further Guinness World Record when the tour grossed him $125 million. During the trip he invited underprivileged children to watch for free, and gave donations to hospitals, orphanages, and other charities.[64]
Autobiography, changing appearance and Neverland (1988–1990)
Jackson performing “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

In 1988, Jackson released his first autobiography, Moon Walk, which took four years to complete and sold 200,000 copies.[66] Jackson wrote about his childhood, The Jackson 5, and the abuse he had suffered.[67] He also wrote about his facial appearance, saying he had had two rhinoplastic surgeries and dimple created in his chin.[50] He attributed much of the change in the structure of his face to puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hair style, and stage lighting.[50] Moon Walk reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers’ list.[68] The musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage and music videos that starred Jackson and Joe Pesci. It debuted atop the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22 weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues.[69]

In March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez, California to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. He installed Ferris wheels, a menagerie, and a movie theater on the 2,700-acre (11 km2) property. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, it was valued at approximately $100 million.[18][70] In 1989, his annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year alone.[71] Shortly afterwards, he became the first Westerner to appear in a television ad in the Soviet Union.[69]

His success resulted in him being dubbed the “King of Pop.”[72][73][74][75] The nickname was popularized by Elizabeth Taylor when she presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, proclaiming him “the true king of pop, rock and soul.”[76] President George H. W. Bush presented him with The White House’s special “Artist of the Decade.”[77] From 1985 to 1990, he donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all of the profits from his single “Man in the Mirror” went to charity.[78][79] Jackson’s live rendition of “You Were There” at Sammy Davis Jr.’s 60th birthday celebration received an Emmy nomination.[69] It was also around this time that Michael struck up a friendship with child actor Macaulay Culkin, a friendship that would last until his death.
Dangerous, Heal the World Foundation and Super Bowl XXVII (1991–93)

In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million, a record-breaking deal at the time, displacing Neil Diamond’s renewal contract with Columbia Records.[70] He released his eighth album Dangerous in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous had shipped seven million copies in the U.S. and had sold 32 million copies worldwide; it is the most successful new jack swing album of all time.[80][81][82] In the United States, the album’s first single “Black or White” was its biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart performances worldwide.[83] The album’s second single “Remember the Time” spent eight weeks in the top five in the United States, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[84] In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Awards in a chair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals.[85] In the UK and other parts of Europe, “Heal the World” was the biggest hit from the album; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at number two in 1992.[84]

Jackson founded the “Heal the World Foundation” in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson’s ranch to enjoy theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property. The foundation also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war, poverty, and disease. The Dangerous World Tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts. All profits from the concerts went to the “Heal the World Foundation”, raising millions of dollars in relief.[84][86] He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands.[87] Following the illness and death of Ryan White, Jackson helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was still controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration at Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research.[88][89]

In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt.[90] His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable and enthusiastic reception of more than 100,000 people, some of them carrying signs that read, “Welcome Home Michael.”[90] In his trip to Côte d’Ivoire, Jackson was crowned “King Sani” by a tribal chief.[90] He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.[90]

One of Jackson’s most acclaimed performances came during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. As the performances began, Jackson was catapulted onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvas, he maintained a motionless “clenched fist, standing statue stance”, dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for several minutes while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and began to sing and dance. His routine included four songs: “Jam”, “Billie Jean”, “Black or White” and “Heal the World”. It was the first Super Bowl where the audience figures increased during the half-time show, and was viewed by 135 million Americans alone; Jackson’s Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album chart.[47]

Jackson was given the “Living Legend Award” at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. “Black or White” was Grammy nominated for best vocal performance. “Jam” gained two nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.[84]
First child sexual abuse allegations (1993)
Main article: 1993 child sexual abuse accusations against Michael Jackson

Jackson gave a 90-minute interview to Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his second television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness. He denied tabloid rumors that he had bought the bones of the Elephant Man, slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, or bleached his skin, stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. The interview was watched by an American audience of 90 million, becoming the fourth most-viewed non-sport program in U.S. history. It also increased awareness of vitiligo, a relatively unknown condition. Dangerous re-entered the album chart in the top 10, more than a year after its original release.[16][47][84]
Once labeled a “Truth Serum”, sodium amytal is now considered a mind-altering sedative.

In the summer of 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler and his father, Evan Chandler, a dentist.[91] A year after Jackson met the boy, Evan administered sodium amytal to Jordan, a controversial sedative. Under influence of the drug, Jordan told his father that Jackson had touched his penis.[92][93] The Chandlers initially wanted a payment, but Jackson refused, however due to deteriorating health he could not endure a long trial ‘like O.J.’. Both parties engaged in unsuccessful negotiations to reach a financial settlement. Jordan told a psychiatrist and later police that he and Jackson had engaged in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex, as well as giving a detailed description of what he alleged were the singer’s genitals.[94]

The father was tape-recorded discussing his intention to pursue charges, where he said, “If I go through with this, I win big-time. There’s no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever … Michael’s career will be over”. In the same conversation, when asked how this would affect his son, Chandler replied, “That’s irrelevant to me…It will be a massacre if I don’t get what I want. It’s going to be bigger than all us put together…This man [Jackson] is going to be humiliated beyond belief…He will not sell one more record”.[93] The recorded conversation was a critical aspect of Jackson’s defense against the upcoming allegation made against him. He and his supporters argue that he was the victim of a jealous father whose only goal was to extort money from the singer.[93]

An official investigation began, with Jordan’s mother adamant that there was no wrongdoing on Jackson’s part. Neverland Ranch was searched; and several children and family members denied that Jackson was a pedophile,[94] though his image took a further hit when his older sister, La Toya, accused him of being a pedophile, a statement she later retracted.[95] Jackson agreed to a 25-minute strip search, conducted by police and doctors at his ranch, required to see if a description provided by Jordan of Jackson’s genitals was accurate. Doctors concluded there were strong similarities, but it was not a definitive match.[95] Jordan Chandler claimed that Michael Jackson was circumcised, but according to the result of the strip search Michael Jackson was not circumcised.[96] His friends said he never recovered from the humiliation. He described the search in an emotional public statement, and proclaimed his innocence.[91]

The tabloids painted him in an extremely unfavorable light.[97] Complaints about them included bias against Jackson, paying for stories about alleged criminal activity, and buying leaked confidential material from the police investigation.[98] On January 1, 1994, Jackson’s insurance company settled with the Chandlers out of court for $22 million, after which Jordan stopped co-operating regarding criminal proceedings.[99] Jackson was never charged, and the state closed its criminal investigation, citing lack of evidence.[100]
First marriage (1994)
Lisa Marie Presley at Daytona International Speedway in 2005

In May 1994, Jackson married singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. They had first met in 1975, during one of Jackson’s family engagements at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and were reconnected through a mutual friend in early 1993.[97] They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As the child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Presley for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs.[101] Presley explained, “I believed he didn’t do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it.”[102] In a phone call he made to her, she described him as high, incoherent and delusional.[101] Shortly afterwards, she persuaded him to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover.[101] Jackson proposed to Presley over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, “If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?”[101] They married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy, denying it for nearly two months afterwards.[103] The marriage was, in her words, “a married couple’s life … that was sexually active”.[104] At the time, the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson’s public image.[103] Jackson and Presley divorced less than two years later, remaining friendly.[105]
HIStory (1995–97)
Jackson at the Cannes Film Festival, 1997.

In 1995, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony’s publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights to even more songs.[45][106] He then released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits – HIStory Vol. I in 2001, while the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US.[107] It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide.[83][108] HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.[109]
One of many identical statues, positioned throughout Europe to promote HIStory. The statue illustrates the singer’s flamboyant clothing and hair style, influenced by military imagery.

The first single released from the album was the double A-side “Scream/Childhood”. “Scream” was a duet, performed with Jackson’s youngest sister Janet. The song fights against the media, mainly for what the media made him out to be during his 1993 child abuse allegations. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals”.[109] “You Are Not Alone” was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[71] It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for “Best Pop Vocal Performance”.[109] In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident was caused by a stress related panic attack.[110] “Earth Song” was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK singles chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson’s most successful single in the UK.[109]

The album was promoted with the HIStory World Tour. The tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans. The show, which visited five continents and 35 countries, became Jackson’s most successful in terms of audience figures.[64]
Second marriage and fatherhood (1996–99)

During the Australian leg of the HIStory World Tour, Jackson married dermatology nurse Deborah Jeanne Rowe on November 14, 1996 in an impromptu ceremony close to his Sydney hotel room. She gave birth to Michael’s first two children: a son named Michael Joseph Jr (commonly known as Prince), and a daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine.[105][111] Rowe and Jackson first met in the mid-1980s, when Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo. She spent many years treating his illness as well as providing emotional support. They built a strong friendship, then became romantically involved.[112] Originally, there were no plans to marry, but following Rowe’s first pregnancy, Jackson’s mother intervened and persuaded them to do so.[113] The couple divorced in 1999 but remained friends, and Rowe gave full custody of the children to Jackson.[114]

In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies as of 2007, making it the best selling remix album ever released. It reached number one in the UK, as did the title track.[115][116] In the US, the album was certified platinum, but only reached number 24.[80][109] Forbes placed his annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.[70]

Throughout June 1999, Jackson was involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the non-profit organization War Child, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of Kosovo, as well as additional funds for the children of Guatemala.[117] Later that month, Jackson organized a set of “Michael Jackson & Friends” benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana Chandrakumar, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the “Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund”, the Red Cross and UNESCO.[118]
Label dispute, Invincible and third child (2000–03)

In October 2001, Jackson released Invincible. This was his first full-length album in six years, and it turned out to be the last album of new material he released while still alive. The release of the album was preceded by a dispute between Jackson and his record label, Sony Music Entertainment.

Jackson had expected the licenses to the masters of his albums to revert to him sometime in the early 2000s. Once he had the licenses, he would be able to promote the material however he pleased and he would also be able to keep all the profits. However, due to various clauses in the contract, the revert date turned out to be many years away. Jackson discovered that the attorney who represented him in the deal was also representing Sony.[116] Jackson was also concerned about another conflict of interest. For a number of years, Sony had been pushing to buy all of Jackson’s share in their music catalog venture. Jackson feared that Sony might have something to gain from Jackson’s career failing, since if his career did fail he would have to sell his share of the catalog.[119]

These conflicts were utilized by the entertainer to leverage an early exit to his contract.[116] Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he was leaving Sony.[116] As a result, all singles releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album were canceled.

In spite of the uproar preceding its release, Invincible came out in October 2001 to much anticipation. Just before the album’s release, a special 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden occurred in September 2001 to mark the singer’s 30th year as a solo artist. Jackson appeared onstage alongside his brothers for the first time since 1984.[120] The show also featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, ‘N Sync, Destiny’s Child, Monica, Luther Vandross, and Slash, among other artists.[121] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The concert was aired on October 21, 2001, and included performances from dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song “What More Can I Give” as the finale.[119]

Invincible proved to be a hit, debuting atop the charts in 13 countries and going on to sell approximately 13 million copies worldwide. It received double-platinum certification in the US.[80][83][122] However, the sales for Invincible were lower than those of his previous releases, due in part to a lack of promotion, no supporting world tour and the label dispute. The album also came out at a bad time for the music industry in general.[119] The album cost $30 million to record, not including promotional expenditures.[123]

Invincible spawned three singles, “You Rock My World”, “Cry” and “Butterflies”, the latter without a music video.

Jackson alleged in July 2002 that Mottola was a “devil” and a “racist” who did not support his African-American artists, using them merely for his own personal gain.[119] He charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a “fat nigger”.[124] Sony refused to renew Jackson’s contract, and claimed that a $25 million promotional campaign had failed because Jackson refused to tour in the United States.[123]

Jackson’s third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (nicknamed “Blanket”) was born in 2002.[125] The mother’s identity is unknown, but Jackson has said the child was the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm.[114] In November of that year, Jackson brought his newborn son onto the balcony of his room at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, as fans stood below, holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby’s face. The baby was briefly extended over a railing, four stories above ground level, causing widespread criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it “a terrible mistake”.[126] Sony released a compilation of Jackson’s hits on CD and DVD. In the US, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA; in the UK it was certified for shipments of at least 1.2 million units.[80][127]
Second child sexual abuse allegations (2003–05)
Further information: Living with Michael Jackson and People v. Jackson
Michael Jackson in Vegas, 2003

In a series of interviews with Martin Bashir, broadcast in 2003, as Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with Gavin Arvizo, 13, who later accused him of sexual abuse.[128] Shortly after the documentary aired, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in relation to Arvizo.[128] Jackson denied the allegations, saying the sleepovers were not sexual in nature.

During the two years between the charges and the trial, Jackson reportedly became dependent on pethidine (Demerol), and lost a lot of weight. The People v. Jackson began on January 31, 2005, in Santa Maria, California, and lasted five months, until the end of May. On June 13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted on all counts.[129][130][131] After the trial, in highly publicized relocation He moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.[132]
Final years (2006–09)
Jackson with his children in Disneyland Paris, 2006

Reports of financial problems for Jackson became frequent in 2006, after the closure of the main house on the Neverland Ranch as a cost-cutting measure.[133] One prominent financial issue concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. A new package proposed by Sony would have had Jackson borrow an additional $300 million and reduce the interest rate payable on the loan, while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson’s stake in their jointly owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a 25% stake).[106] Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal, although details were not made public.[134] Despite these loans, according to Forbes, Jackson was still making as much as $75 million a year from his publishing partnership with Sony alone.[135]

Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards.[83] Following the death of James Brown, Jackson returned to the U.S. to pay tribute during Brown’s public funeral on December 30, 2006.[136] In late 2006, he agreed to share joint custody of his first two children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe.[137] Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom in 2007. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.[138]

I’ve been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old, and as Charles Dickens would say, “It’s been the best of times, the worst of times.” But I would not change my career… While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.[139]
—Michael Jackson

The 25th anniversary of Thriller was marked by the release of Thriller 25, recorded in Ireland,[140] it featured the previously unreleased song “For All Time” and re-mixes. Two remixes were released as singles to moderate success: “The Girl Is Mine 2008″ and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008″. Thriller 25 sold well as a re-issue, peaking at number one in eight countries and Europe.[141][142][143] In 12 weeks Thriller 25 sold over three million copies worldwide.[144] To celebrate Jackson’s 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a series of compilation albums called King of Pop.[145][146] King of Pop did reach the top 10 in most countries where it was issued, and also sold well as an import in other countries.[147][148]

Fortress Investments threatened to foreclose on Neverland Ranch, which Jackson used as collateral for loans running into many tens of millions of dollars. However, Fortress opted to sell Jackson’s debts to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred Neverland Ranch’s title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC, which was a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC. This deal cleared Jackson’s debt, and he reportedly even gained an extra $35 million from the venture. At the time of his death, Jackson still owned a stake in Neverland/Sycamore Valley, but it is unknown how large that stake was.[149][150][151]

In September 2008, financial concerns prompted Jackson to enter negotiations with Julien’s Auction House to display and auction a large collection of memorabilia amounting to approximately 1390 lots. The auction was scheduled to take place between April 22 and April 25.[152] Though an exhibition of the lots opened on 9900 Wilshire Blvd between April 14 and 25, the auction was eventually cancelled at Jackson’s request.[153]

In March 2009, Jackson announced in a press conference at London’s O2 arena that he would perform there in major comeback concerts titled This Is It. The shows were to be Jackson’s first major series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997, and had been cited as one of the year’s most important musical events with over one million people attending in total. Jackson suggested possible retirement after the shows; in his own words it would be his “final curtain call”. Although initially a 10 date concert, it was increased to 50 dates after record breaking ticket sales. Jackson rehearsed in Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer/director Kenny Ortega.[154] The concerts would have commenced on July 13, 2009 and finished on March 6, 2010. Less than three weeks before the first show was due to begin in London and with all concerts being sold out, Jackson died of a cardiac arrest.[155]

AEG Live, the concert promoters, released a promotional video that took up an entire commercial break, setting a record for ITV. According to Jackson’s website, ticket sales for the concerts broke several records.[156] Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned the singer approximately £50 million.[157] Columbia Pictures made a feature documentary concert-film from the rehearsal and pre-recorded footage.[158][159] The contract for the film stipulated that a cut of the film must be screened for Jackson’s estate, which stands to receive 90 percent of the profits. A final cut was done on October 28, 2009, for a limited 2 week run in theatres worldwide.[160]

A new single titled “This Is It” was released on October 12, 2009, with a new album of the same name, This Is It which was released worldwide on October 26, 2009, and in North America on October 27, 2009, the day before the Michael Jackson’s This Is It documentary film, which became the highest grossing documentary or concert movie ever (more than $252 million worldwide).[161] Two versions of the new song appear on the second “This Is It” album’s first disc, which also features original masters of Michael Jackson’s hits in the order in which they appear in the movie. The album’s second disc features previously unreleased versions of more Jackson hits, as well as a previously unheard spoken word poem entitled “Planet Earth.”[162]

As a result of Jackson’s death, he became the biggest selling albums artist of 2009 in the United States with over 8.2 million in album sales.[163]
Death and memorial
Main articles: Death of Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson memorial service
Jackson’s fans paid tribute to him at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, shortly after the announcement of his death.

On June 25, 2009, Jackson never woke up from his evening sleep at his rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by his personal physician were unsuccessful.[164] Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 p.m. (PDT), arriving three minutes later at Jackson’s location.[165][166] He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed.[167] Resuscitation efforts continued en route to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for an hour after arriving there at 1:13 p.m. (20:13 UTC).[164] He was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. local time (21:26 UTC).[168][169]

The memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Hall of Liberty. Jackson’s casket was present during the memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the body. While some unofficial reports claimed a worldwide audience as high as one billion people[170] the U.S. audience was estimated by Nielsen to be 31.1 million, an amount comparable to the estimated 35.1 million that watched the 2004 burial of former president Ronald Reagan, and the estimated 33.1 million Americans who watched the 1997 funeral for Princess Diana.[171]

Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the event. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson gave eulogies, while Queen Latifah read, “We had him,” a poem written for the occasion by Maya Angelou.[172] The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Jackson’s children, “Wasn’t nothing strange about your Daddy. It was strange what your Daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway.”[173] Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as she told the crowd, “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine … I just wanted to say I love him … so much.”[174]

On August 24 several news outlets quoted anonymous sources as stating that the Los Angeles coroner had decided to treat Jackson’s death as a homicide; this was later confirmed by the coroner on August 28.[175][176] At the time of death, Jackson had been administered propofol, lorazepam and midazolam.[177] Law enforcement officials are currently conducting a manslaughter investigation of his personal physician, Conrad Murray.[178] Jackson was buried on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[179]
Artistry
Influences

Jackson’s music genre takes roots in R&B, Motown, pop and soul. He had been influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, David Ruffin, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis, Jr., The Isley Brothers, and the Bee Gees.[180] He was also an admirer of performers from the English music hall tradition, such as Benny Hill and Charlie Chaplin.

While Little Richard had a huge influence on Jackson,[24] James Brown was for him, since early childhood, his greatest inspiration: “the master” or “a genius” especially when he was playing with his group, the Famous Flames, describing his performance as “phenomenal”. He declared: “Ever since I was a small child, no more than like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown.”[181]

At first, the young Michael Jackson owed his vocal technique in large part to Diana Ross. In October 1969, it was decided that Michael would live with Diana Ross. Not only a mother figure to him, he often observed her in rehearsal as an accomplished performer. He later confessed: “I got to know her well. She taught me so much. I used to just sit in the corner and watch the way she moved. She was art in motion. I studied the way she moved, the way she sang – just the way she was.” He told her: ‘I want to be just like you, Diana’. She said: ‘You just be yourself.’”[182] But Michael especially owed his oooh’s to Diana Ross. At first, Michael almost always punctuated his verses with a sudden interjection of oooh. Diana Ross used this effect on many of the songs recorded with the The Supremes, and young Michael was delighted to take ownership.[183]
Musical themes and genres

Steve Huey of Allmusic said that, throughout his solo career, Jackson’s versatility allowed him to experiment with various themes and genres.[184] As a musician, he ranged from Motown’s dance fare and ballads to techno and house-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar.[18]

Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder; when recording he would sing from memory.[23][185] Several critics observed Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads.[184][186][187] Prominent examples include the ballad “She’s Out of My Life”, and the two disco tunes “Workin’ Day and Night” and “Get on the Floor”.[186]

According to Huey, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.[184] Notable tracks included the ballads “The Lady in My Life”, “Human Nature” and “The Girl Is Mine”; the funk pieces “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”; and the disco set “Baby Be Mine” and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”.[184][188][189][190] With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery.[190] Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”.[189] In “Billie Jean”, Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers.[184] In “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” he argues against gossip and the media.[190] The anti-gang violence rock song “Beat It” became a homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson’s first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey.[18][184] He also observed that the title track “Thriller” began Jackson’s interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years.[184] In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem “We Are the World”; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.[184]

“Thriller”
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One of Jackson’s signature pieces, “Thriller”, released as a single in 1984, utilizes cinematic sound effects, horror film motifs and vocal trickery to convey a sense of danger.[22]
“Smooth Criminal”
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A single from the album Bad, released 1988, “Smooth Criminal” features digital drum sounds, keyboard-created bass lines and other percussion elements designed to give the impression of a pulsing heart.[191]
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

In Bad, Jackson’s concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song “Dirty Diana”.[192] The lead single “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” is a traditional love ballad, while “Man in the Mirror” is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution.[60] “Smooth Criminal” was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder.[60] Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a stark paradoxical individual.[193] He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like “Heal the World”.[193] The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like “Jam” and “Remember the Time”.[194] The album is Jackson’s first where social ills become a primary theme; “Why You Wanna Trip on Me”, for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs.[194] Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts like “In the Closet”, a love song about desire and denial, risk and repression, solitude and connection, privacy and revelation.[194] The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire.[194] The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as “Will You Be There”, “Heal the World” and “Keep the Faith”; these songs show Jackson finally opening up about various personal struggles and worries.[194] In the ballad “Gone Too Soon”, Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.[195]

HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia.[196] Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts “Scream” and “Tabloid Junkie”, along with the R&B ballad “You Are Not Alone”, Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media.[197] In the introspective ballad “Stranger in Moscow”, Jackson laments over his “fall from grace”, while songs like “Earth Song”, “Childhood”, “Little Susie” and “Smile” are all operatic pop pieces.[196][197] In the track “D.S.”, Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to “get my ass, dead or alive”. Of the song, Sneddon said, “I have not — shall we say — done him the honor of listening to it, but I’ve been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot”.[198] Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins.[184] It is a record made up of urban soul like “Cry” and “The Lost Children”, ballads such as “Speechless”, “Break of Dawn” and “Butterflies” and mixes hip hop, pop and rap in “2000 Watts”, “Heartbreaker” and “Invincible”.[199][200]
Vocal style

Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson’s voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor.[201] Jackson first used a technique called the “vocal hiccup” in 1973, starting with the song “It’s Too Late to Change the Time” from the Jackson 5’s G.I.T.: Get It Together album.[202] Jackson did not use the hiccup technique— somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping— fully until the recording of Off the Wall: it can be seen in full force in the “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” promotional video.[19]

With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson’s abilities as a vocalist were well regarded. At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the “breathless, dreamy stutter” of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that “Jackson’s feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that’s used very daringly”.[186][187] 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a “fully adult voice” that was “tinged by sadness”.[190]

“Black or White”
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The lead single from Dangerous, the danceable hard rock song “Black or White” was one of Jackson’s most successful recordings.[203][204][205] It contains many features of Jackson’s vocal style, including the vocal hiccup he is known for.

Gritty lead vocals on the verse were displayed by the release of “Bad” in 1987 and lighter tones employed on the chorus.[22] A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of “come on”, used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelt “cha’mone” or “shamone”, is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him.[206] The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, “he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth” and he had a “wretched tone”.[194] When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to “smooth” vocals.[194]

When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed “exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies”.[207] Nelson George summed up Jackson’s vocals by stating “The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist”.[191]
Music videos and choreography

Referred to as the King of Music Videos,[208] Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers.[184] According to director Vincent Paterson, who collaborated with the singer on several music videos, Jackson conceptualized many of the darker, bleak themes in his filmography.[209]
US patent 5255452, filed by Jackson, described the anti-gravity lean used in the music video for “Smooth Criminal”.

Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American.[210] Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing “Billie Jean” and later “Beat It”, leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition.[211] MTV employees deny any racism in their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they played rock music, regardless of race.[212] The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel “on the map”; MTV’s focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B.[211][213] His performance on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage show; “That Jackson lip-synced ‘Billie Jean’ is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience” thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage.[38] Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in “Beat It” has frequently been imitated.[214] The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the Philippines.[215] The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.[71]

In the 19-minute music video for “Bad”—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. While he has described this as “choreography,” it garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as “infamous”. The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson’s videos would often feature famous cameo roles.[55][216] For “Smooth Criminal”, Jackson experimented with an innovative “anti-gravity lean” in his performances, for which he was granted U.S. Patent No. 5,255,452.[217] Although the music video for “Leave Me Alone” was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated for four Billboard Music Video Awards, winning three; the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, “Leave Me Alone” won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.[69]

The MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award was given to Jackson to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; the following year the award was renamed in his honor.[84] “Black or White” was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video.[83] It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized.[218] Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos.[219]
Jackson and sister Janet angrily retaliate against the media for misrepresenting them to the public. The acclaimed video for “Scream” was shot primarily in black and white, and at a cost of $7 million.[220]

“Remember the Time” was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine.[221] The video for “In the Closet” was Jackson’s most sexually provocative piece. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.[84]

The music video for “Scream”, directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson’s most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won “Best Dance Video”, “Best Choreography”, and “Best Art Direction”.[222] The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993.[223] A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million.[109][224]

“Earth Song” was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, wars ends, and the forests re-grow.[109][225] Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s longest music video.[109][116][226][227]
Fashion

Phillip Bloch said “Michael Jackson was not influenced by fashion, fashion was influenced by him.”[228] From early on Jackson was described as a person with an utterly unique sense of style wearing fringed shirts, platform heels, and wide bell-bottom pants with a “Huggy Bear” inspired hat to top off his look. During Off The Wall, he would update his style wearing tuxedo jackets, pegged pants, thick white socks with black shiny loafers, instantly giving a classic look, new flair, and originality bringing in the start of his iconoclastic style.[229] During the Thriller era Jackson would become a fashion icon and bring about the popularity of items that he wore in his music videos, at award ceremonies, and on stage performances such as his Beat It red jacket, aviator sunglasses, military jackets, jheri curl, high pants with white glittering socks, the Billie Jean black jacket, his black fedora hat, and most famously his glittering white glove that he first wore on the Motown 25 special.[1][230]

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jackson began to wear his iconic military-influenced outfits in silver, with his trademark armbands, during the Bad Tour. He would continue to perform in these outfits this time in gold during the Dangerous Tour, and during the HIStory Tour, where he wore a more futuristic military space outfit.[231] Towards the mid and late 1990s, Jackson embraced a softer look wearing mostly lightweight flowy shirts and even appearing bare chested; though he occasionally reverted to his military inspired outfits.[232][233] During his trials throughout the later years, Jackson wore a surgical mask and carried an umbrella to protect him from the sun. He was subsequently criticized by the media and legal analysts in the 2005 child abuse trial for not dressing in a manner appropriate for a court appearance. Mary Fulginiti Jenow, a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer described Jackson as looking ready to “break out into the moonwalk.”[234] During his final public appearance at Ed Hardy’s designer Christian Audigier birthday party,[235] Jackson and Audigier began talks and later started to work together on a clothing line that would be composed of items such as red jacket with Jackson’s portrait on it, a black leather belt with large buckle reading ‘BAD,’ silver socks, silver gloves, and an umbrella. Audigier is said to be busy putting together the final pieces of the brand.[236]

Jackson’s creative sense of style has also made a huge impact on the younger generation.[237] He has been described as having an innovative sense of style that impacted the trendsetters of today who mimmick his fashion like Usher, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye West, and many others. His style has inspired the fashion-forward for two decades and continues to do so.[238]

On November 24, 2009, some of Michael Jackson’s memorabilia was auctioned in New York including the Rhinstone Glove used during his first moonwalk performance, which his auctioned off for $350,000, nine times its expected price, to Hoffman Ma of Hong Kong, a Chinese businessman.[239] Among other items were a 1989 “Bad” tour jacket which sold for $225,000 and a fedora hat which sold for $22,000.[240]
Legacy and influence
See also: Records and achievements of Michael Jackson and List of awards received by Michael Jackson
Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, set in 1984

Jackson throughout his career transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music. Jackson’s work, distinctive musical sound and vocal style have influenced scores of hip hop, rock, pop and R&B artists, including Beyonce,[241] Mariah Carey,[242] Usher,[243] Chris Brown,[244] Britney Spears,[242] Madonna,[245] Justin Timberlake,[119] Ludacris,[246] 50 Cent, The Game,[247] Green Day, Fall Out Boy,[248],Miley Cyrus, John Mayer,[249] Lenny Kravitz,[250] and R. Kelly.[191] For much of his career, he had an “unparalleled” level of worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.[251] Jackson’s music and videos, such as Thriller, helped break down racial barriers when first shown on MTV, putting the relatively new channel on the map, changing its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, and therefore shaping it to what it is today. Jackson remained a staple on MTV through the ’90s. Brazilian journalist Sergio Martins, in his article about the artist and his death in Veja magazine, wrote that after Jackson’s work being a versatile dancer became a must for subsequent male stars of pop music. Michael Jackson, along with his musical style and videos, have gone onto become pop culture phenomenons.

Michael Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards’ Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.[121][252] He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.[121] His awards include many Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), 15 Grammy Awards (including the “Living Legend Award” and the “Lifetime Achievement Award”), 26 American Music Awards (24 only as a solo artist, including one for “artist of the century”)—more than any artist—, 13 number one singles in the US in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of up to 750 million records worldwide, making him the world’s best selling male solo pop artist.[29][71][83][253][254][255][256][257][258][259]
Queues for a Michael Jackson concert in West Berlin in June 1988

He was characterized as “an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power”.[184] In the mid-1980s, Time noted “Jackson is the biggest thing since The Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever”.[33] By 1990, Vanity Fair had already cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business.[69] Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley called him an “extremely important figure in the history of popular culture” and a “genius”.[260] In late 2007, Jackson said the following of his work and future influence, “Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever.”[261]

His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars.[70][262] This speculation however is contradicted by financial documents obtained by the Associated Press, which showed that as of March 31, 2007, Jackson’s 50 percent stake in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog (his most prized asset) was worth $390.6 million and Michael Jackson’s net worth was $236 million.[263] As one of the world’s most famous men, Jackson’s highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for the last four decades.[83][264]

Shortly after his death on June 25, 2009, MTV briefly returned to its original music video format to celebrate and pay tribute to his work.[265] The channel aired many hours of Jackson’s music videos, accompanied by live news specials featuring reactions from MTV personalities and other celebrities. The temporary shift in MTV’s programming culminated the following week with the channel’s live coverage of Jackson’s memorial service.[266] At the memorial service on July 7, 2009, founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy proclaimed Jackson as “the greatest entertainer that ever lived.”[267][268][269] On December 29, 2009 the American Film Institute recognized Jackson’s passing as a “moment of significance” saying, “Michael Jackson’s sudden death in June at age 50 was notable for the worldwide outpouring of grief and the unprecedented global eulogy of his posthumous concert rehearsal movie ‘This is It’.[270]
Discography
Main articles: Michael Jackson albums discography, Michael Jackson singles discography, and Michael Jackson videography
See also: Jackson 5 discography

* Got to Be There (1972)
* Ben (1972)
* Music & Me (1973)
* Forever, Michael (1975)
* Off the Wall (1979)
* Thriller (1982)
* Bad (1987)
* Dangerous (1991)
* HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)
* Invincible (2001)

Filmography
Main article: Michael Jackson videography
Year  ?     Film  ?     Role  ?     Director  ?     Ref
1978     The Wiz     Scarecrow     Lumet, SidneySidney Lumet     [271]
1986     Captain EO     Captain EO     Coppola, Francis FordFrancis Ford Coppola     [272]
1988     Moonwalker     Himself     Kramer, JerryJerry Kramer     [273]
1997     Ghosts     Maestro/Mayor/Ghoul/Skeleton     Winston, StanStan Winston     [274]
2002     Men in Black II     Agent M (cameo)     Sonnenfeld, BarryBarry Sonnenfeld     [275]
2004     Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls     Agent MJ (cameo)     Stoller, Bryan MichaelBryan Michael Stoller     [276]
2009     Michael Jackson’s This Is It     Himself     Kenny Ortega     [277]
Tours
Main article: List of Michael Jackson tours

* Bad World Tour (1987–89)
* Dangerous World Tour (1992–93)
* HIStory World Tour (1996–97)
* This Is It (2009)

See also
Michael Jackson portal

* List of awards received by Michael Jackson
* List of best-selling music artists
* List of best-selling music artists in the United States
* List of unreleased Michael Jackson material
* List of honorific titles in popular music
* Records and achievements of Michael Jackson

References

1. ^ a b film.com: Michael Jackson: A Fashion Retrospective, 29. November 2009
2. ^ “Michael Jackson album sales soar”. CNN. June 26, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/26/michael.jackson.album.sales/. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
3. ^ Bialik, Carl (July 15, 2009). “The Wall Street Journal, Spun: The Off-the-Wall Accounting of Record Sales by Carl Bialik, Retrieved August 21, 2009″. Online.wsj.com. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124760651612341407.html. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
4. ^ Bucci, Paul and Wood, Graeme. Michael Jackson RIP: One billion people estimated watching for gold-plated casket at memorial service. The Vancouver Sun, July 7, 2009.
5. ^ Swift Beats Boyle, Plus Michael Jackson, Beatles Rule 2009 Charts . Rolling Stone Magazine, January 7, 2010.
6. ^ boyle-for-2009-1004057203.story Taylor Swift Edges Susan Boyle For 2009’s Top-Selling Album . Billboard, January 6, 2010.
7. ^ I.B. BAD ON THE YEAR IN MUSIC . Hits Daily Double News, December 21, 2009.
8. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 14
9. ^ a b c d George, p. 20
10. ^ Michael Jackson’s Secret Childhood, VH1, June 20, 2008.
11. ^ a b Taraborrelli, pp. 20–22
12. ^ Can Michael Jackson’s demons be explained?, BBC, June 27, 2009.
13. ^ Jackson interview seen by 14m, BBC News, (February 4, 2003)
14. ^ Daniel Schechter, Erica Willheim (2009). The Effects of Violent Experience and Maltreatment on Infants and Young Children. In Charles Zeanah (Ed.). Handbook of Infant Mental Health—3rd Edition. New York: Guilford Press, Inc. pp. 197–214.
15. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 602
16. ^ a b Lewis, pp. 165–168
17. ^ a b The Jackson Five, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, accessed May 29, 2007.
18. ^ a b c d Michael Jackson: Biography, Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
19. ^ a b c George, p. 22
20. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 138–144
21. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 163–169
22. ^ a b c George, p. 23
23. ^ a b c Taraborrelli, pp. 205–210
24. ^ a b “Michael Jackson saved my life”. scarborougheveningnews.co.uk. http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk/news/39Michael-Jackson-saved-my-life39.5407768.jp. Retrieved June 28, 2009.
25. ^ a b George, pp. 37–38
26. ^ Michael Jackson: Off the Wall, Virgin Media. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
27. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 188
28. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 191
29. ^ a b Grammy Award Winners, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
30. ^ Lewis, p. 47
31. ^ RIAA Diamond Awards, Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
32. ^ “Michael Jackson Photo Gallery ??•?????”. BBC China. http://www.bbc.co.uk/china/learningenglish/specials/1430_jackson_photo/page7.shtml. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
33. ^ a b c Cocks, Jay. Why He’s a Thriller, Time, March 19, 1984.
34. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 226
35. ^ Pareles, John. Michael Jackson at 25: A Musical Phenomenon, The New York Times, January 14, 1984.
36. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 238–241
37. ^ Kisselgoff, Anna. Dancing feet of Michael Jackson, The New York Times, March 6, 1988.
38. ^ a b Inglis, Ian (2006), Performance and popular music: history, place and time, Ashgate Publishing, p. 119, 127, ISBN 9780754640578
39. ^ Story, Louise (December 31, 2007). “Philip B. Dusenberry, 71, Adman, Dies”. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/business/media/31dusenberry.html. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
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41. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 304–307
42. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 315–320
43. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 340–344
44. ^ a b Taraborrelli, pp. 333–337
45. ^ a b Michael Jackson sells Beatles songs to Sony, The New York Times, November 8, 1995.
46. ^ Bad Fortunes, The Guardian, June 15, 2005.
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48. ^ a b Taraborrelli, pp. 434–436
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55. ^ a b Taraborrelli, p. 370–373
56. ^ “Newswatch Magazine – The Man, His Weird Ways”. Newswatchngr.com. July 5, 2009. http://www.newswatchngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1080&Itemid=1. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
57. ^ Jackson, Michael. Interview with Barbara Walters. 20/20. ABC. September 12, 1997.
58. ^ Taraborrelli, p. vii
59. ^ George, p. 41
60. ^ a b c Cocks, Jay. The Badder They Come, Time, September 14, 1987.
61. ^ Leopold, Todd (June 6, 2005). “Michael Jackson: A life in the spotlight”. CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/30/jackson.life/. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
62. ^ Savage, Mark. Michael Jackson: Highs and lows, BBC, August 29, 2008.
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65. ^ Harrington, Richard.Jackson to Make First Solo U.S. Tour, ‘The Washington Post, January 12, 1988.
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72. ^ Press references to Jackson as a music “king” appeared as early as 1984 after he swept the Grammy Awards, and “king of pop” appeared as early as 1987. MTV and Fox used the title in joint press releases and ads for the “Black or White” video at Jackson’s request, but MTV denied a report that VJs were required to use it on-camera. Writers described the title as self-proclaimed from then on.
73. ^ Arar, Yardena (February 29, 1984). “Michael Jackson coronated latest king of rock ‘n’ roll”. Boca Raton News: p. 7A.
74. ^ Staff writer (July 27, 1987). “Is the thrill gone for singer Michael Jackson?”. Sacramento Bee: p. B3.
75. ^ Browne, David (November 29, 1991). “Michael Jackson’s Black or White Blues”. Entertainment Weekly.
76. ^ Campbell (1993) pp. 260–263
77. ^ Remarks on the Upcoming Summit With President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, April 5, 1990.
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247. ^ "Michael Jackson Tried To End 50 Cent/ Game Beef". MTV. September 31, 2009. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1614974/20090630/jackson_michael.jhtml. Retrieved June 30, 2009.
248. ^ "Fall Out Boy Say Their 'Beat It' Clip Is Like All Of Michael Jackson's Videos 'But On A Fall Out Boy Budget'". MTV. April 21, 2008. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585892/20080418/fall_out_boy.jhtml. Retrieved June 30, 2009.
249. ^ "Michael Jackson Remembered By Miley Cyrus, Ludacris, More". MTV. June 26, 2009. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1614749/20090625/jackson_michael.jhtml. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
250. ^ "Lenny Kravitz". The Guardian. July 5, 2002. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/jul/05/artsfeatures2. Retrieved September 31, 2009.
251. ^ "ADL happy with Michael Jackson decision". Anti-Defamation League. (June 22, 1995). http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/2471_12.asp. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
252. ^ "Michael Jackson and Halle Berry Pick Up Bambi Awards in Berlin". Hello!. (November 22, 2002). http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/2002/11/22/michaeljackson/. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
253. ^ "Grammy Living Legend Award". Grammy. http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Legends/. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
254. ^ "Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award". Grammy. http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Lifetime_Awards/. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
255. ^ "Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson dominate American Music Awards nominations [UPDATED"]. Los Angeles Times. (October 13, 2009). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/taylor-swift-michael-jackson-dominate-american-music-awards-nominations.html. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
256. ^ “2009 American Music Awards: Scorecard”. Los Angeles Times. (November 22, 2009). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/2009-american-music-awards-scorecard.html. Retrieved November 23, 2009.
257. ^ “Most No. 1s By Artist (All-Time)”. Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/most-no1s-overall.shtml. Retrieved September 8, 2008.
258. ^ “Pop Icon Looks Back At A “Thriller” Of A Career In New Interview”. CBS. (November 6, 2007). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/06/entertainment/main3461884.shtml. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
259. ^ Lee, Chris (May 31, 2009). “To this financier, Michael Jackson is an undervalued asset”. Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-michael-jackson31-2009may31,0,1441957.story. Retrieved May 31, 2009.
260. ^ Utley, Tom (March 8, 2003). “Of course Jackson’s odd — but his genius is what matters”. The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/02/08/do0801.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/02/08/ixopinion.html. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
261. ^ Monroe, Bryan (December 2007). “Michael Jackson in His Own Words” (Print/Magazine). Ebony.
262. ^ “Witness: Jacko Lived Way Above Means”. Fox News Channel. (May 3, 2005). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155356,00.html. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
263. ^ “Family: Michael Jackson Had A Will” CBS News (June 30, 2009). Retrieved on July 12, 2009.
264. ^ “Tom Sneddon: Dogged prosecutor”. BBC. (January 31, 2005). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4216779.stm. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
265. ^ Barnes, Brokes (June 25, 2009). “A Star Idolized and Haunted, Michael Jackson Dies at 50″. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/arts/music/26jackson.html?ref=obituaries. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
266. ^ “More adds, loose ends, and lament”. The 120 Minutes Archive. July 25, 2009. http://altmusictv.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-adds-loose-ends-and-lament.html. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
267. ^ “Farewell to a King”. People. July 20, 2009. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20292614,00.htmll. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
268. ^ “BERRY GORDY – GORDY BRINGS MOURNERS TO THEIR FEET WITH JACKSON TRIBUTE”. Contact Music. July 7, 2009. http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/gordy-brings-mourners-to-their-feet-with-jackson-tribute_1108973. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
269. ^ “Michael Jackson hailed as greatest entertainer, best dad”. Reuters UK. July 8, 2009. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5615KN20090708. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
270. ^ Serjeant, Jill. Michael Jackson’s Death Among 2009’s Major Moments. ABC News, December 29, 2009.
271. ^ Jones, pp. 229, 259
272. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 355–356
273. ^ Taraborrelli, pp. 413–414
274. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 610
275. ^ Scott, A. O. “Defending Earth, With Worms and a Talking Pug”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/03/movies/03BLAC.html?ex=1234155600&en=1e9c4a5a1eafc54f&ei=5070. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
276. ^ Chaney, Jen (July 19, 2005). “‘Miss Cast Away’: You Know It’s Bad”. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071800641_pf.html. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
277. ^ Le, Danny (August 11, 2009). “‘Michael Jackson’s “This Is It,” to be Presented In Theaters Around The World”. MichaelJackson.com. http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/news/michael-jacksons-it-be-presented-theaters-around-world. Retrieved August 11, 2009.

Other references

* Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). Rolling Stone Album Guide. Fireside. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
* Campbell, Lisa (1993). Michael Jackson: The King of Pop. Branden. ISBN 082831957X.
* Campbell, Lisa (1995). Michael Jackson: The King of Pop’s Darkest Hour. Branden. ISBN 0828320039.
* George, Nelson (2004). Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection booklet. Sony BMG.
* Guinness World Records (2003). Guinness World Records 2004. Guinness. ISBN 1892051206.
* Guinness World Records (2005). Guinness World Records 2006. Guinness. ISBN 1-904994-02-4.
* Jackson, Michael (1988). Moon Walk. Doubleday. ISBN 0385247125.
* Lewis, Jel (2005). Michael Jackson, the King of Pop: The Big Picture : the Music! the Man! the Legend! the Interviews!. Amber Books Publishing. ISBN 0-974977-90-X.
* Ramage, John D.; Bean, John C.; Johnson, June (2001). Writing arguments: a rhetoric with readings. Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0205317456.
* Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2009). Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958–2009. Terra Alta, WV: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. ISBN 0446564745, 9780446564748.

Further reading

* Dineen, Catherine (1993). Michael Jackson: In His Own Words. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0711932166.
* Grant, Adrian (1994, 1997, 2002 and 2005). Michael Jackson: The Visual Documentary. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-432-2.
* Jackson, Michael (1988). Moonwalk. Doubleday. pp. 143–144. ISBN 0-434-37042-8.
* Jackson, Michael (1992). Dancing the Dream. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-40368-2.
* Jackson, Michael (2006). My World, The Official Photobook, Vol. 1. Triumph International. ISBN 0-9768891-1-0.
* Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2009). Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958–2009. Terra Alta, WV: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. ISBN 0446564745, 9780446564748.
* Jones, Bob (2005). Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask. Select Books Inc. ISBN 1590790723.
* Noonan, Damien (1994) (Audio book). Michael Jackson. Carlton Books. ISBN 1-85797-587-1

The Wikipedia article on this page is released under CC-BY-SA.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or
GNU Free Documentation License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

The original article may be found at this location:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_jackson

On February 4, 2010, Microsoft’s MSN Games has also launched Farmville to its website [6][7], although requiring a Facebook account. A Windows Live ID is not required to play the game however.

Gameplay

Upon beginning a farm, the player first creates a customizable avatar.[8] There are six plots of land, four of which are in the process of growing, and two (eggplant and strawberries) which are fully grown.

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The game is based around the market, where items can be purchased: seeds, trees, animals, buildings, decorations, vehicles, and more land using “farm coins,” the generic money of FarmVille (which is earned by selling crops) or “farm cash”. (which the player earns at a rate of one dollar per experience level). A player can also choose to buy FarmVille coins or cash from Zynga. The player plants seeds, which grow into crops, which can be harvested to earn farm coins. Animals and trees can also be purchased and can also be harvested for profits. The player earns experience points (XP) by purchasing items, and regular tasks such as plowing, planting and harvesting. Earning XP increases the player’s level, unlocking more items. Most items can be bought with farm coins, although some (e.g., certain decorations) must be purchased with farm cash.

Each plot of land costs 15 farm coins to plow and depending on the crop planted, new seeds can range from 10 to 220 farm coins. Each crop sells for a set price, strawberries for 35 farm coins, pumpkins for 68 farm coins and so on. Depending on the plant, growth time can vary from two hours (raspberries) to four days (artichokes, watermelon). If the crop is not harvested within the amount of growing time, it will wilt and must be plowed again. For example, pumpkins will grow in 8 hours. If the pumpkins are not harvested within 16 hours of planting, they will begin to wither and die, and the player will not be able to harvest them for farm coins or XP.[9]

As a player progresses, they can expand their farm (for a payment of farm cash) to allow for more room for farming, animals, and decorations.

Like most Zynga games, FarmVille leverages the social networking aspects of Facebook. Along with their own farm, players can invite their friends to join and be neighbors. Acquiring neighbors has benefits in gameplay — not only can one earn money and experience (by visiting and helping on neighboring farms), but with eight or more neighbors, a player can expand their farm and own more acreage. Gifts (such as trees, animals, and decorations) can be sent to both confirmed neighbors and any other Facebook friends even if they do not use the application. The Gifts received from neighbors usually have relatively expensive buy prices in the market; so getting gifts from friends is one of the best ways to get relatively expensive items.

A variety of “Ribbons” are also available to players, representing the player’s achievement of a series of set tasks. The player first obtains a yellow ribbon for completing a simple version of the task, then progresses through white, red, and blue ribbons by completing progressively more difficult versions of the same task. For example, the “Fenced In” Yellow ribbon requires that the player purchase and display on his farm 5 sections of fence. The white ribbon for the same task requires 50 sections of fence be set up, and the red and blue ribbons get progressively harder and more expensive to complete. There are presently twenty-seven different tasks, for a total of 108 total ribbons available to be earned. In addition to bragging rights, a player earning a ribbon gets a tangible reward for his efforts, which may include a gold or experience bonus, the award of a special item, or some other benefit.
Controversy

FarmVille had given its users virtual cash for various advertising offers: for instance, you would get some virtual currency for signing up for Netflix. However, FarmVille has been accused of scamming its users through misleading offers, such as filling in bogus survey or IQ tests which in fact subscribe the users to an unwanted service which appears on the phone bill.[10][11] In a video posted November 9, 2009, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says “I did every horrible thing in the book too, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don’t know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it.” In regards to business practices.[12] Michael Arrington of TechCrunch accused Facebook of allowing Zynga’s FarmVille to continue these practice because a great deal of the money it gets from such leads is reinvested in ads inside the Facebook network.[11] In response to this negative publicity, Zynga removed all virtual cash offers on 8 November 2009 [13], however as of January 2010, several such offers have been reinstated. Zynga is now facing a potential class action lawsuit as a result of these practices.

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The Wikipedia article on this page is released under CC-BY-SA.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or
GNU Free Documentation License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

The original article may be found at this location:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FarmVille

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Objective

In Texas hold ‘em, like all variants of poker, individuals compete for an amount of money contributed by the players themselves (called the pot). Because the cards are dealt randomly and outside the control of the players, each player attempts to control the amount of money in the pot based on the hand the player holds.[1]

The game is divided into a series of hands or deals; at the conclusion of each hand, the pot is typically awarded to one player (an exception in which the pot is divided between more than one is discussed below). A hand may end at the showdown, in which case the remaining players compare their hands and the highest hand is awarded the pot; that highest hand is usually held by only one player, but can be held by more in the case of a tie. The other possibility for the conclusion of a hand is when all but one player have folded and have thereby abandoned any claim to the pot, in which case the pot is awarded to the player who has not folded.[1]

The objective of winning players is not winning every individual hand, but rather making mathematically correct decisions regarding when and how much to bet, raise, call or fold. By making such decisions, winning poker players maximize long-term winnings by maximizing their expected gain on each round of betting.[1]
History
Johnny Moss, Chill Wills, Amarillo Slim, Jack Binion, and Puggy Pearson outside of Binion’s Horseshoe in 1974

Although little is known about the invention of Texas hold ‘em, the Texas State Legislature officially recognizes Robstown, Texas, as the game’s birthplace, dating the game to the early 1900s.[2]

After its invention and spread throughout Texas, hold ‘em was introduced to Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Crandell Addington, Roscoe Weiser, Doyle Brunson, and Amarillo Slim.[3] Addington said the first time he saw the game was in 1959. “They didn’t call it Texas hold ‘em at the time, they just called it hold ‘em.… I thought then that if it were to catch on, it would become the game. Draw poker, you bet only twice; hold ‘em, you bet four times. That meant you could play strategically. This was more of a thinking man’s game.”[4]

For several years the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Las Vegas was the only casino in Las Vegas to offer the game. At that time, the Golden Nugget’s poker room was “truly a ’sawdust joint,’ with…oiled sawdust covering the floors.”[5] Because of its location and decor, this poker room did not receive many rich drop-in clients, and as a result, professional players sought a more prominent location. In 1969, the Las Vegas professionals were invited to play Texas hold ‘em at the entrance of the now-demolished Dunes Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. This prominent location, and the relative inexperience of poker players with Texas hold ‘em, resulted in a very remunerative game for professional players.[5]

After a disappointing attempt to establish a “Gambling Fraternity Convention,” Tom Moore added the first ever poker tournament to the Second Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention held in 1969. This tournament featured several games including Texas hold ‘em. In 1970, Benny and Jack Binion acquired the rights to this convention, renamed it the World Series of Poker, and moved it to their casino, Binion’s Horseshoe, in Las Vegas. After its first year, a journalist, Tom Thackrey, suggested that the main event of this tournament should be no-limit Texas hold ‘em. The Binions agreed and ever since no-limit Texas hold ‘em has been played as the main event.[5] Interest in the Main Event continued to grow steadily over the next two decades. After receiving only eight entrants in 1972, the numbers grew to over one hundred entrants in 1982, and over two hundred in 1991.[6][7][8]

During this time, Doyle Brunson’s revolutionary poker strategy guide, Super/System was first published.[9] Despite being self-published and priced at $100 in 1978, the book revolutionized the way poker was played. It was one of the first books to discuss Texas hold ‘em, and is today cited as one of the most important books on this game.[10] In 1983, Al Alvarez published, The Biggest Game in Town, a book detailing a 1981 World Series of Poker event.[11] The first book of its kind, it described the world of professional poker players and the World Series of Poker. Alvarez’ book is credited with beginning the genre of poker literature and with bringing Texas hold ‘em (and poker generally), for the first time, to a wider audience.[12]

Interest in hold ‘em outside of Nevada began to grow in the 1980s as well. Although California had legal card rooms offering draw poker, Texas hold ‘em was prohibited under a statute which made illegal the now unknown game “stud-horse.” However in 1988, Texas hold ‘em was declared legally distinct from “stud-horse” in Tibbetts v. Van De Kamp, 271 Cal. Rptr. 792 (1990). Almost immediately card rooms across the state offered Texas hold ‘em.[13] (It is often presumed that this decision ruled that hold ‘em was a skill game,[14] but the distinction between skill and chance has never entered into California jurisprudence regarding poker.[15]) After a trip to Las Vegas, bookmakers Terry Rogers and Liam Flood introduced the game to European card players in the early 1980s.[16]
Popularity

Texas Hold ‘Em is one of the most popular forms of poker.[17][18] Texas Hold ‘em’s popularity surged in the 2000s due to exposure on television, the Internet and popular literature. During this time hold ‘em replaced seven-card stud as the most common game in U.S. casinos.[19] The no-limit betting form is used in the widely televised main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT).

Hold ‘em’s simplicity and popularity have inspired a wide variety of strategy books which provide recommendations for proper play. Most of these books recommend a strategy that involves playing relatively few hands but betting and raising often with the hands one plays.[20] In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Texas hold ‘em experienced a surge in popularity worldwide.[19] Many observers attribute this growth to the synergy of five factors: the invention of online poker, the game’s appearance in film and on television, the 2004–05 NHL lockout,[21] the appearance of television commercials advertising online cardrooms, and the 2003 World Series of Poker championship victory by online qualifier Chris Moneymaker.[22]
Joe Hachem, winner of 2005 World Series of Poker main event
Television and film
Main article: Poker on television

Prior to poker becoming widely televised, the movie Rounders (1998), starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, gave moviegoers a romantic view of the game as a way of life. Texas hold ‘em was the main game played during the movie and the no-limit variety was described, following Doyle Brunson, as the “Cadillac of Poker.” A clip of the classic showdown between Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel from the 1988 World Series of Poker was also incorporated into the film.[23] More recently, a high-stakes Texas Hold’em game was central to the plot of the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, in place of baccarat, which was originally the casino game central to the story in the novel from which the film was based.

Hold ‘em tournaments had been televised since the late 1970s, but they did not become popular until 1999, when hidden lipstick cameras were first used to show players’ private hole cards on the Late Night Poker TV show in the United Kingdom.[24] Hold ‘em exploded in popularity as a spectator sport in the United States and Canada in early 2003, when the World Poker Tour adopted the lipstick cameras idea. A few months later, ESPN’s coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker featured the unexpected victory of Internet player Chris Moneymaker, an amateur player who gained admission to the tournament by winning a series of online tournaments. Moneymaker’s victory initiated a sudden surge of interest in the World Series, based on the egalitarian idea that anyone—even a rank novice—can become a world champion.[25]

In 2003, there were 839 entrants in the WSOP Main Event,[26] and triple that number in 2004.[27] The crowning of the 2004 WSOP champion, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, a patent attorney from Connecticut, further fueled the popularity of the event among amateur (and particularly Internet) players.[28] In the 2005 Main Event, an unprecedented 5,619 entrants vied for a first prize of $7,500,000. The winner, Joe Hachem of Australia, was a semi-professional player.[29] This growth continued in 2006, with 8,773 entrants and a first place prize of $12,000,000 (won by Jamie Gold).[30]

Beyond the World Series, other television shows—including the long running World Poker Tour—are credited with increasing the popularity of Texas hold ‘em.[31] In addition to its presence on network and general audience cable television,[32] poker has now become a regular part of sports networks’ programming in the United States.[33]
Literature

Twenty years after the publication of Alvarez’s groundbreaking book, nuts published a semi-autobiographical book, Positively Fifth Street (2003), which simultaneously describes the trial surrounding the murder of Ted Binion and McManus’ own entry into the 2000 World Series of Poker.[34] McManus, a poker amateur, finished 5th in the No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em main event, winning over $200,000.[35] In the book McManus discusses events surrounding the World Series, the trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, poker strategy, and some history of poker and the world series.

Michael Craig’s 2005 book The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King details a series of high stakes Texas hold ‘em one-on-one games between Texas banker Andy Beal and a rotating group of poker professionals. As of 2006, these games were the highest stakes ever played, reaching $100,000–$200,000 fixed limit.[36]
Online poker
Poker revenues from Party Gaming (2002-2006). The drop off in 2006 is due to the UIGEA.
Main article: Online poker

The ability to play cheaply and anonymously online has been credited as a cause of the increase in popularity of Texas hold ‘em.[25] Online poker sites both allow people to try out games and also provide an avenue for entry into large tournaments (like the World Series of Poker) via smaller tournaments known as satellites. The 2003 and 2004 winners of the World Series No Limit Holdem Main Event qualified by playing in these tournaments.[37][38]

Although online poker grew from its inception in 1998 until 2003, Moneymaker’s win and the appearance of televisions advertisements in 2003 contributed to a tripling of industry revenues in 2004.[39][40]
Rules

The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands. For a general introduction to these topics, see poker, poker hands, poker probability, and poker jargon.

Betting structures

See the article on betting for a detailed explanation of betting in these variations of hold ‘em.

A standard hold ‘em game showing the position of the blinds relative to the dealer button

Hold ‘em is normally played using small and big blind bets – forced bets by two players. Antes (forced contributions by all players) may be used in addition to blinds, particularly in later stages of tournament play. A dealer button is used to represent the player in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and blinds. The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer and is usually equal to half of the big blind. The big blind, posted by the player to the left of the small blind, is equal to the minimum bet. In tournament poker, the blind/ante structure periodically increases as the tournament progresses. (In some cases, the small blind is some other fraction of a small bet, e.g. $10 is a common small blind when the big blind is $15, and still other tables may use two equal blinds. The double-blind structure described above is a commonly used and more recent adoption.)

When only two players remain, special ‘head-to-head’ or ‘heads up’ rules are enforced and the blinds are posted differently. In this case, the person with the dealer button posts the small blind, while his/her opponent places the big blind. The dealer acts first before the flop. After the flop, the dealer acts last and continues to do so for the remainder of the hand.

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The three most common variations of hold ‘em are limit hold ‘em, no-limit hold ‘em and pot-limit hold ‘em. Limit hold ‘em has historically been the most popular form of hold ‘em found in casino live action games in the United States.[19] In limit hold ‘em, bets and raises during the first two rounds of betting (pre-flop and flop) must be equal to the big blind; this amount is called the small bet. In the next two rounds of betting (turn and river), bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind; this amount is called the big bet. No-limit hold ‘em is the form most commonly found in televised tournament poker and is the game played in the main event of the World Series of Poker. In no-limit hold ‘em, players may bet or raise any amount over the minimum raise up to all of the chips the player has at the table (called an all-in bet). The minimum raise is equal to the big blind. If someone wishes to re-raise, they must raise at least the amount of the previous raise. For example, if the big blind is $2 and there is a raise of $6 to a total of $8, a re-raise must be at least $6 more for a total of $14. If a raise or re-raise is all-in and does not equal the size of the previous raise, the initial raiser can not re-raise again. This only matters of course if there was a call before the re-raise. In pot-limit hold ‘em, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot (including the amount needed to call).

Most casinos that offer hold ‘em also allow the player to the left of the big blind to post an optional live straddle, usually double the amount of the big blind, which then acts as the big blind. No-limit games may also allow multiple re-straddles, in any amount that would be a legal raise.[9]
Play of the hand
Each player is dealt two private cards in hold ‘em. They are dealt first.

Play begins with each player being dealt two cards face down, with the player in the small blind receiving the first card and the player in the button seat receiving the last card dealt. (As in most poker games, the deck is a standard 52-card deck containing no jokers.) These cards are the player’s hole or pocket cards. These are the only cards each player will receive individually, and they will only (possibly) be revealed at the showdown, making Texas hold ‘em a closed poker game.

The hand begins with a “pre-flop” betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. A round of betting continues until every player has folded, put in all of their chips, or matched the amount put in by all other active players. See betting for a detailed account. Note that the blinds are considered “live” in the pre-flop betting round, meaning that they contribute to the amount that the blind player must contribute, and that, if all players call around to the player in the big blind position, that player may either check or raise.

After the pre-flop betting round, assuming there remain at least two players taking part in the hand, the dealer deals a flop, three face-up community cards. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer’s left and continue clockwise.

After the flop betting round ends, a single community card (called the turn or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river or fifth street) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary.

In all casinos, the dealer will burn a card before the flop, turn, and river. Because of this burn, players who are betting cannot see the back of the next community card to come. This is done for historical/traditional reasons, to avoid any possibility of a player knowing in advance the next card to be dealt due to it being marked.[9]
The showdown

If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. On the showdown, each player plays the best poker hand they can make from the seven cards comprising his two hole cards and the five community cards. A player may use both of his own two hole cards, only one, or none at all, to form his final five-card hand. If the five community cards form the player’s best hand, then the player is said to be playing the board and can only hope to split the pot, since each other player can also use the same five cards to construct the same hand.[9]

If the best hand is shared by more than one player, then the pot is split equally among them, with any extra chips going to the first players after the button in clockwise order. It is common for players to have closely-valued, but not identically ranked hands. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand; if the hand involves fewer than five cards, (such as two pair or three of a kind), then kickers are used to settle ties (see the second example below). Note that the card’s numerical rank is of sole importance; suit values are irrelevant in Hold’em.
Examples
Sample showdown

Here’s a sample showdown:
Board
4 of clubsKing of spades4 of hearts8 of spades7 of spades
Bob
Ace of clubs4 of diamonds

Carol
Ace of spades9 of spades

Ted
King of heartsKing of diamonds

Alice
5 of diamonds6 of diamonds

Each player plays the best 5-card hand they can make with the seven cards available. They have
Bob     4 of clubs4 of hearts4 of diamondsAce of clubsKing of spades     Three fours, with ace, king kickers
Carol     Ace of spadesKing of spades9 of spades8 of spades7 of spades     Ace-high flush
Ted     King of spadesKing of heartsKing of diamonds4 of clubs4 of hearts     Full house, kings full of fours
Alice     8 of spades7 of spades6 of diamonds5 of diamonds4 of hearts     8-high straight

In this case, Ted’s full house is the best hand, with Carol in 2nd, Alice in 3rd and Bob last.
Sample hand
The blinds for this example hand

Here is a sample game involving four players. The players’ individual hands will not be revealed until the showdown, to give a better sense of what happens during play:

Compulsory bets: Alice is the dealer. Bob, to Alice’s left, posts a small blind of $1, and Carol posts a big blind of $2.

Pre-flop: Alice deals two hole cards face down to each player, beginning with Bob and ending with herself. Ted must act first because he is the first player after the big blind. He cannot check, since the $2 big blind plays as a bet, so he folds. Alice calls the $2. Bob adds an additional $1 to his $1 small blind to call the $2 total. Carol’s blind is “live” (see blind), so she has the option to raise here, but she checks instead, ending the first betting round. The pot now contains $6, $2 from each of three players.

Flop: Alice now burns a card and deals the flop of three face-up community cards, 9? K? 3?. On this round, as on all subsequent rounds, the player on the dealer’s left begins the betting. In this case it is Bob, who checks. Carol opens for $2, Ted has already folded and Alice raises another $2 (puts in $4, $2 to match Carol and $2 to raise), making the total bet now facing Bob $4. He calls (puts in $4, $2 to match Carol’s initial bet and $2 to match Alice’s raise). Carol calls as well, putting in her $2. The pot now contains $18, $6 from the last round and $12 from three players this round.

Turn: Alice now burns another card and deals the turn card face up. It is the 5?. Bob checks, Carol checks, and Alice checks; the turn has been checked around. The pot still contains $18.

River: Alice burns another card and deals the final river card, the 9?, making the final board 9? K? 3? 5? 9?. Bob bets $4, Carol calls, and Alice folds (Alice’s holding was A? 7?; she was hoping the river card would be a club to make her hand a flush).

Showdown: Bob shows his hand of Q? 9?, so the best five-card hand he can make is 9? 9? 9? K? Q?, for three nines, with a king-queen kicker. Carol shows her cards of K? J?, making her final hand K? K? 9? 9? J? for two pair, kings and nines, with a jack kicker. Bob wins the showdown and the $26 pot.
Kickers and ties

Because of the presence of community cards in Texas hold ‘em, different players’ hands can often run very close in value. As a result, it is not uncommon for kickers to be used to determine the winning hand and also for two hands (or maybe more) to tie. A kicker is a card which is part of the five-card poker hand, but is not used in determining a hand’s rank. For instance, in the hand A-A-A-K-Q, the king and queen are kickers.

The following situation illustrates the importance of breaking ties with kickers and card ranks, as well as the use of the five-card rule. After the turn, the board and players’ hole cards are as follows.
Board (after the turn)
8 of spadesQueen of clubs8 of hearts4 of clubs
Bob
King of heartsQueen of spades

Carol
Queen of hearts10 of diamonds

At the moment, Bob is in the lead with a hand of Q? Q? 8? 8? K?, making two pair, queens and eights, with a king kicker. This beats Carol’s hand of Q? Q? 8? 8? 10? by virtue of his king kicker.

Suppose the final card were the A?, making the final board 8? Q? 8? 4? A?. Bob and Carol still each have two pair (Queens and eights), but both of them are now entitled to play the final ace as their fifth card, making their hands both two pair, queens and eights, with an ace kicker. Bob’s king no longer plays, because the ace on the board plays as the fifth card in both hands, and a hand is only composed of the best five cards. They therefore tie and split the pot. However, had the last card been King or lower (except a Queen or Eight which would make a full house, or a Ten which would give Carol a higher second pair), Bob’s King would have stayed in game and he would have won.

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Strategy
See also: Poker strategy

Most poker authors recommend a tight-aggressive approach to playing Texas hold ‘em. This strategy involves playing relatively few hands (tight), but betting and raising often with those that one does play (aggressive).[20] Although this strategy is often recommended, some professional players successfully employ other strategies as well.[20]

Almost all authors agree that where a player sits in the order of play (known as position) is an important element of Texas hold ‘em strategy, particularly in no-limit hold’em.[1] Players who act later have more information than players who act earlier. As a result, players typically play fewer hands from early positions than later positions.

Because of the game’s level of complexity, it has received some attention from academics. One attempt to develop a quantitative model of a Texas hold’em tournament as an isolated complex system has had some success,[41] although the full consequences for optimal strategies remain to be explored. In addition, groups at the University of Alberta and Carnegie Mellon University are developing poker playing programs utilizing techniques in game theory and artificial intelligence.[42][43]
Starting hands
Main article: Texas hold ‘em starting hands
A pair of aces is statistically the best hand to be dealt in Texas Hold’em Poker

Because there are only two cards dealt to each player, it is easy to characterize all of the starting hands. There are (52 × 51) ÷ 2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two cards from a standard 52-card deck. Because no suit is more powerful than another, many of these can be equated for the analysis of starting-hand strategy. For example, although ‘J? J?’ and ‘J? J?’ are distinct combinations of cards, they are of equal value as starting hands.

Viewed this way there are only 169 different hole-card combinations. Thirteen of those hands would be pairs, from 2 through ace. There are 78 ways to have two cards of different rank (12 possible hands containing an ace, 11 possible hands containing a king and no ace, 10 possible hands containing a queen and no ace or king, etc.). Hole cards can both be used in a flush if they are suited, but pairs are never suited, so there would be 13 possible pairs, 78 possible suited non-pairs, and 78 possible unsuited non-pairs, for a total of 169 possible hands.[44] Suited starting cards are stronger than unsuited hands, although the magnitude of this strength in different games is debated.[45]

Because of this limited number of starting hands, most strategy guides involve a detailed discussion of each of these 169 starting hands. This separates hold ‘em from other poker games where the number of starting card combinations forces strategy guides to group hands into broad categories. Another result of this small number is the proliferation of colloquial names for individual hands.[46]
Strategic Differences in Betting Structures

Texas Hold’em is commonly played both as a “cash” or “ring” game and as a tournament game. Strategy for these different forms varies widely.
Cash games
Main article: Ring game

Prior to the invention of poker tournaments, all poker games were played with real money where players bet actual currency (or chips which represented currency). Games which feature wagering actual money on individual hands are still very common and are referred to as “cash games” or “ring games”.

The no-limit and fixed-limit cash game versions of hold ‘em are strategically very different. Doyle Brunson claims that “the games are so different that there are not many players who rank with the best in both types of hold ‘em. Many no-limit players have difficulty gearing down for limit, while limit players often lack the courage and ‘feel’ necessary to excel at no-limit.”[9] Because the size of bets is restricted in limit games, the ability to bluff is somewhat curtailed. Since one is not (usually) risking all of one’s chips in limit poker, players are sometimes advised to take more chances.[9]

Lower stakes games also exhibit different properties than higher stakes games. Small stakes games often involve more players in each hand and can vary from extremely passive (little raising and betting) to extremely aggressive (many raises). The difference of small stakes games have resulted in several books dedicated to only those games.[47]
Tournaments
Main article: Poker tournament

Texas hold ‘em is often associated with poker tournaments largely because it is played as the main event in many of the famous tournaments, including the World Series of Poker’s Main Event, and is the most common tournament overall.[48] Traditionally, a poker tournament is played with chips that represent a player’s stake in the tournament. Standard play allows all entrants to “buy-in” for a fixed amount and all players begin with an equal value of chips. Play proceeds until one player has accumulated all the chips in play. The money pool is redistributed to the players in relation to the place they finished in the tournament. Only a small percentage of the players receive any money, with the majority receiving nothing. “The percentages are not standardized, but common rules of thumb call for one table” (usually nine players) “to get paid for each 100 entrants,” according to poker author Andrew N. S. Glazer, in his book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Poker.[49] A good rule of thumb is that close to 10% of players will be paid in a tournament. As a result the strategy in poker tournaments can be very different from a cash game.

Proper strategy in tournaments can vary widely depending on the amount of chips one has, the stage of the tournament, the amount of chips others have, and the playing styles of one’s opponents.[20] Although some authors still recommend a tight playing style, others recommend looser play (playing more hands) in tournaments than one would otherwise play in cash games. In tournaments the blinds and antes increase regularly, and can become much larger near the end of the tournament. This can force players to play hands that they would not normally play when the blinds were small, which can warrant both more loose and more aggressive play.[50]
Misdeal

If the first or second card dealt to a player as a hole card is exposed, then this is considered a misdeal. The dealer then retrieves the card, reshuffles the deck, and again cuts the cards. However, if any other hole card is exposed due to a dealer error, the deal continues as usual. After completing the deal, the dealer replaces the exposed card with the top card on the deck, and the exposed card is then used as the burn card. If more than one hole card is exposed, a misdeal is declared by the dealer and the hand is dealt again from the beginning.[51]
Evaluating your hand

One of the most important things in this game is knowing how to evaluate your hand. The strategy of playing each hand can be very different according to the strength of your hand, for example on a strong hand a player might want to try to appear weak in order not to scare off other players with weaker hands and on a weak hand a player might try to bluff other players into folding. There are several ways to evaluate your hand strength, two of the most common are counting outs and using calculators.

* Counting outs – the reasoning behind this method is in counting cards that are still in the deck which in combination with the cards in your hand will give you a combination with very high chances of wining.

Those cards are called “outs” and your hand strength can be measured by how many outs are still in the deck (if there are many outs then the probability to get one of them is high and therefore you have a strong hand).

* Calculators – calculators are poker tools that calculate the odds of your hand (combined with the cards on the table if there are any) to win the game. Calculators provide precise odds but they can’t be used in live games and mostly used on Internet poker games.

Similar games

There are several other poker variants which resemble Texas hold ‘em. Hold ‘em is a member of a class of poker games known as community card games, where some cards are available for use by all the players. There are several other games that use five community cards in addition to some private cards and are thus similar to Texas hold ‘em. Royal hold ‘em has the same structure as Texas hold ‘em, but the deck contains only Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Tens.[52] Pineapple and Omaha hold ‘em both vary the number of cards an individual receives before the flop (along with the rules regarding how they may be used to form a hand), but are dealt identically afterward.[53][54] In Double Texas Hold’em, each player receives 3 hole cards and establishes a middle common card that plays with each of the other cards, but the outer cards don’t play with each other (each player has two 2-card hands).[55] Alternatively, in Double-board hold’em all players receive the same number of private cards, but there are two sets of community cards. The winner is either selected for each individual board with each receiving half of the pot, or the best overall hand takes the entire pot, depending on the rules agreed upon by the players.[56]

Manila is a hold’em variant popular in Australia. In Manila, players receive two private cards from a reduced deck (containing no cards lower than 7). A five card board is dealt, unlike Texas hold ‘em, one card at a time; there is a betting round after each card. Manila has several variations of its own, similar to the variants listed above.

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