Facebook

Perhaps no topic in technology attracted more attention in 2011 than the rise of social media and its potential impact on news. “If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next,” we wrote in a May 2011 report analyzing online news behavior called Navigating News Online.

On blogs and Twitter, Facebook is a major and enduring topic. It has been among the top five most-discussed topics on at least one of those platforms in 39 different weeks between January 2009 and the end of January 2012.

With Facebook’s IPO filing, this special edition of the New Media Index examines the conversation about the company among bloggers and tweeters during the past three years.

A majority of adults who use Facebook interact with the website at least daily.

Far more young adults are able to identify the founder of Facebook (63%) than name the speaker of the House (21%).

With Facebook's announcement of the rollout of "Facebook Messages," we offer our data on teens' communication landscape as context for understanding the potential implications of the new feature.

Young adults are just as likely to check their email as their Facebook account on a typical day; older adults still favor email.

The most prominent narrative in social media online last week shifted from the stimulus bill to a critique of Obama’s first month in office. While the economic crisis was still a large topic, a policy change at Facebook created an uproar that forced the site to then change course.

The social networking juggernaut Facebook turns five years old today, and the chatter online about the birthday ranges from congratulatory to cautionary.

About a third of the U.S. public calls social networking sites such as Facebook a change for the better.