From “Harvard University”
to “Explore the things you love”

Thefacebook launched at Harvard on February 4, 2004.^[1] Our capture is from February 12, eight days later, and it is almost all text. The banner carries the name in brackets and a grey face dissolving into a cloud of ones and zeros. Under [ Welcome to Thefacebook ] the page explains itself: Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges.

Four things you can do follow. Search for people at your school, Find out who are in your classes, Look up your friends' friends and See a visualization of your social network. Then two buttons, Register and Login. There isn’t a single member photo on the page.

The small print is the best part. Under five footer links the page signs itself a Mark Zuckerberg production, like the credits of a student film. Nobody else is named.

The face in the banner has no name either. In 2010 ABC News, citing David Kirkpatrick’s book The Facebook Effect, reported that it was a manipulated photo of Al Pacino.^[2] If the book is right, the first face on Facebook’s front page belonged to a film star.

By October 2005 the brackets are gone, and so is the “the”. A plain white facebook sits on a blue bar. The Crimson reported that September that the site had dropped “the” from its name.^[3] Inside the company, the paper said, the redesign had a code name: Operation Quail. The text on the page hasn’t caught up. It still starts The Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools.

Schools now, not only colleges. The next line is worth reading twice: Now there are two Facebooks: one for people in college and one for people in high school. Then something close to an apology. The site is open to a lot of schools, but not everywhere yet. We're working on it.

The face from 2004 is still there, shrunk to a pale tile above the login box. The footer still credits a Mark Zuckerberg production.

February 2006 keeps the same layout and drops the “the” from the text too. The heading says Welcome to Facebook! and the first sentence begins Facebook is. A few links change: help replaces about and faq at the top, and announce leaves the footer.

Seven months later, on September 5, News Feed launched for signed-in members. They protested.^[4] Three days later Facebook added privacy controls for the feed, and the feed stayed.^[5][6] The protest was organized on Facebook itself.

On September 26, 2006 Facebook opened registration to anyone with a valid e-mail address.^[7] The February 2007 capture says it in three words, under the first of three grey boxes: Register, Everyone can join. The other two boxes are Take the Tour (Learn about Facebook.) and Who's on Facebook? (Find friends before you join.).

The word “directory” is gone. Facebook is now a social utility that connects you with the people around you, made of networks each based around a company, region, high school or college. The footer has new links to a blog and to developers.

This is the last capture with the pale face in the corner. It is also the last one signed a Mark Zuckerberg production. Our next capture, from July 2008, has neither.

In July 2008 the front page finally looks like a sign-up page. A big rectangular logo, white letters on blue, sits next to the line Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you. On the right a pale blue form asks for Full Name, Your Email, New Password, your sex and your birthday.

Above the form: It's free and anyone can join. Remember that line. The reassurance changes in later captures.

The left column lists four uses, each with a small icon: Keep up with friends and family, Share photos and videos, Control privacy online and Reconnect with old classmates. Under them sits a search box, Find your Friends on Facebook.

February 2009 swaps the lists for a world map dotted with little orange figures joined by dashed lines. The headline reads Facebook makes it easy to reconnect with old friends and family, and a quote backs it up: I found my old high school sweetheart today on Facebook! Thank you so much. It is signed with a first name, Jude.

A year later, in February 2010, the map stays and the headline changes again: Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. The form now wants a first and a last name in separate boxes. Its code also holds a security check that only appears when needed: Enter both words below, separated by a space.

By March 2011 the line above the form has a new ending: It's free and always will be. The map and the headline are the same as in 2010. The form asks for your e-mail twice (Re-enter Email:), and the browser tab gets a longer title, Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More.

In June 2012 the front page advertises a feature to people who aren’t members yet. The map gives way to Your Facebook Timeline and Tell your life story with a new kind of profile. Below is a frame from a promotional film with a play button over it: a boy in mid-jump over a backyard pool. Facebook announced Timeline in September 2011 and made it available worldwide on December 15, 2011.^[8][9]

The switch came with a grace period. Members who upgraded had seven days to review their Timeline. Unless they published it earlier, it went live by itself after that.^[9]

Smaller changes sit around it. The login box at the top now takes Email or Phone. The small print under the form points to a Data Use Policy and to Cookie Use.

February 2013 is the only capture in this set with a photograph across the whole page. Three young people sit on a wooden porch, one playing a ukulele and one holding a pug. The sign-up form floats over them in white: Sign Up, It’s free and always will be. The map and the headline are gone.

Most fields have lost their labels. They say what they want inside the box instead: First Name, Last Name, Your Email, Re-enter Email. In the code the photo is a single JPEG, stretched to at least 1600 pixels wide. The footer below it has grown into two rows of links, with Badges, Apps and Music among them.

In February 2014 the photo is gone and the page is flat and pale again. A new headline sits on the left, Connect with friends and the world around you on Facebook., with three lines and three icons under it: See photos and updates from friends in News Feed., Share what's new in your life on your Timeline. and Find more of what you're looking for with Graph Search.

This basic layout appears in our six captures from 2014 through 2019, so the changes are small and worth hunting for. By March 2016 the third line says Facebook Search instead of Graph Search, and the tab title is shorter, Facebook - Log In or Sign Up. On January 1, 2017 the green button under the form says Create Account instead of Sign Up, and the small print adds a line: You may receive SMS Notifications from Facebook and can opt out at any time. The promise above the form hasn’t moved. Every capture from 2014 to 2017 says It’s free and always will be.

The January 1, 2018 capture opens with a yellow warning about the browser. Below it, the sign-up form already has a birthday filled in: December 31, 1992. The capture was made 19 minutes after midnight UTC, when it was still December 31, 2017 in California. The pre-filled birthday is exactly 25 years earlier.

The August 6, 2019 capture does the same thing. It was made at 5:02 p.m. on August 5, California time, and the form suggests August 5, 1994.

Under Gender there is now a third choice, Custom. Its pronoun menu is hidden in the still. The code lists three pronouns with the birthday greeting each one would get, among them They: "Wish them a happy birthday!"

This is the last capture with the old promise. Above the form it still says It’s free and always will be. On August 28, 2019 ABC News reported that the line now read It's quick and easy.^[10] Our next capture, from February 2020, has no sign-up form on the front page at all.

By February 2020 the sign-up form has left the front page. A large bright blue wordmark sits on the left, over Connect with friends and the world around you on Facebook. On the right is a white card: two fields, a blue Log In button, Forgot account? and a green Create New Account button. The promise about money appears nowhere.

That May, Facebook admitted that its focus on mobile had left the desktop site behind.^[11] On May 8, 2020 it announced the worldwide rollout of its redesigned desktop site for signed-in members, first announced at F8 in 2019. The public front page in our February capture already has the login card.

The wordmark and the login card stay for six captures, 2020 to 2025, and the biggest change hides in the footer. The copyright line reads Facebook © 2021 in February 2021 and Meta © 2022 a year later. In October 2021 the company had taken the name Meta, and said its apps would keep their own names.^[12] So the page still says Facebook in big blue letters, and signs itself Meta at the bottom. The capitals go next: the card says Forgot password? and Create new account in sentence case in our 2022 capture, and by February 2023 the tab title follows, Facebook - log in or sign up.

A year later the March 2025 footer adds Ray-Ban Meta, and Imagine with Meta AI has become plain Meta AI.

In our June 2026 capture the big wordmark of 2020 to 2025 is gone, replaced by a round f: a blue circle with a white letter, alone at the top left. Below it, near the lower left corner, a big black headline stacks into four lines: Explore the things you love., with you love in blue.

The card on the right is headed Log into Facebook. Create new account has turned into an outlined button, with the Meta logo under it. The footer links to Ray-Ban Meta, Meta AI and Consumer Health Privacy, and ends with Meta © 2026. The tab title is one word: Facebook.

2004 · Thefacebook2026 · Log in

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In 2004 the page ended with two buttons, Register and Login, after four reasons to press the first one. In 2026 the choice is the same pair, Log in or Create new account. Harvard, the two Facebooks, Everyone can join. and the promise that it would always be free have all come and gone in between. The page that once explained what Thefacebook was now assumes you already know.