Facebook is one of the immensely popular social-networking site with more than 8.5 million of people use Facebook ("facebook
generation") each month, and the site serves more than 200 million page views every day. With that many college and university students are posting pictures and information about their lives and Facebook has become more than a way for young people to stay in touch. Layout and navigation are impressively clean and uncluttered, and there are a number of ways to track down potential friends already on the network, whether via your email contacts list, workplace, schools and colleges or a generic search. When friendships are made - as simple as 'adding' another user from their profile - Facebook prompts you on how you know the person you have brought into your network. Because of its popularity, though, the site has become a flashpoint for debates about free speech, privacy and whether the Internet should be a tool for surveillance. It has also raised concerns from parents, administrators and even students about online "addiction." Plenty of social
networking sites encourage this sort of behavior by giving users the illusion that they are merely interacting with friends, when in reality much of their behavior is viewable by any interested party. Google is another popular way of checking up on ex-girlfriends and job applicants, and can reveal its own share of secrets that folks would rather keep private. In fact, a 2005 survey of recruiters showed that three-quarters of them use online search engines to check up on applicants.