Facebook Comes Of Age In A Way It Could Not Have Thought Possible

Facebook was originally envisioned as a social network for students and yesterday saw them return to their roots in a way no one could have imagined possible.

According to the Reuters AlertNet article Facebook becomes bulletin board for Virginia Tech:

Some 236 groups related to Virginia Tech have been set up on Facebook, a sign that Internet social networks are beginning to replace e-mail and cell phones as the preferred method for spreading information quickly among younger generations.

and some of the students have posted a black ribbon with the school logo over it on their own profile pictures.

Internet response was immediate with Wikipedia creating a page yesterday although it is locked so that only approved editors can change the content, because it risks being the target of malicious edits.

The relatively small school is the result of no fewer than 16,000 related stories in Google news. The New York Times does not currently show up within the first 50 new stories.

Perhaps that's the reason they elected to take a paid-placement ad for the search term "Georgia Tech".

NYTimes