The social network Facebook has passed the year 2014 with different new features. Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary in February and its 1.35 billionth user just nine months after that. Stop here for a minute, because that number is worth considering: 1.35 billion.
Facebook acquired Oculus, makers of a much-touted virtual reality headset, and WhatsApp, the massively popular messaging app. The company launched a steady stream of its own apps, too: Paper, Slingshot, Mentions, Messenger, and Rooms.
Users practically rioted over an A/B testing experiment that, they feared, "manipulated" their emotions and gave Facebook psychological powers it seemed destined to abuse. Soon after, they objected to Facebook's forced rollout of a stand-alone messaging app - "creepy" and "invasive," critics ruled  and a series of changes to the News Feed that, while arguably valuable, also increased the visibility of Facebook's mysterious algorithmic filtering.
A few months later, the site found it clashing with drag performers, LGBT advocates and others over another type of personal detail, Facebook has long insisted that users operate under their "real," or legal, names regardless of the context.    ?The Washington Post Online