Facebook's feature wins and (many) losses (pictures)
Over the years Facebook has built many features and apps. Some were winners, but many more were losers.
Facebook's hits and misses
We're rounding up the hits and flops here, starting with the features and apps that are high points for Facebook, followed by those that never really took off.
Hit: Facebook Messenger
In 2011, Facebook unveiled Messenger, a standalone messaging app that gave you a dedicated space to chat with your Facebook friends from your smartphone. What started as a simple app where you could send messages via email, text, or through Facebook to your friends has transformed into both a text-messaging client and Facebook messaging.
A later version of the Android app added Chat Heads, a feature from Facebook Home that alerts you about new messages (both texts and those from the social network) with tiny pop-up alerts that appear wherever you are in your phone, not just in the app. That means you can reply to messages quickly and go back to what you were doing.
In October 2013, Messenger got a makeover with a new clean design and features that make it easier to use.
Hit: Instagram
Under Facebook's ownership, Instagram has added several new features to the app, including video and private sharing.
Hit: Facebook Graph Search
Facebook's beefed-up search engine gained a lot of attention when it launched in January 2013. Using natural language processing (which just means it understands what you're looking for based on how you phrase your search), Graph Search makes it easier to find finding people, places, photos, and interests. This feature made it possible to string together several thoughts into a single search, so that you can find "Restaurants in Maui, Hawaii that my friends visited."
Graph Search is still going strong, sitting at the top of the Facebook desktop site, and a mobile version is said to be coming soon.
Hit: Facebook Groups
Groups was introduced in 2010 and has been a popular feature ever since.
Miss: The Facebook Phone
In April 2013, Facebook gave us its much-anticipated phone, the HTC First. This lackluster device put your Facebook feed front and center with a feature called Home -- an Android launcher that altered the look of the operating system.
The HTC First was a major flop, as its carrier, AT&T, dropped the price from $99 to 99 cents just a month or so after the phone launched. Home didn't fare any better -- you can still download the launcher from Google Play, but the vast majority of the reviews are negative, with most people complaining that it kills their phone's battery and is hard to use.
Miss: Facebook Beacon
Miss: Facebook Credits
In June 2013, Facebook killed the virtual currency for good.
Miss: Facebook Deals
Facebook's pitch went something like this: "Imagine that while you're looking for a new place to try for lunch, you can see offers from restaurants nearby on your phone. On the other hand, I already love Zachary's Pizza, so imagine if I were rewarded for coming back there every week with my friends."
But users were not interested. Just four months after launch, Facebook Deals was dead, replaced by Check-in Deals, a subset of Places.
Miss: Facebook Places
The Places name was dropped, and the location-based services were folded into a product called "Nearby," which then, in 2013, was integrated into the "local search" product.
Miss: Facebook Questions
People love to seek out the opinions of their social-media friends, so Facebook figured why not build the feature into the site?
When Facebook Questions launched in 2010, it was described as a way to "get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics."
The service didn't really take off, and Facebook shut down Questions in 2012.
Miss: Facebook Gifts
The only problem was, nobody really wanted to give gifts. A year later, a company spokesperson told CNET, "Since launching Gifts in December last year, roughly 80 percent of gifts have been gift cards. So, we're now adding more digital codes and making the Facebook Card redeemable at more merchants. As a part of this shift in focus to Facebook Card and digital codes, we're also phasing out physical gifts."
Miss: Facebook Poke
Poke was a Facebook app for iPhone, a Snapchat clone that Facebook called "a simple and fun way to say hello to your friends." Messages, photos, and videos could be sent to a friend or multiple friends at once, and the user had the ability to choose how long such pokes were available for friends to view, up to 10 seconds. After that, they disappeared from the app.
Poke was released in December 2012 but its popularity quickly faded. Mark Zuckerberg recently called it "more of a joke" than a serious product.
Miss: Facebook Camera
As Instagram skyrocketed in popularity as the go-to place for mobile photography, Facebook killed the Camera app, and just bought Instagram instead.