By Melissa Hoon

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Break out the champagne! Facebook, the most popular and widely-used social networking site to date, is celebrating its sixth anniversary this month.

Why the call for celebration? Since Facebook was launched in 2004, from founder Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room at Harvard University, over 350 million users have become members of the site, officially beating out MySpace membership in April 2008. Forbes magazine estimates Facebook’s minimum worth at $7.9 billion.

“Opportunities (to buy stock) like this do not come along everyday and we have not seen an opportunity like this since Google in 2004,” Felix Investments, a New York City investment manager, told Forbes in a recent interview.

As a result of Facebook’s reigning victory over Myspace, Myspace has laid off 30 percent of its employees last year. Myspace employees are not the only ones leaving the site; many users are canceling their accounts or leaving their profiles stagnant, fueling Facebook’s popularity by switching over.

“Myspace is a domain of teens and is more of a place to flaunt yourself than to stay in touch with people,” said Wayne Huang, 29, a communications graduate student. “But I can’t complain about Facebook ? it’s a free service that allows you to reconnect with people who you sometimes wonder, ‘What ever happened to what’s-his-face?’”

In the past six years, Facebook has broken new ground across the communication spectrum. Available in over 50 languages, Facebook is used by people all over the world to reconnect with old friends, stay in contact with current acquaintances and for business and networking purposes.

“Facebook is used by many journalists because it’s a good way to solicit story ideas or contacts,” Robert Quezada, a communications professor said. “It’s another way to interact with readers. This two-way communication is one of the keys to success in the future of communications and the people who work in the field.”

Surprised to see that your mother sent you a friend request on Facebook? Don’t be. In fact, be ready to accept your entire extended family. Everyone from preteens to folks in retirement centers hold stake in Facebook’s age demographics. That’s right ? even grandma wants to know what you did Friday night.

“Facebook is the easiest way to pull all my circles of friends into one location,” said MaryAnne Shults, 50, a print journalism major. “This summer, my high school is planning a large reunion that will span nearly 30 years of graduates. All the planning is taking place via Facebook.”

With everything Facebook contributes, the site may be busier than you cramming the night before finals. Not only does it help reconnect and plan family reunions, it helps set a worldwide agenda and seems to be the catalyst for buzzing water cooler conversations.

“We have an incredible tool called Lexicon, which shows trends and insights into what Facebook users are talking about,” said Randi Zuckerberg, a member of the site’s creative marketing team, in a recent interview with the Huffington Post. “Lexicon allows you to look at the buzz around a certain word or topic on Facebook, and even allows you to drill down to see exactly where in the United States people are most talking about that topic.”

According to Businessinsider.com, Mark Zuckerberg says that the most important factors to Facebook’s success are boldness, speed and focus. In today’s need-to-know-everything-now society, those ingredients will likely lead directly to Facebook’s growth in membership and company revenue.

So, keep the champagne flowing, because the site will most likely celebrate its remarkable success for years to come. Who knows what will be added to Facebook’s growing list of contributions to worldwide communication by next year.