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Least surprising news of the day: Facebook has officially grown to 250 million active users across the world, according to a post on the company blog by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"For us, growing to 250 million users isn't just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world," Zuckerberg wrote. (The post is accompanied by an animation of how Facebook's growth spread around the world, which is pretty cool.)

Facebook announced that it had reached 200 million members barely over three months ago. Then, Facebook commemorated the occasion with the launch of a new nonprofit-focused initiative, Facebook for Good. This time, they're not launching anything fancy, just assuring members that they're continuing to develop and innovate.

"Today as we celebrate our 250 millionth user, we are also continuing to develop Facebook to serve as many people in the world in the most effective way possible," Zuckerberg wrote. "This means reaching out to everyone across the world and making products that serve all of you, wherever you are--whether through Facebook Connect, new mobile products and the other things that we are building."

Interesting that he specifically mentioned mobile development. Facebook's growth explosion as of late has been largely overseas, and some would argue that the next frontier for the massive social network would be to make better inroads into countries where people are more likely to be accessing the Web on a mobile device than on a computer.

Facebook Connect, which lets external sites use Facebook login credentials and some profile data, has been one of the company's most high-profile projects since debuting about a year ago. It's also been a big success, with some reports that the company may build a powerful advertising network around it.

And "other things" likely entail the social network's virtual currency system, a potentially lucrative product that was finally announced after much speculation but has yet to make any kind of formal debut or rollout.

It took about four months for Facebook to go from 150 million to 200 million members, and slightly longer than that for it to grow from 100 million to 150 million.

Also making Facebook-related milestones this week: "The Accidental Billionaires," the factually questionable account of the social network's early days at Harvard, debuted in bookstores on Tuesday and had cracked Amazon's top-100 ranking by the end of the day.

(Credit: Doubleday)

This one sure snuck up on us: "The Accidental Billionaires," author Ben Mezrich's presumably tawdry take on Facebook's origins, is hitting bookshelves on July 14.

Last we'd heard, it was getting released this fall.

You probably know the plot by now: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Harvard classmate Eduardo Saverin ( a co-founder who is no longer affiliated with Facebook and has had some legal beef with Zuckerberg over the years) allegedly started the site to meet women. In due time, they got rich and out of control. Or at least that's how Mezrich, famed for his tales of wild, young success at elite universities, writes it. A leaked book proposal last year showed some signs of inaccuracies.

A columnist at The Daily Beast has already named it one of her "13 Hottest Summer Reads." And actor Kevin Spacey, who produced and starred in "21," the film adaptation of Mezrich's book "Bringing Down The House," wrote a blurb for Amazon.com about it.

"'The Accidental Billionaires' is the perfect pairing of author and subject," Spacey summarized. "It's pure summer fun--a juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable Mezrich tale that adds to his canon of lad lit."

I'm taking "lad lit" to mean "chick lit for dudes." And it sure looks like a salacious read: the description on the cover reads "The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal." The artwork features two martini glasses--one full, with olives, the other partially smashed with a Harvard-logo cocktail stirrer lying beside it--and a red, lacy brassiere.

Apparently, it'll all get even juicier soon. Facebook reportedly isn't too pleased about the book's debut, and Hollywood veteran Aaron Sorkin has been tapped to handle the film adaptation.

UPDATE (10:36 a.m. PT): This probably goes without saying, but Facebook representatives have declined comment on the topic of "The Accidental Billionaires."

It's been a big week for Mark Zuckerberg.

First of all, the young Facebook founder and CEO finally turned 25. That was last Thursday. But more importantly for the tech rumor mill, he's had to deal with a fresh flurry of speculation: did the company really turn down a $200 million funding round at an $8 billion valuation? Has it raised $150 million specifically so that employees can cash out their stock?

Needless to say, in Zuckerberg's interview Tuesday at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, he didn't answer any of those questions concretely. His response to the notion of more capital was, in short, that Facebook doesn't need it but that doesn't mean they won't raise it.

"If there's an investment to be done on very good terms, we will consider it if for no other reason than to have more buffer if we want to do something in the future," Reuters quoted Zuckerberg as saying. "Some of the rumblings that people are reporting on, are just different conversations that have happened, but there's really nothing new to talk about there."

He did say that it'll be "a few years" before the company chooses to go public.

There have been rumors that Facebook will launch an ad network for the developers using Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect. Zuckerberg offered the company's version of a neither-confirm-nor-deny answer when asked about this, saying (per Reuters) that "it could be a pretty natural extension for us to do something with ads or a number of other things that we've considered." Somebody's been well trained in the vague language department.

Only 25 years old, and he's already mastered that complicated Jedi trick known as the non-answer. Impressive!

Everybody's playing the Facebook valuation game again, in light of persistent reports that the social network is in need of more cash to fuel its rapid and expensive global expansion.

The rumors aren't too surprising. Given the recession and the tough advertising climate, the numbers getting tossed around are some of the lowest we've seen recently.

Currently circulating: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected a fresh round of funding that would have valued the company at $4 billion. Another: one potential investor submitted a term sheet for a valuation in the neighborhood of $2 billion.

What we've heard: Facebook stock trades privately at between a $2 billion and $3 billion valuation. That's consistent with the numbers that everybody else is tossing around. And we've known for a while that when the ConnectU vs. Facebook legal spat was settled, Facebook valued itself around $3.7 billion.

What's new this time around is that reports indicate Zuckerberg is extremely adamant about rejecting investment cash at a valuation he considers too low. When Facebook took a $240 million stake from Microsoft in November 2007, the investment was at a $15 billion valuation. Since then, it's become clear that it was a preferred-stock deal and that Facebook's true valuation has never been that high. But from what it sounds like, Zuckerberg would like it to get up there.

It was long before the massive Microsoft stake, after all, that Yahoo offered to buy the social network for $1 billion. Considering how much Facebook has grown since then--not to mention the new investments--the valuation shouldn't be only two or three times that.

"As a matter of policy, we don't comment on financial matters such as company valuation," a Facebook representative told CNET News in an e-mail.

This post was updated at 8:41 a.m. PT.

We knew Facebook was about to hit 200 million active users, but now it's official, per a post by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the company's official blog.

"We will welcome our 200 millionth user to Facebook some time today," wrote Zuckerberg, who's just over a month away from his 25th birthday. "Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice."

To commemorate the occasion, Facebook has launched a page called Facebook for Good, a page for members to share stories and experiences about how the social site has helped them give back.

It has also partnered with 16 charities and advocacy groups that have created virtual "gifts" that members can buy for one anothers' profiles. Most of the proceeds of the sale will go to the charity--Zuckerberg wrote that the rest will go to administrative costs, not to Facebook.

The partner organizations include a few longstanding names in charity like the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association, as well as newer tech-industry favorites like micro-loan start-up Kiva, shoe retailer Toms, and clean-water group Charity Water.

The campaign also puts Facebook's virtual-gift platform and "credits" system back in the spotlight at a time when, after much anticipation, the company is finally starting to make some moves in the micropayment space.

Slightly over a year ago, at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Zuckerberg was asked about Facebook's plans in the philanthropic space. His response was that the company wasn't yet at that point.

"I think at this point, because we're not incredibly profitable, we're not at that stage of the company--hopefully we get there--that's not really something that we can do a lot of," he said to CNET News last March. "But I'd like to think that just what the company is trying to do in general, just helping people communicate, is actually making the world better."

A year later, Facebook's revenues are up, but not as much as some critics say they ought to be. This kind of growth isn't cheap--and with 200 million users, Facebook still has a lot of work to do on the business side, not just in the feel-good, change-the-world department.

I won't believe it for sure until we see grainy paparazzi shots of actor Michael Cera walking around on a movie set in a North Face fleece and Adidas flip-flops, but it looks like things are moving forward on the film based on the early days of Facebook.

And, Business Insider hears, Facebook may be warning former employees not to talk to people involved with the making of the movie.

This is consistent with something I heard last fall from an early Facebook employee who is no longer with the company. This former Facebooker said the company had told the movie's team that it was unwilling to cooperate in the event that the film was based on a salacious new tell-all book about Facebook--and that indeed appears to be the case.

The movie, as you may recall, is spearheaded by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and is reportedly based on a book by Bringing Down the House author Ben Mezrich, known for scandalous tales of ambition and temptation set at elite universities. That's a fine match for Facebook, which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and some of his friends while they were all undergraduates at Harvard.

But when screenshots of Mezrich's book proposal were leaked to the Web last year, it became evident that Zuckerberg wasn't going to be painted in the best light, and also that there may be a gray area in the fact-checking department. The proposal mentions, for example, a scene in which Zuckerberg dines on exotic food on the yacht belonging to the CEO of Sun Microsystems; Scott McNealy, who would have been CEO of Sun at the time, openly professes to never having owned a boat.

Sounding like a darker and more cutthroat Revenge of the Nerds, the proposal talks about how Zuckerberg created Facebook so he could hook up with more girls--something that Facebook insiders scoff at because Zuckerberg has had the same girlfriend since before he built Facebook--and climbed to the top of Harvard's social ladder.

Mezrich's book is reportedly hitting stores this fall. There isn't yet a timeline on Sorkin's movie adaptation that we know of.

A while back we predicted that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in danger of losing his title as the world's youngest billionaire due to the maddening ascent of teen diva Miley Cyrus. But, Forbes magazine says, Mark Zuckerberg, who's just shy of his 25th birthday, has indeed lost his title as the world's youngest billionaire--simply because he's not a billionaire anymore.

He's still fabulously wealthy, obviously, and clearly stands a chance of making it back onto the list. But his fortune is tied closely to Facebook's valuation, and with the worldwide recession in effect, that valuation has only gone down. The company still relies on advertising revenue, which has been hit hard by the market collapse. Forbes hasn't released a figure as to what they guess Zuckerberg's actual worth might be.

Even worse for poor Zuck: He's been replaced by a guy with the worst sideburns I've ever seen. The title of world's youngest billionaire has returned to Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis, a 25-year-old German worth $2.1 billion, whose facial hair could only be at home in a 19th-century imperial army or a divey hipster music venue.

Kind of makes you appreciate Zuckerberg's trademark North Face fleeces and Adidas sandals.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on February 26 that, from now on, the company will post proposed changes to its terms of service and other policies for member input.

If more than 7,000 people comment, the policy will be put to a vote, and the result "will be binding, if more than 30 percent of all active registered users vote."

Based on Facebook's current 175 million user base, that's nearly 53 million people, which makes it questionable whether the company will ever get sufficient voter turnout.

CBS News and CNET Technology analyst Larry Magid discuss the move with Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Facebook has had another awkward coming-of-age moment.

Late on Tuesday night, the massive social network reversed a change to its terms of service (TOS) that had meant that its license on user content--a longstanding but little-publicized claim to an "irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" for promotional efforts--would no longer expire if a member deleted his or her Facebook account.

Over the weekend a popular consumer advocacy blog, The Consumerist, declared the change a cause for alarm. Buzz started to spread: could Facebook make your personal photos public? Or could it hand over that drunken karaoke video to the National Enquirer when the guy belting out Van Halen decides to run for Senate in a few years?

First, Facebook attempted to justify the change. But with a threat of legal action from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) looming, and with the modified TOS, Facebook's team likely realized that a "trust us on this one" attitude wasn't going to calm down the critics.

The pattern was remarkably similar to what unfolded in Facebook's last two big image fiascos: the introduction of the "News Feed," in which a now-popular Facebook feature was rolled out without sufficient privacy controls, and the Beacon advertising program, derided as an invasion of privacy by advocacy groups led by liberal organization MoveOn.org.

In all three situations, Facebook faced varying combinations of user revolt and blogger discord. The similarity between all of them is that in each case, Facebook could do all the explaining it wanted to, and yet critics wouldn't be satisfied until some kind of change was made. Considering Facebook can credit a big part of its success to gradual change and adaptability--in just a few years, it's gone from an elite college directory to the biggest hub for media-sharing on the Web--it ought to be willing to change when the catalyst is member demand rather than the next big trend in social networking.

It's not clear as to how big the alleged "member revolt" over the TOS change actually was. Tens of thousands of people joined protest groups in a matter of a few days, but for a social network with 175 million members across the world, that simply isn't that many. Recall that well over a year ago, when Facebook was significantly smaller than it is now, a fan group dedicated to putting comedian Stephen Colbert on the South Carolina presidential primary ballot hit 1 million members in under a week.

The important part isn't how many people were protesting. Rather, what's worth noting is that no matter how much Facebook tried to douse the flames--a company blog post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that not only does Facebook's license not constitute ownership, that it was legally necessary to power the service's social features--vocal members and protest groups weren't satisfied if no change was made. Facebook emphasized, for example, that its license had to respect members' privacy settings, hence restricting any use of content to people in that person's "networks" or friends lists. It didn't do a thing.

Facebook has become a mainstream site. It needs to stay on top of the fact that as the site changes (or "evolves," to use the executive team's preferred term), it doesn't leave any unpleasant vestiges behind. Facebook's terms of service regarding content ownership and licensing, including the controversial change, wouldn't have been unthinkable for a small, closed-doors directory. But for a worldwide social-media site that houses billions of photographs (among other content), they just don't work.

Facebook's terms of service most likely still need extensive tweaking, since the whole "irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" part of the document is still there and concern about it won't go away. Even Zuckerberg, in his post on Wednesday morning, acknowledged this: "As I said yesterday, we think that a lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective so we don't plan to leave it there for long."

It's set up an official member feedback forum for input, working with some of the members who had spearheaded TOS reform efforts.

Facebook can credit its rise to change: being willing to change to fit trends, technology, and the times. But on the flip side, that change has to be consistent. When appropriate, changes in features need to be accompanied by changes in the rules that govern those features. And a service dedicated to the evolution of social interaction needs to be in touch with what the millions of members who enable that social interaction are saying. With three big PR kerfuffles under its belt now, perhaps the company has realized that simply justifying an unpopular, privacy-sensitive change usually isn't enough.

Luckily, Facebook has consistently shown that it listens.