Only a couple of days have passed since Apple announced the opening of a new development center in Europe, and now it seems that Facebook is also interested in such an expansion. The famous social network stated that it will open a new European data center near Dublin.
However, this is not the first such center that Facebook has in Europe. In fact, the famous company has six data centers globally, one already been located in Europe. This second European center is set to open in the town of Clonee, at about 9.5 miles distance from the city of Dublin.
Facebook’s first European center opened in Sweden back in 2013. The famous company actually managed to make quite an interesting change in the way companies approached the opening of a new operation, making its Lulea center 100 percent environmentally friendly. Well, when it comes to the company’s center in Ireland, Facebook aims to adopt an eco-friendly design approach.
“Clonee will be packed full of cutting-edge technology, making it one of the most advanced, efficient and sustainable data centers in the world,” a statement from Facebook said.
Naturally, Facebook is not thinking about sustainability exclusively in Europe. The famous company also has wind-generated electricity at its centers in Altoona and Iowa.
Well, some have claimed that Facebook’s interest for Ireland is not that actually unexpected. Moreover, Facebook is not the only company which has developed operations in this country. Google, Microsoft, as well as Amazon, have data centers in Ireland. It has been said that the country’s taxation system could be the reason why tech giants are drawn to Ireland.
Apple has also expressed its interest for Ireland. A press release from the famous company indicated in February 2015 that Apple will be opening no less than 2 centers in Europe, one located in Ireland.
Facebook first revealed its intentions in June 2015, but the famous company only publicly admitted that now, probably in the wait of all needed approvals for the opening.
Well, while Facebook is focusing on developing, a new study has actually indicated that almost all Facebook friends that users have are actually fake. The study conducted by Professor Robin Dunbar from the Oxford University tried to find out how Facebook friendship correlates with real-life friendship.
The results revealed that out of 150 Facebook friends, people commonly have only 15 that can be considered actual real life friends. From these 15, only 5 are close friends, the study found.
“There is a cognitive constraint on the size of social networks that even the communication advantages of online media are unable to overcome,” the results of the study indicated.
“In practical terms, it may reflect the fact that real (as opposed to casual) relationships require at least occasional face-to-face interaction to maintain them,” it added.
Professor Robin Dunbar also claimed that social networks actually encourage what he called “promiscuous friending” of individuals, who have few links to the user. The study also showed that younger people are more willing to have a larger online social network, while older people tend to have more real life friends.
