I was looking at Lenovo laptop models online and I needed the prices as well as the availability on the local market. My first instinct, I checked at fastclick.mu, then had a look a kleek.mu. A friend suggested trying at One.O.One Multimedia. I found its Facebook page and the info section had the web address www.101-multimedia.com. I clicked on that and it redirected me back to the Facebook page. Aaargh!

It is not the first time I find such “websites”. What’s the point of having a domain that points to another domain which does not belong to you? Yes, I am talking about facebook.com which does not belong to One.O.One Multimedia.

I visited the web address hoping to get a pricelist or see a catalogue of products. Unfortunately, that is not available, not even on the Facebook page.

Facebook Markup Language

In 2012, Facebook introduced the Facebook Markup Language (FBML) which was Facebook’s owned version of HTML; if I may call it so. The aim of FBML was to enable people design and run mini-sites inside Facebook. Back then several big brands had their fan page designed in FBML. Templates were being sold and some web developers did make money by designing them :-) Facebook tried to change the face of the web. However, FBML did not last for long, it died the same year. Facebook fanpages turned into the pages as we know today; with “like” and “comment” options.

FBML template from avathemes.com

I triggered this discussion about domain names vs Facebook pages on the Mauritius Internet users mailing list. As people continued discussing, the term Facebook island was tossed.