Of course, Facebook’s been kind of a big deal for a long time now, but 2012 marked the year that the social network became the publically-traded corporation that everyone loves to hate. The company's blockbuster billion-dollar IPO in May was plagued by technical difficulties , and the Facebook's stock value slumped to around half its initial $38 per-share price over the following three months. Facebook’s market worth has recovered since then, but still hasn’t come close to meeting launch day numbers.

The IPO came just a month after Facebook announced its biggest acquisition ever, picking up photo sharing app Instagram for a cool $1 billion. At the time, both companies were insistent that Instagram would remain an independent service, but the photo app has recently had its first Facebook-esque privacy flap.

Speaking of privacy flaps, Facebook capped off a controversial year with the decision earlier this month to eliminate user voting on privacy issues and site governance, provoking a predictable (and predictably unfruitful) public outcry.