Facebook founder's first website sold at auction

The FaceMash.com Web address that landed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in trouble as a Harvard University student has sold at auction for slightly more than 30,000 dollars.

FaceMash.com drew 10 bids, with the top contender offering 30,201 dollars, according to a posting online Thursday at domain name auction service Flippa.

Zuckerberg was a Harvard student in 2003 when he made a FaceMash.com website at which people could compare pictures of coeds at the college and rate which was "hotter."

The website was an instant sensation but was quickly shut down by Harvard administrators unhappy with the stunt. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard and started Facebook in 2004.

FaceMash has been cited as an inspiration for Facebook, which has attracted more than 500 million members and made Zuckerberg a celebrity billionaire.

The FaceMash legend has been memorialized in "The Social Network" film about the birth of Facebook.

The buyer of Web address remained secret on Thursday, but Flippa went on record saying that it wasn't anyone from Facebook or Sony Pictures, which made "The Social Network" film.

(c) 2010 AFP