Queen Joins Facebook
Now it's the socialite network - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has joined Facebook, launching a series of official pages offering the website's 500 million users daily updates on her engagements, the royal household said Sunday.
The 84-year-old British monarch will be featured in videos, photos and news items on the site, which will be available from Monday, alongside other members of the country's royal family, including Princes William and Harry.
Users will be able leave messages or comments for Buckingham Palace on the site and find details of royal events close to their homes.
However, because the pages will be corporate - and not a personal account - people won't be able to request to become friends with the queen.
A royal official said the queen had personally approved the plan, but acknowledged she has not actually used the site herself.
``The decision went right up to the queen,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the plan ahead of its official launch. ``If you are going to have an online presence in 2010, you just have to be on Facebook.''
The Facebook page is the queen's latest social media venture - the royal family already have an account on the Flickr photography website, joined Twitter in 2009 and set up a video channel on YouTube in 2007.
Buckingham Palace set up its own website in 1997, which now allows people to apply for palace jobs online, track the royal family via Google Maps or read details in a section devoted to the queen's prized corgi dogs.
Her Facebook site will include Britain's court circular, the official daily record of the royal family's engagements. It lists all royal diary appointments from the previous day and was created by George III in 1803, reportedly after he became frustrated at inaccurate newspaper reports.
Online at http://royal.gov.uk/
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
