It is very revisionist. But it was certainly not special in being web based or easy to use. MySpace, for instance, was far more web based than Facebook has ever been. The major differentiating feature was the marketing model that drove it's initial rollout. It was progressively released to a handful of elite US universities. This led to demand and excitement as it was further expanded. What's striking is that this specific plan was stolen. Without this marketing trick, I sincerely doubt that thefacebook.com would have survived and grown into it's current form.