I have found that the free web development videos at TheNewBoston - Free Educational Video Tutorials on Computer Programming, Adobe Software, Computer Science and More! are excellent. He has not updated them in a while, but for the most part, the information is still current.

You are doing the right thing by learning HTML and CSS first. The next step is to learn Javascript and then jQuery. (Note the New Boston site has excellent videos on Javascript and jQuery.)

Then you will want to learn the PHP programming language and the MySQL database.

I personally find that it is easier to learn by watching videos than buying books. If you have some extra money, check out the high quality video tutorials at Lynda.com, but the New Boston site is a great start.

Good Luck!

WiLd

-How long will it take me to learn the method?
To Build sites on the level of facebook, youtube and twitter its not simple as it sounds. I am self learner web / application developer with experience of developing custom crm and complex apps for over 10 years. I would recommend you starting form basics. Learn PHP, MySQL and MVC structure, I even recommend you learning some of PHP Frameworks such as CakePHP, Codeigniter, Zend( not big fan of it.) Benefits of using frameworks: Security , Libraries that you can customize to your needs, stability and the most important MVC Pattern .
Another imporant factor is to learn MySQL and get very familiar with it. Try to download some examples of large databases. The reason is for testing some heavy / advance MySQL querys you need large amount of data. Try to optimize mc.cnf to maximum and the also tweak quiery, even try using cache. all that will get you started to understand what it takes dealing with large databases and load balancing operations.
-Can I do it on my own or do I need to setup an office?
All you need is pc or mac to start. I started from home, and never liked working in the office. Just make sure you setup is comfortable for you to work. I Would defiantly rec-omen at least 2 monitors with high resolutions.
-How much will it cost?
Their is not cost in learning Opensource Languages such PHP, MySQ, HTML, CSS all that is open to public. You can use stockoverflow forum and youtube tutorials to help you on the way.

PM me if you need additional help.

If you're just starting out it doesn't seem likely that you're able to develop the next Facebook for at least couple of years. This stuff does take time, but it's not as complicated as it may seem. Just get coding, but prepare to experiment a lot and do smaller coding projects. I can't recommend any one book, but O'Reilly and Smashing Magazine seem to have good stuff.

Hiring good programmers is the fastest way to get something ready.

Developing and implementing a service that's got a massive number of concurrent users is more advanced than basic PHP programming. You probably need to take the server side in to account as well. There's a lot of books available on this subject. However, most sites don't ever get to the level where this becomes a problem.

Yes, you are right. Its not so easy to be an expert over the night. These kind of things always take time to polished. So if you want to develop your website with yourself, then you should learned and try a lot. But if you need to hire any expert developer then you can find.

-How long will it take me to learn the method?
Considering you are getting started and as complex as Facebook & Youtube are, honestly, you will need years of experience for this. Your can learn programming skills but you will need experience to implement them effectively. And you will earn experience over time & practice, no other way.

Since you are starting out, it would be a good idea to use a CMS and learn building & modifying its plugin to add/modify functionalities. e.g. Joomla, a very powerful dynamic CMS with LOT of free extensions & good paid extensions as well. But obviously, this will not be as extensive as Facebook, it is a smaller alternative.

e.g. JomSocial for social networking, free & paid extensions for - Social widgets, Security extensions, SEO extensions, Newsletter extensions etc. etc.

You can combine all those to make a complete site and even by learning how to develop extensions for Joomla you can modify existing extensions or build you own ones.

-Can I do it on my own or do I need to setup an office?
If you plan to build a site as big as Facebook, you will definitely need a team.

-How much will it cost?
The resources are all free, PHP, MySQL, Joomla CMS - all free
Free Learning resource - Google, there are also good videos on Youtube.
If you hire people to work on the project, it will depend on how much they charge. (it should be expensive)

You should try to visit gegasoft.com website to find php programming language tutorials which may help you learn php programming language as well.

Many large websites use PHP as mentioned above, but unless you're really good at optimizing PHP, you'll also want to learn Ruby and maybe even Python. Twitter, for example, is built on Ruby. These languages operate much more efficiently than PHP.

No argument with any of the above advice, but if you haven't already studied databases, I'd focus on learning the basics of that first. I'm also creating a social media site, using PHP and MySQL, but those languages are secondary to having a good, solid understanding of how databases work. For example, here's an excerpt from my own database ERD (entity-relationship diagram).

Facebook, twitter, and youtube are all huge projects. Though PHP is accessible to beginners, you'd be much more productive as a programmer if you picked up one of the BIG frameworks. Something with an Object Relational Mapper ( Object-relational mapping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) and a bunch of helpers for making common web software development easier. Unfortunately no PHP framework really has a full featured ORM like you'd find in Ruby on Rails or Django--there are others, but these two are the big players.

So if you grasp the logic of programming so far, you may want to invest some time and learn one of these frameworks. PHP is awesome, and some companies (like facebook) are using it to make some powerful software. But I think if you're just one guy trying to do something at or near the scale of the big guys, you gotta have a full featured framework to work with. Otherwise, you can't move as quickly.

Look at it like this... If you are just starting out you will not have anything close to facebook or youtube tomorrow. There are hundreds if not thousands of programmers that work on those sites daily. But also remember, Facebook and Youtube did not start out as the huge giants they are today either.

Just build what you are interested in, start learning, and you may just end up a giant. Or at least learn some good programming skills trying.

Answer the question "How to create a high dynamic website ?"
If you know basics of HTML and CSS, you just learn more PHP and a little of javascript.
Methods ? Easy, from basic. You can begin with a course, a course for beginers (2-3 months). If you want to learn at home, you can find books about php and websites that teach you know and use PHP, ex : ebook php w3schools.com, code4share.net, google.com...
Youtube or facebook is a big system, but if you try in 3-4 months you can create a dynamic website. Good luck to you !

Creating a site like facebok twitter need much more advanced akilles and a capable team game but you should start first with some light weight sites so that you can get some feel and experience of how things work.

You have to learn completely a programming language,the concepts of designing,some concepts of networking etc....we can simply say that it is a team work activity to create such kind of websites.otherwise you should have number of year experience in development.
Ethical Hacking Course Online | Online Ethical Hacking Course | CHSE

You need a lot of team for this kind of web site. You need web designer, developer, Administrator to take care of your website. And also need to take a lot of space for domain.

[DELETED]

[DELETED]

Facebook was made in PHP.
There are great MVC frameworks like Laravel.
But Python and Django was the one used for the finest Pinterest.
You choose.

Shoot me a private message I'm happy to help out.
-Ruth

You can look at the Frameworks like CakePHP, Yii, CodeIgnitor for PHP or Django, Flask, etc for Python. FB, Youtube, etc were built using these frameworks. They act like templates to build websites and speed up web development a lot. Their website contains examples to help you build a basic web application within a couple of weeks. Once you have something simple up & running, you can always modify it to add more features.

I didn't know python or had built any web application but I followed the Tutorial present on Django website. In a week I was able to build a full fledged blogging application. This helped me get the basics out of the way.

The problem with books is that they contain too detailed information about each topic. It is not really required to build a web application. You just need to know how the different pieces (HTML, CSS, JS, Database, etc) work together.

All this is free and can be done by one person.

Just got done answering this in another thread so I'll cut-n-paste it below with one caveat.

This FREE tutorial will teach how to create a "twitter lite" app using RubyOnRails and get it hosted online for free (host on Heroku for free!).

Ruby.RailsTutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

If you are not familiar with RubyOnRails:

"The Ruby on Rails Tutorial book and screencast series teach you how to develop and deploy real, industrial-strength web applications with Ruby on Rails, the open-source web framework that powers top websites such as Twitter, Hulu, GitHub, and the Yellow Pages."

I HIGHLY recommend your SPEND YOUR TIME going through the Rails tutorial prior spending your money on books.

I hope this helps...

"Okay I'll toss the pickle into the punch bowl - Investigate RubyOnRails

If your question really is which scripting language is intuitive, easy, fun, free, yet powerful with a great community for support, try RubyOnRails (aka: Rails).

Spend 15 minutes at TryRuby.org to get a quick understanding of Ruby.

Spend a full day at Ruby.RailsTutorial.org and you'll have a fully functioning "Community" based app online hosted at Heroku for free.

Then spend some time at RailsCast.com and watch the how to videos for putting together some great apps with great functionality.

If you are still interest checkout Rails for Zombies free Rails Basic training (very cool).

Free CodeSchool.com/courses/rails-for-zombies-redux

Take a look at OpenSourceRails.com for some great starter apps you can build off of.

Also look at Ruby-Toolbox.com for some great FREE plugins (aka: plugins are known as gems with Ruby apps)

If you want more as to why RubyOnRails?, there is a 179 page pdf ebook explaining the elegance of the Ruby language:

RubyInside.com/media/poignant-guide.pdf


But if you are planning on customizing WordPress, or Drupal, or Joomla learn php.

I started developing in 1995 using ColdFusion. Still develop in ColdFusion when I have to. But I love RubyOnRails for it is so intuitive, like it writes itself. "

Also you could use backbone.js and node.js.
Thats a good technology that you should learn.

first, what the heck does high dynamic mean ...

2nd, you may want to start with something a little less ambitious than building the next facebook -- just saying ... good luck, i'm a .net guy myself, once you've experienced visual studio and all it can do you never go back.

[DELETED]