Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg welcomed the distinction of being named as TIME's Person of the Year. Zuckerberg said that he is "happy" to be part of Facebook in building more open and connected world.

"Being named as TIME Person of the Year is a real honor and recognition of how our little team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected," wrote Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook Page.

"I'm happy to be a part of that."

TIME editor Rick Stengel reasoned that Zuckerberg was chosen Person of the Year "for connecting more than half-a-billion people and mapping the social relations among them." Stengel credited the Facebook CEO "for creating a new system of exchanging information that has become both indispensable and sometimes a little scary" and "for changing how we all live our lives in ways that are innovative and even optimistic." (See full report here).

Zuckerberg's year might spill over to 2011 as the film The Social Network, which focuses on the early days of Facebook, is up for the running in the awards season in Hollywood.

The film is fast gathering momentum for the Oscars next year as it generates accolades left and right. It has recently been named as the best picture of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Online. It is also considered as the front runner in the Golden Globe race, receiving six nominations including Best Picture.