One year and three months ago, we reported that Yahoo was interested in building a data center in Lockport, New York, and that the company had set a target date of September 2010 for its completion.  Now, right on schedule, the state-of-the-art facility’s being opened.

Facebook’s won the support of a lot of people as it builds a data center in Prineville, Oregon; an official Facebook Page is full of positive comments from locals.  However, because the facility will primarily be powered by coal, Greenpeace – along with around 500,000 individuals – has sided against it.

When Facebook announced that it had reached the 500-million-user milestone, many people expressed a mixture of surprise and awe.  Now, it seems as if Facebook might have been caught off guard, too.  The company’s said it will double the size of its not-yet-complete data center in Prineville, Oregon.

Early this year, Facebook committed to building the custom data center (its first).  The center was supposed to be 147,000 square feet in size, and the first quarter of 2011 was set as the target for completion.

Some of the world’s top tech companies are concerned that their ability to build cost-effective and energy-efficient data centers may be compromised.  Representatives from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and several other outfits have signed a letter protesting a standard established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Facebook moves fast.  On January 21st, the company broke ground on a custom data center in Prineville, Oregon.  Now, it’s named the facility’s manager, and proven with a handful of photos that construction is coming along quite nicely.

Yahoo’s been busy in Nebraska.  This week, the company announced the opening of both a data center and a call center in the state, and apparently the celebration was a big deal, with Jerry Yang and several high(-ish) ranking politicians all showing up.

The rumor that Google might build a data center in Australia has been circulating for some time; our first report on the subject was written in October of 2008.  Now, although construction crews haven’t exactly been mobilized, there’s at least been a sign that Google hasn’t given up on the idea.

It’s always a big deal when a company like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft begins to build another data center; the move proves that they’ve got a fair amount of cash on hand and are growing at an impressive rate.  More significant, though, may be the idea of a company first getting into the DIY data center business, and Facebook appears to have reached that juncture.