The academic world’s definition of “social media sites” is web-based services that allow people and businesses to:
- construct a public (or partially public) profile in a boundaried system,
- build a list of other users of the system with whom they can communicate, and
- share their connections and those made by others within the system.
According to this definition, the first social media site appeared in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their friends and, surf others’ friend lists. SixDegrees described itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. It was ahead of its time however, and couldn’t remain viable as a business. SixDegrees shut down in 2000.
2001 saw the entrance of the next social media site wave. Ryze.com, Tribe.net, LinkedIn, and Friendster took further evolutionary steps, and the outcome was Darwinian. Ryze and Friendster never reached the viral level needed to firmly establish themselves in the wide Internet firmament. Tribe.net became a niche platform for esoteric and fringe communities. LinkedIn did make it to viral status and has become a powerful business networking site.
The number of social networking sites virtually exploded beginning in 2003. Platform after platform was introduced, each with a slightly different spin. Of these, MySpace gained the most media (and therefore public) attention.
Facebook quietly came into existence in the fall of 2005, for use only within Harvard. It expanded to other universities, then high schools, and to corporations for use within their own firewalls. It now offers rich resources for individuals, businesses, and other organizations to create a powerful presence in cyberspace. The availability of an ever-growing array of third party applications adds to its flexibility and value for businesses uses. Today Facebook stands beside LinkedIn as a powerful personal and business communication platform.
Twitter started with Jack Dorsey.
He had been intrigued with the idea of being able to send an SMS message simultaneously to a group of people. During a brainstorming session among the board members of Odeo, a podcasting company, Jack introduced his idea…and the rest, in a way, is history.
“Twttr is a new mobile service that helps groups of friends bounce random thoughts around with SMS. When we showed it to Jason Goldman (product manager of Blogger) he called it ‘present tense blogging.’ That’s a great way to describe it. It’s fun to use because it strips social blogging down to its essence and makes it immediate.
“Jack Dorsey is one of Odeo’s brightest stars so when he told us about this idea that has been haunting him for six years we had to listen. It’s not even remotely related to audio but it’s an awesome idea so we told him to go for it. Jack put this thing together very quickly but it took a few months to get a short code.”
That was the start of Biz Stone’s blog post on July 13, 2006, announcing a cool new communication tool that Odeo, a podcasting directory service, had come up with (you can read the whole post at http://www.bizstone.com/2006/07/let-there-be-twttr.html). Twitter (originally names twttr) spun off from Odeo into a separate company…and is a far more recognizable name today!
How did its creators come up with the name?
“[W]e came across the word ‘twitter,’ and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds.’ And that’s exactly what the product was.”
This is Jack Dorsey’s explanation in a Los Angeles Times interview published in February 2009.
“Twitter is a utility for keeping people connected via short status updates.”
That was the reply of Evan Williams, Twitter’s CEO, when asked what exactly he, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey had created.
Twitter’s birth was quick and relatively painless. The first prototype was built in just two weeks in March 2006; it was launched to the public that August and went on to be a full fledged company in its own right the following year.
The essential functionality has not changed since its inception. Twitter is sort of a hybrid of text messaging and instant messaging—a way to “post” an answer to the question “What’s happening?” that can be read by your network of “followers” and responded to by them. Posted messages must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile phone, PDA, instant message, or the web through a variety of tools.
Good overview of Twitter for novices like me.