Social Networks
Pre GoLive (1971- 1995)
- 1971 - The first email was sent
- 1978 - BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) was invented by two Chicago computer hobbyists to inform friends of meetings, make announcements and share information through postings. It was the rudimentary beginning of a small virtual community. Trolling and flame wars began.
- 1979 - Usenet was an early bulletin board that connected Duke University and the University of North Carolina
- 1992 - Tripod is launched as an online community for college students and young adults.
- 1994 - Geocities is launched. It can be considered of the first social networking site. It allowed users to create their own websites modeled after types of urban areas.
- 1995 - TheGlobe.com allowed users to publish their own content and interact with people with similar interests. It posted a record IPO that fell from $850 million to barely $4 million in less than 3 years.
GoLive era (1996 - 2007)
- 1997 - AOL Instant Messenger is launched, as well as SixDegrees.com, which allows profile creation and listing friends.
- 2001 - Wikipedia is launched
- 2002 - Friendster is launched. It is the first major website to promote the online connection of real-world friends. It signs up 3 million users in the first 3 months (about 1 out of every 125 internet users at the time) .
- 2003 - MySpace is launched. First conceived as a Friendster clone, the first version was coded in 10 days.
- 2004 - Facebook is launched, originally as a way of connecting college students. First limited to Harvard college, more than half of the 19,500 students signed up within the first month. Flickr and Digg as also launched.
- 2006 - Twitter is launched. MySpace was still the most popular social networking site in the U.S. Facebook membership was expanded and opened to anyone over the age of 13.