The Beginnings
1960’s
The Internet was born in the form of global networking for computers. This was the beginning of a revolutionary change.
1971
The first e-mail was sent.
1990's
The World Wide Web was widely available to the public.
Prior to 1997
Dating webpages are emerging, AIM is being developed, a small degree of online networks and communities were being established.
1960’s
The Internet was born in the form of global networking for computers. This was the beginning of a revolutionary change.
1971
The first e-mail was sent.
1990's
The World Wide Web was widely available to the public.
Prior to 1997
Dating webpages are emerging, AIM is being developed, a small degree of online networks and communities were being established.
From 1997
1997
SixDegrees.com launched as the first identifiable social media network, and the first page that allowed the creation of a profile. As a basic archetype it was similar to a very elementary version of Facebook. Users were able to build a profile and list their friends and family. You could connect with people based on your degrees of separation (you could only connect with someone up to “three degrees” from you.)
1998
As of 1998 you could browse lists of friends on SixDegrees and view the web of connections your friends had with any other user on the site.
Instant messaging reaches a high level of popularity as it allows people to conduct real time conversations.
1999
Live Journal (LJ) emerges as a user-friendly blogging platform. It allowed anyone to take up blogging (at this stage blogging was used predominantly in a journal or diary capacity). LJ also allowed users to connect with each other and follow other blogs.
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The 00's 2000 - The founder of SixDegrees.com Andrew Weinreich closes the network declaring it had failed to truly take off as a successful business because it was too ahead of its time. Many individuals were beginning to use the internet however their networks were still limited as many of their friends were yet to start using it. SixDegrees allowed users to little other than accepting friendship requests and with only a limited network of direct acquaintances online this lost 2001 Ryze.com launched which wasn’t based solely around social networking but also business networking. Ryze was first introduced by its founder to members of the technology and business community in San Francisco which included the investors and developers who would go on to create tripe.net, LinkedIn and Friendster. 2002 Friendster launches. Friendster was the beginning of the online friending sensation. Initially launched to compete with online dating service match.com Friendster was unique in that it was about friends of friends meeting rather than strangers connecting. Friendster attracted 300,000 users through word of mouth before traditional forms of advertising began in 2003. The rapid growth of Friendster proved to be a huge problem logistically and the page often crashed, users gradually replaced it with e-mail and the site folded shortly after. 2003 Myspace is launched. Initially seen as a Friendster clone Myspace quickly became the most popular social networking site in America. An internet marketing firm developed Myspace in a mere 10 days. Very few journalists or digital analysts noticed the launch of Myspace however as people alienated by issues with Friendster began to latch on, Myspace grew rapidly. LinkedIn was launched. Today is has 150 million users worldwide and is like a professional Facebook. By 2012 Linkedin has become increasingly popular amongst a broadening array of professionals. There are limitless forums ranging from advice on social media techniques to more specific job information. Currently these forums are predominantly American based however Australian communications employers advise any up and coming professionals to have a polished LinkedIn profile |
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2004
Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook in his Harvard dorm. Most people are familiar with the story due to the film The Social Network. The impact this development would have on the digital age was incomprehensible at the time. In 2010 Facebook had 350 million global users, 2011 saw a jump to half a billion users, in 2012 Facebook has 840 million users, a number which grows daily. Over 9 million of these users are Australian. 2005 YouTube was founded. It was the first platform allowing the public to view upload and share videos. 2006 Twitter is first launched marking the start of micro blogging. By 2010 Twitter had accumulated 75 million users, with around 15 million actively involved in the platform; in 2012 this number has exploded to over 485 million users worldwide. 2007 Apple Launches IPhone, which began a change in the ways we can use social media. Smart phones allowed for instant access to social media, posting in real time became a reality and slowly a necessity to keep users satisfied. The “Hashtag” was invented by Twitter user Chris Messina as a way to organise and group posts. It also allowed users to search for posts on specific topics or follow trending themes. 2008 Facebook has doubled Myspace’s users reaching over 200 million, surpassing it as the favoured social networking site. 2009 Tumblr is launched. In 2012 Tumblr is the host of over 50 million blogs and is used by businesses and individuals alike to share thoughts, images and videos. 2010 Instagram is launched as an app for IPhones; it can connect to a variety of social media platforms but has no true home beyond the smartphone app. Within two years Instagram has over 50 million users worldwide. 2011 Pinterest is born. With over 10 million users (97%) of which are female the user base of the platform grew over 400% between august and September 2011. Pinterest is still gaining an Australian following, accounting for only 1.9% of the users whereas America accounts for 44% of users. The Australian following is growing daily. 2012 Instagram is bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says at this stage he plans to keep Instagram independent of Facebook. Facebook was floated on the stock market with shares priced at US$38 in the largest ever IPO for a technology firm. |