History of Social Networking

Community Memory

Aug 1, 1973

Community memory was the first public computerized BBS. It was connected to SDS 940 timesharing sytem in California. messages were sent and retrieved at a record store in Berkely.

Bulletin Board System

Feb 16, 1978

It enables two or more computers to communicate using modems over telephone lines. It was a very basic system and was mostly used for computer techies to post computer findings and updates. communities also used it to share event information. However, it was very time-consuming yet resulted in more social activity within the community.

sixdegrees.com

Jan 1, 1997

This was the first recognizable social network. It allowed users to list friends, have profiles, and search for friends. However, many sites like this one existed previously. This was the most popular at the time, though.

LiveJournal

Jan 1, 1999

One of several websites to have community tools that began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends. Listed one-directional connections on user pages.

AsianAvenue

Feb 2, 1999

Competitor of LiveJournal

BlackPlanet

Mar 3, 1999

Competitor of AsianAvenue and LiveJournal

LunarStorm

Jan 1, 2000

Swedish social networking site for teenagers. It became very popular in 2007 but has shut down in august due to drastic inactivity.

MiGente

Nov 4, 2000

A Latino social networking site that had mostly the same features as all the previous networking sites. (Only for Latinos)

Cyworld

Aug 1, 2001

A South Korean social network. Was the first to have a "Sims-like" cyber world where users could create avatars and mini-homes and homepages.

Ryze.com

Nov 4, 2001

first social network to link business professionals and entrepreneurs. Had a hugeeee influence on Friendster because one of its creators (Jonathan Abrahm) had created it.

Friendster

Nov 4, 2002

The service allows users to contact other members, maintain those contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts.The website is also used for dating and discovering new events, bands, and hobbies. Users may share videos, photos, messages and comments with other members via their profile and their network. Most members are from Asia :)

Skyblog

Dec 1, 2002

Myspace is First Launched

Jan 1, 2003

Myspace HistoryIn light of new strong anti-spam laws, such as the CAN-SPAN Act, DeWolf and Anderson started looking for a new line of work. Both were members of Friendster.com and saw the potential of social networking, especially the combination of traditional social networking with the sort of personal expression enabled by other sites, such as blogs and personal Web pages (Bosworth 2005).

Facebook (Harvard Only)

May 4, 2004

Youtube

May 4, 2005

Youtube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim who were employed by Paypal at the time. The site was made for people to upload personal videos and for video and media hosting and sharing.

Myspace Safety issues emerge

Jul 1, 2005

As more teens joined myspace, the issue of safety and privacy began to arise concerning social networking.
-Predator communication
-stranger danger
-Innapropriate content
-Free Information

Bebo

Jul 3, 2005

(Blog Early, blog Often)
Bebo was founded by Michael Birch and his wife Xochi Birch in January 2005 at their home in San Francisco.
Made for blogging, music uploads, questionarres, chats, photographs, videos, and messages, and personal profiles.

Facebook (highschool networks)

Nov 4, 2005

Facebook (Corporate networks)

Mar 4, 2006

Facebook (everyone)

Nov 4, 2006

Twitter

Sep 4, 2010

Created by Jack Dorsey in 2006.
For quick, text-based, updates periodically.