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ARPANET
Known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. A Department of Defense project contracted through BBN Technologies used to connect universities on a proto-internet. Its main goal was to connect academic users at research institutions. http://www.dailydot.com/debug/history-of-social-media/ -
BBS (Bulletin Board System)
Created by Ward Christiansen and Randy Suess. IIt allowed users to communicate through one system to share files, games, etc. People were charged for long-distance calls when they used dial-up to access the board. This was an important step toward consumer and residential internet and messaging platforms. http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/
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Six Degrees
A social network that focused on the concept that no person is separated by more than six degrees from another. Members could create profiles, invite friends, create groups and view other profiles. Toward the end, the company became more pushy about getting people to join, causing its popularity to decrease and end in 2001. -
AOL
Consisted of member created communities with searchable profiles. It was similar to CompuServe but had more of a social networking/social media twist to it. There was an acquisition deal between AOL, WorldCom and CompuServe in September 1997. AOL only charged monthly for Internet access. http://www.dailydot.com/debug/history-of-social-media/
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LiveJournal
LiveJournal began as a journaling site that ended up turning into a huge market for blogging and different fandoms to share content/stories. Eventually they had communication issues with updates and changes, later resulting in the original founder to leave for Google. -
Friendster
Friendster was a social networking site similar to SixDegrees; It was launched by Jonathan Abrams, a Canadian programmer. It had people connect through common bonds and having a "circle of friends." Before it could advance in the market, it had a lot of technical difficulties, people could barely logon to the website. It lost its users due to stability issues. Eventually it got picked up by a Malaysian company in 2009 and is used as a social gaming site. -
MySpace
Founded by Chris DeWolfe, Brad Greenspan, Tom Anderson and Josh Berman. In July 2006 it was the most visited site in the US and valued over tens of billions of dollars in 2007. It was known as a more "hip" version of Friendster and attracted its demographic with music, music videos and different features. Its downfall was similar to others - mismanagement and strategic issues. They tried to regain relevance but could not compete with the growth of Facebook. -
Linkedin
LinkedIn is a professional approach to social networking. Instead of connecting former classmates, it connects business people that have a desire to connect with other professionals in their field. In 2003, users began to sync their address books with their accounts which brought more people onto the site. Today, the site has more than 297 million members. http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/
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RIAA
The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America. In 2003, the industry sued 261 music fans for sharing songs on P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks. Five years later, they filed, settled or threatened legal actions against at least 30,000 random individuals that have used P2P technology such as Napster or LimeWire. RIAA has won many lawsuits, but is still struggling to combat P2P technology. https://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-five-years-later -
Facebook
Previously known as "thefacebook.com" Facebook was created specifically for Harvard students. Mark Zuckerberg created the site so the faculty and staff could connect and share profiles. It spread through Ivy Leagues, other universities and high schools. It focuses on a News Feed with photo and video uploads. Their biggest controversy is the dispute between Zuckerberg and Winklevoss over the legal ownership of FB intellectual property. There are also privacy and security complaints. -
Youtube
Founded by Jawed Karim. He uploaded the first video which was him at the zoo. With its rapid growth, it was purchased by Google. It not has features such as a rating system, comments and video replies, ways to change video quality, etc. Content has diversified immensely and reaches many different demographics: vloggers, gamers, readers, bakers, make up artists, etc. The site faces issues with illegal music downloads and inappropriate creator/fan contact. -
Tumblr
Tumblr is credited to being the first mainstream platform designed for short form content. It was created by David Karp who was frustrated with the limitations of Flickr, Youtube, WordPress, etc. He wanted to created a site where users could combine all types of content. Users can follow each other for content and follow posts on their Dashboards. -
Instagram
Instagram was launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. This became more popular with the rise of mobile, as it allowed photo and video sharing and editing. This focus on sharing personal photos instead of thoughts/text posts brought in popularity, but oddly enough Instagram was later bought by Facebook. http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/ -
Snapchat (Pictaboo)
Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown thought of an ephemeral photo app in 2011: Pictaboo. It never took off. Brown was eventually kicked off their team and Snapchat was born. The app skyrocketed with high schoolers, but had controversy with the ability for NSFW images to disappear. Now, Snapchat focuses on funny faces, posting daily content/stories and Discover, which gives brand names an area of advertisement and allows media stories to be shared.
