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CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial Internet service provider for the public in the United States. Used the technological breakthrough, dial up. -
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History of Social Networking
Brief History of Social Media and Networking.
Primary Source -
The Beginning of Bulletin Board Systems
Two Chicago computer hobbyists invented the bulletin board system (BBS) 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. -
AOL Begins
The America Online (AOL) service opened. -
The World Wide Web Is Invented
CERN Describes the Intent HereBritish engineer Tim Berners-Lee began work at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland), on what was to become the World Wide Web. -
CERN Donates WWW Tech
CERN donated the WWW technology to the world. -
The Modern Web Page is Born
Students at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) displayed the first graphical browser, Mosaic, and Web pages as we know them today were born. -
Online Journals
Blogging Begins. -
SixDegrees.com
SixDegrees.com lets users create profiles and list friends. -
AIM Begins
AOL Instant Messenger lets users chat. -
Blackboard Begins
Blackboard is founded as an online course management system for educators and learners. -
Google Opens
Google opens as a major Internet search engine and index. -
Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited, remembered as the first online social network to achieve prominence, was founded in Great Britain to relocate past school pals. -
Friendster
Friendster, a social networking website, was opened to the public in the U.S. and grew to 3 million users in three months. -
Myspace Opens
MySpace. another social networking website, was launched as a clone of Friendster. -
LinkedIn Opens
LinkedIn was started as a business-oriented social networking site for professionals. -
Facebook - College Students Only ;)
Facebook, another social networking website, was started for students at Harvard College. It was referred to at the time as a college version of Friendster. -
Podcasts Start
Podcasting began on the Internet. -
Bebo Begins
Bebo, an acronym for Blog Early, Blog Often, was started as another social networking website. -
Facebook - Accepting Applications from "High Schoolers"
Facebook launched a version for high school students. -
YouTube Begins
YouTube began storing and retrieving videos. -
Twitter Opens
Twitter was launched as a social networking and microblogging site, enabling members to send and receive 140-character messages called tweets. -
iPhone is Born
Apple released the iPhone multimedia and Internet smartphone. -
Social Media Becomes an Instant News Source
Citizen journalists everywhere were electrified when Twitter broke a hard news story about a plane crash in the Hudson River. The New York Times later reported a user on a ferry had sent a tweet, "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy." -
Google Buzz
To compete with Facebook and Twitter, Google launched Buzz, a social networking site integrated with the company's Gmail. It was reported that in the first week, millions of Gmail users created 9 million posts. -
The Internet - Your Official News Source
The Internet had surpassed newspapers as a primary way for Americans to get news, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The Internet was the third most popular news platform, with many users looking to social media and personalized feeds for news. National and local TV stations were strong, but the Internet was ahead of national and local newspapers. -
What's Privacy?
Public sharing of so much personal information via social media sites raised concern over privacy. -
The Future
It was estimated Internet users would double by 2015 to a global total of some four billion users, or nearly 60 percent of Earth's population
