-
SixDegrees.com is born
One of the first true social media sites where you could create a profile, have lists of connections, and send messages. -
Yahoo! Messenger
The instant messaging service launches. -
Friendster
Originally a dating site, you could create a profile, make status updates, and message "friends of friends". -
The crash of Friendster
The website's spike in popularity ultimately led to its downfall when the company could not keep up, and the servers crashed. -
Myspace takes the crown
Frustrated Friendster users hopped over to Myspace when they couldn't use the platform. Myspace was a breath of fresh air, with public pages visible to everyone and trendy customizable profiles. -
Facebook.com
Zuckerberg launched Facemash in 2003 as an answer to "Hot or Not". Then, The Facebook followed, but after registering their one millionth user, the site became Facebook.com in 2005, and the domain was purchased. -
Twitter takes flight
Twttr is born and now there is somewhere to let all of your friends and just about anyone on the internet to know that you are hungry. Originally envisioned as a message board, the site gained traction quickly - and the name got changed to Twitter soon after! -
LinkedIn turns profit
Three years post-launch in 2006, LinkedIn turns a profit. LinkedIn offered paid premium packages, its jobs and subscriptions area helped bring in revenue. -
Tumblr and Microblogs
This site allowed you to put up pictures, videos and text and reblog your friend's and other creator's posts. -
Hashtags
Twitter plays a big role in the hashtag becoming a phenomenon. The hashtag helped people promote, mobilize, and create awareness for social issues. These hashtags have helped start movements. -
YouTube creates Partnership with creators
A partnership between YouTube and its most popular creators is born, with profits from advertising shared between the two -
Weibo takes over China
China's Sina Weibo, a Facebook and Twitter copycat launched in 2009. This was in the same year that Facebook and Twitter were banned, and Weibo is still one of the most popular social media platforms in China. -
Grindr and its hookups
The first app that finds you matches based off of location. Geared toward bisexual and gay men to help them find other interested men close to them. -
Instagram
A revolutionary platform to share filtered photos and like your friend's posts emerges. -
Pinterest has always and will always be the best
A place to pin fashion, home décor, and cool trinkets to your very own boards. This platform is a bookmarking site that really took lifestyle blogs by storm. -
Snapchat ruins relationships everywhere
This app allowed users to post and send photos that would be deleted in 24 hours or less, and of course this became popular with the younger crowd. -
The rise and fall of Google+
Known for its friend circles, Google+ could organize your friends without even have to send a friend request. Google+ ultimately could not keep up with Twitter and Facebook. -
Vine launches
A video sharing app launches and becomes all the rage after being acquired by Twitter. -
Selfies are the rage
Ellen's Oscar selfie took the world by storm, with over three million retweets, it only makes sense when you see the celebs in the photo. -
Periscope & streaming
An app for streaming and watching things live, Periscope won iOS app of the year in 2015. -
Friendster shuts down
With lack of participation and the tough competition, Friendster could not stay afloat. -
Instagram Stories
If you thought Instagram couldn't get any better, now they have stories to share more photos, create polls, and ask questions - all in a very casual way. -
Fake News Mr. President?
Meme accounts pushed fake information to get people worked up, and it succeeded. Everyone was sharing these fake posts and even both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were involved. -
Yahoo! discontinues
No more Yahoo! for Windows or Mac. Yahoo! Messenger is all that remains on Android and iOS. -
Instagram ups its game
Instagram now lets users post one-minute to one-hour long videos, now they can compete with YouTube.
