The history of social networking

The History of Social Networks goes back

to cavemen who probably posted up on

their walls the best places to hunt &

gather and share what types of tools

were good for different things.

Being connected to the world around us has

never been more easy and accessible than it is

today.

Reaching people

around the world with

a “click” it is not a

dream anymore, and

it is part of our daily

life.

We could say that 1971, when the first e-mail

was sent, is the starting point of this new way

of communicate.

“qwertyuiop” was the first text sent with an e-mail, it is

usually the top line a a keybord and the longest word you

can make out of it is “typewriter” ...coincidence?

1978, BBS exchanged data over phone lines

- A Bulletin Board System is a computer system running

software that allows users to connect and log in to the

system using a terminal program.

-Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as

uploading and downloading software and data, reading

news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other

users, either through email or in public message boards.

-Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line

using a modem.

-Ward Christensen coined the term "Bulletin Board System"

as a reference to the traditional cork-and-pin bulletin board

often found in entrances of supermarkets, schools, libraries

or other public areas where people can post messages,

advertisements, or community news.

Bulletin Board Systems were in many ways a

precursor to the modern form of the world

wide web, social network services and other

aspects of the internet.

By "computerizing" this method of

communications, the name of the first BBS

system was born: CBBS - Computerized

Bulletin Board System.

1994 : GEOCITIES is founded.

It is one of the first social networking sites. In its original

form, site users selected a “city” in wich to place their web

pages. The cities were named after real cities or region

according to their content (computer related sites were

placed in “Silicon Valley and those dealing with

entertainment were assigned to “hollywood”)

In 1996, GeoCities had 29 "neighborhoods," which had groupings of

content created by the "homesteaders" (GeoCities users).[

By 1999, GeoCities had additional neighborhoods and refocused existing

neighborhoods such as:

Area 51 : science fictions and fantasy

Broadway : theater and performing arts

CollegePark : university life

Fashion Avenue : fashion

Nashville : country music

Napa Valley : wine

Petsburgh : pets

1997 : AOL INSTANT MESSENGER and

SIXDEGREES.COM are founded.

Instant messaging programs become more

and more popular among the web users that

start to get used to personal profile

creations and listing friends.

SixDegrees.com was a social network website that lasted

four years.It wa s named after the six degrees separation

concept and allowed users to list friends, family members

and other users; external contacts were invited to join the site.

Users could send messages and post bulletin board items to people in their

first, second, and third degrees, and see their connection to any other user on

the site.

It was one of the first manifestations of social

networking websites as we know them today.

In 2002 was launched FRIENDSTER,

pioneer of the online connection among

REAL-WORLD FRIENDS.

Its user-base grows to 3 million users in the first three months!

-The service allowed users to contact other members, maintain those

contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts.

-The website was also used for dating and discovering new events, bands,

and hobbies.

-Users could share videos, photos, messages and comments with other

members via their profile and their network.

It was considered one of the original and even

the "grandaddy" of social networks.

FRIENDSTER became popular in Southeast

Asia and even today it is a major site in that

region of the world.

In 2003 appeared first conceived as a Friendster clone.

Its first version was coded in about 10 days.

eUniverse used its 20 million users and

e-mail subscribers to breathe life into

MySpace, and move it to the head of the

pack of social networking websites.

Myspace profiles for musicians in the website's Music section

differ from normal profiles in allowing artists to upload their

entire discographies consisting of MP3 songs.

Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal

profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic

notifications when they update their profile.

Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace,

school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists

such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends".

is a social network service and website launched in February,

originally as a way of connecting U.S. College students

In March, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia and Yale. It soon opened

to other schools like NY University, MIT and many Canadian colleges.

The domain name facebook.com was bought for $200,000

2004

Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006, to

everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address. 2006

2005

2012 Today Facebook has more than 845 million active users.

Twitter is an online microblogging and social networking

service that enables its users to send and read text-based

posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".

The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 300

million users as of 2011,generating over 300 million tweets.

2006: was created

Users may subscribe to other users' tweets’ following

subscribers followers or tweeps (Twitter+peeps).

Twitter emphasized its news and information-network

strategy in November 2009 by changing the question asked

to users for status updates from "What are you doing?" to

"What's happening?"

845

300

Name Active user

accounts Date

Facebook 800+ million[1] September 2011

Qzone 536 million[2] December 2011

Twitter 380+ million[3] November 2011

Windows live 330+ million[4] June 2009

Tencent Veibo 310 million[2] December 2011

Habbo 230 million[5] September 2011

Skype 200 million January 2012

Vkontakte 145+ million [6] February 2012

Badoo 121+ million[7] July 2011

Bebo 117 million[8] July 2010

Linkednl 100+ million[9] March 2011

Google+ 100 million[10] February 2012

List of virtual communities with more than 100 million users:

We have all witnessed how far social

networking has seeped into day to day living;

news broadcasters calling for Tweet views,

appointments being made purely over

LinkedIn, entire conversations being had in

public and online – from different corners of

the world. Examining the fascinating history of

social media leads to just one conclusion –

unpredictability will continue to reign.

It is impossible to accurately foretell what

platforms will stay in favour, which will be

rejected and when the next will be launched,

particularly when the social networks

themselves have become such strong and

influential brands. As an online community we

are fickle creatures; but one thing’s for sure,

there is plenty more room for growth.

Conclusions:

Sources: Wikipedia.com

Urban dictionary.com

Fourthsource.com

Google.it