The Evolution of Social Media

The other day my wife was watching America’s Got Talent when Judson Laipply, creator of the YouTube hit “Evolution of Dance” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg), showed up as a guest star. Over 152, 534, 461 people have watched the evolution of dance on the internet and it got me thinking, just how many people have witnessed the evolution of social media over the last 10 years and not even realized what tremendous strides we have taken. Much of the credit for the following timeline goes to http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/

· Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) - In the late 70's BBSs were the first type of sites that allowed users to log on and interact with one another typically by dialing in through the host computers modem.

· Online Services - Early corporate attempts at accessing the internet including Prodigy, CompuServe, and Genie.

· Instant Messaging - Born in the mid 90's out of earlier programming IRC and ICQ

· Dating Sites – Allowed users to upload photos, create profiles, and interact with others

· Forums – A user friendly interface allowed forums to grow in popularity much more so than BBS sites.

· Six Degrees – Started in 1997, this is considered to be the first social media site, Six Degrees allowed users to create a profile and link with others

· Friendster – Started in 2002 Friendster was the original social networking site. Users could add friends and then become friends with friends of friends.

· Linked-In – Started in 2003 this was the first social networking site aimed at making business contacts rather than friends

· Facebook & MySpace – Currently the two most popular social networking sites, MySpace was started in 2003 and held the spot as the most popular social media site until 2008 when Facebook (started 2004) took over.

· Twitter- Started in 2006, Twitter was the first site to begin offering real-time updates of social information

As you think about the evolution of social media you have seen in your lifetime, what new technology or application of technology do you think we will see?