1. The Gadget Life:
A History of our
Social Networks
by: @rykidd
Flickr: MartinKuhn

2. The first instant-messaging system was called ICQ, and was developed in
1988. It is attributed with the creation of our favorite internet
abbreviations. (BRB, LOL)
source: http://bit.ly/TlgUa
Flickr: eurleif

3. Soon after ICQ came dating interaction, as websites began
marketing towards finding lovers as opposed to friends.
source: http://bit.ly/TlgUa
Flickr: Danijel Šivinjski

4. The first major breakthrough in Social Networking was the
creation of LiveJournal, a social network that relied on constantly
updated blogs to connect with one another.
Flickr: Darkchild69

5. Friendster and Hi5 were next on the scene, arriving as
primitive social networks that lacked the true following
needed to succeed.
Friendster is still
operational,
receiving 90% of
their unique hits
from Asia. source: http://bit.ly/TlgUa
Flickr: lemondrop

6. LinkedIn, the
world’s first
social network
geared strictly
towards
business, was
released in
2003 and is still
used by many
employees and
employers
around the
globe.
source: http://bit.ly/TlgUa
Flickr: lemondrop

7. By 2003, Myspace had been invented as a social network that
blended music and friends together, ultimately making it the
most popular social network in 2006 with over 100 million
users.
source: http://bit.ly/3ZFzKn
Flickr: rileyroxx

8. Myspace was originally bought for 580 million in 2005, and valued in the billions
by 2006.
Instead of focusing on peer-to-peer networking, they chose to keep pushing their
social network around entertainment/music.
The company is now worth between 50-100 million dollars today.
source: http://bit.ly/3ZFzKn
Flickr: EudaldCJ

9. source: http://bit.ly/dvTIer
Flickr: EudaldCJ
“The bell has been tolling for MySpace for years, with users leaving the
site pretty much as they found it: as a place to hear what a band sounds
like and see what they look like in a matter of seconds, rather than as a
place where they establish an online identity and communicate with
friends.”

10. Flickr: laughingsquid
Soon after came Facebook in 2004, and it expanded outside of
Harvard by late 2006 as one of the premier social networks.

11. Now in 2011, Facebook has become the largest and most
influential social network on the internet.
Flickr: kevinthoule

12. In 2011, Myspace only receives around 10% of the site traffic
that Facebook does, with Myspace collecting around 18
million visitors a month.
Flickr: .mused

13. These statistics represent the monthly unique visitors
around early 2009. source: http://bit.ly/82ax

14. Flickr: MichaelNWLenses
Even as early as two years ago, Myspace was still in
competition Facebook for the dominant social networking
spot, with over 125 million users a month.

15. This graph shows Myspace.com’s decline
in web traffic since May 5th, 2010,
falling from 50+ million
to just under 20 million visitors.

16. With Myspace on the decline,
people began to look for other
ways to connect with each other
besides Facebook.
Flickr: Hankplank

17. source: http://www.quantcast.com/twitter.com
Flickr: LaughingSquid
Twitter was introduced in 2006 but has recently experienced
a surge in popularity, having increased their yearly traffic by
80 million users since May of 2010.

18. According to the Twitter staff, over
460 000 accounts are created each day.
source: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.htmln
Flickr: rileyroxx

19. On average, there are 140 million tweets
per day
...That’s a lot of
tweets! source: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.htmln
Flickr: Bene

20. More and more people are beginning to embrace the world of
social networking each day. The decision between networks is
tough but there’s only one thing to remember...
Flickr: NationalLibrary

21. Don’t get left behind!
Flickr: ’