history of microblogging
[Historicizing Microblogging]
Some of the history of microblogging can go all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Humphreys (Humphreys, 2010, pg. 1). There are similarities between diaries that were used back in those centuries and how people use microblogging today. The content can be considered close to the same as people back in the 18th and 19th centuries would often use their diaries for more personal reasons and life events such as travel, births and deaths, or anything about their everyday life (Humphreys, 2010, pg. 2). The length of diaries in the 18th and 19th centuries also had a hand in the length that has become microblogging posts as blogs are often described to be diaries of sorts, and microblogging came from blogging. By historicizing microblogging all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries, it sheds a light on how microblogging came to be what it is (Humphreys, 2010).
[History of Blogging]
Without blogging, there would be no microblogging. As aforementioned, microblogging is a subset of blogging, and because of this, it is hard to talk about this history of microblogging without discussing the beginnings of blogging. The term “weblog” came from John Barger in 1997 when he would publish links in revers chronological order, but it was in 1996 that blogging truly began. Two years after the term weblog came to be, Peter Merholz shortened it to “blog” (Carvin, 2007). Blogging is essentially an online journal of sorts; being able to write down thoughts on a webpage about certain subjects, including oneself, and sharing that with the world. LiveJournal and Wordpress are some of the first major blogging sites, still popular today, but it was Open Diary that became one of the first websites that allowed its users to publish online journals (Carvin, 2007, para. 14). Open Diary came about in 1994 by Claudio Pinhanez in which he talked about his daily life. In 1999, the same year that the word ‘blog’ came to be, RSS also came about. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, made it easier for people to distribute their blog posts to more people and it also made following blogs simpler. Technorati was launched in 2002 and this was a blog search engine that allowed users to track bog conversations. 2003 saw the first podcast (though that name did not come about until 2004), which allows the publishing of mp3, files to be published for others to listen to and in 2004, Flickr came about. Flickr is sharing photos on the website to others and leads the way for photo blogging (Carvin, 2007). These all paved the way for the 2006 birth of Twitter and when microblogging came to be what it currently is.
[History of Twitter]
Microblogging became popular in the mid 2000’s when Twitter came into the picture. Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone created, what was initially “twttr,” in 2006. Though there is an “official” version of how Twitter was founded, that version does not included Noah Glass, the person who started Odeo. Odeo was a podcasting platform, but that did not take off as Apple had recently come out saying that a podcast platform would be included in their iPods (Carlson, 2011, para. 15). Odeo never took off like the founders thought it would, and that was when Glass started to get a new idea in which people would share statuses to their friends via a text message. This is when “twttr” came to be. According to Carlson and those who worked at Odeo, Glass was the one who was the most passionate about Twitter and fought for the project to take off. Twitter was a group effort says Glass, however, it was him who has essentially been expunged from the widely known and “official” version of the history of the microblogging site.
Twitter took the general idea of blogging, but took it one step further by shortening the length of what people are allowed to post. “Taking the concept of 160 character limit text messaging imposed on users, Twitter shortened the message length down to 140” (Sauerbier, 2012, pg. 277). In March of 2006, Odeo had a working prototype for Twitter, but it was not until 2007 that Twitter started getting off the ground when it was a part of SXSW and thanks to the help of celebrities, twitter was very steadily gaining popularity (Carlson, 2011). In 2010, Twitter had roughly 175 million users in 2010 (Xu & Oard, 2011, pg.1), four years after it initially launched, a number that will have grown in the four years since that number was recorded. Twitter, in its beginning, was more about the personal messages that its users were sending out, but gradually, as it became popular with more people, including those of a certain prominence, it became another way to receive news. And quickly at that.
[Early Microblogging Sites]
Though Twitter was one of the earliest, and biggest microblogging platforms when microblogging came to be, it was not the only one. After microblogging got off the ground, there were other websites, some no longer, that helped microblogging become what it is today. Tumblr is one of the bigger microblogging sites, now hosting nearly 172 blogs since its inception in 2006 by David Karp. Tumblr allows users to post something via text, picture, video, or even in a quote format. The users can interact by reblogging one another’s posts, liking, or messaging. One microblogging site that differs from the other ones is MySay. MySay came about around the same time as Twitter, but instead of users typing their messages, the users of MySay use their voice instead. The user can call in and leave a voice message for their “followers” to listen to. Along with these two, there is Dailybooth, which is all about microblogging via pictures, Posterous (no longer a working website), which was designed for mobile blogging, but could also be done through the website, and allowed its users to post videos and pictures like other microblogging websites, and 12 Seconds.12 seconds is essentially the older Vine; it allows users to post 12 second videos from either their phone or a webcam and share with those on the website.
[Conclusion and Preview]
Though there are more microblogging sites, these are some of the first ones that came about when microblogging happened and they helped shape microblogging and certain SNS sites into what they are today. These sites helped current microblogging platforms evolve to match the current technology and get it to the point that it is at today- being used by billions of people all over the world for many different purposes.
Some of the history of microblogging can go all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Humphreys (Humphreys, 2010, pg. 1). There are similarities between diaries that were used back in those centuries and how people use microblogging today. The content can be considered close to the same as people back in the 18th and 19th centuries would often use their diaries for more personal reasons and life events such as travel, births and deaths, or anything about their everyday life (Humphreys, 2010, pg. 2). The length of diaries in the 18th and 19th centuries also had a hand in the length that has become microblogging posts as blogs are often described to be diaries of sorts, and microblogging came from blogging. By historicizing microblogging all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries, it sheds a light on how microblogging came to be what it is (Humphreys, 2010).
[History of Blogging]
Without blogging, there would be no microblogging. As aforementioned, microblogging is a subset of blogging, and because of this, it is hard to talk about this history of microblogging without discussing the beginnings of blogging. The term “weblog” came from John Barger in 1997 when he would publish links in revers chronological order, but it was in 1996 that blogging truly began. Two years after the term weblog came to be, Peter Merholz shortened it to “blog” (Carvin, 2007). Blogging is essentially an online journal of sorts; being able to write down thoughts on a webpage about certain subjects, including oneself, and sharing that with the world. LiveJournal and Wordpress are some of the first major blogging sites, still popular today, but it was Open Diary that became one of the first websites that allowed its users to publish online journals (Carvin, 2007, para. 14). Open Diary came about in 1994 by Claudio Pinhanez in which he talked about his daily life. In 1999, the same year that the word ‘blog’ came to be, RSS also came about. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, made it easier for people to distribute their blog posts to more people and it also made following blogs simpler. Technorati was launched in 2002 and this was a blog search engine that allowed users to track bog conversations. 2003 saw the first podcast (though that name did not come about until 2004), which allows the publishing of mp3, files to be published for others to listen to and in 2004, Flickr came about. Flickr is sharing photos on the website to others and leads the way for photo blogging (Carvin, 2007). These all paved the way for the 2006 birth of Twitter and when microblogging came to be what it currently is.
[History of Twitter]
Microblogging became popular in the mid 2000’s when Twitter came into the picture. Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone created, what was initially “twttr,” in 2006. Though there is an “official” version of how Twitter was founded, that version does not included Noah Glass, the person who started Odeo. Odeo was a podcasting platform, but that did not take off as Apple had recently come out saying that a podcast platform would be included in their iPods (Carlson, 2011, para. 15). Odeo never took off like the founders thought it would, and that was when Glass started to get a new idea in which people would share statuses to their friends via a text message. This is when “twttr” came to be. According to Carlson and those who worked at Odeo, Glass was the one who was the most passionate about Twitter and fought for the project to take off. Twitter was a group effort says Glass, however, it was him who has essentially been expunged from the widely known and “official” version of the history of the microblogging site.
Twitter took the general idea of blogging, but took it one step further by shortening the length of what people are allowed to post. “Taking the concept of 160 character limit text messaging imposed on users, Twitter shortened the message length down to 140” (Sauerbier, 2012, pg. 277). In March of 2006, Odeo had a working prototype for Twitter, but it was not until 2007 that Twitter started getting off the ground when it was a part of SXSW and thanks to the help of celebrities, twitter was very steadily gaining popularity (Carlson, 2011). In 2010, Twitter had roughly 175 million users in 2010 (Xu & Oard, 2011, pg.1), four years after it initially launched, a number that will have grown in the four years since that number was recorded. Twitter, in its beginning, was more about the personal messages that its users were sending out, but gradually, as it became popular with more people, including those of a certain prominence, it became another way to receive news. And quickly at that.
[Early Microblogging Sites]
Though Twitter was one of the earliest, and biggest microblogging platforms when microblogging came to be, it was not the only one. After microblogging got off the ground, there were other websites, some no longer, that helped microblogging become what it is today. Tumblr is one of the bigger microblogging sites, now hosting nearly 172 blogs since its inception in 2006 by David Karp. Tumblr allows users to post something via text, picture, video, or even in a quote format. The users can interact by reblogging one another’s posts, liking, or messaging. One microblogging site that differs from the other ones is MySay. MySay came about around the same time as Twitter, but instead of users typing their messages, the users of MySay use their voice instead. The user can call in and leave a voice message for their “followers” to listen to. Along with these two, there is Dailybooth, which is all about microblogging via pictures, Posterous (no longer a working website), which was designed for mobile blogging, but could also be done through the website, and allowed its users to post videos and pictures like other microblogging websites, and 12 Seconds.12 seconds is essentially the older Vine; it allows users to post 12 second videos from either their phone or a webcam and share with those on the website.
[Conclusion and Preview]
Though there are more microblogging sites, these are some of the first ones that came about when microblogging happened and they helped shape microblogging and certain SNS sites into what they are today. These sites helped current microblogging platforms evolve to match the current technology and get it to the point that it is at today- being used by billions of people all over the world for many different purposes.