Timeline: Social Media

Updated July 22, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Key dates in the evolution and increasing influence of social media


by Jennie Wood
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 Present
2001
May 1
Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, launches.


November
StumbleUpon, a website that recommends web content to its users, begins.
2002
March 22
Friendster, considered the granddaddy of social networks, launches.


November
Technorati, a search engine for blogs, goes live.
2003
May
LinkedIn begins. LinkedIn strives to be known as a business-related social networking site used by professionals from its inception.


May 23
Wordpress, a publishing platform that hosts blogs, is released.
2004
January
Myspace is launched.


January 4
Google begins Gmail.


February
Flickr, an image and video hosting website, goes live.


March 1
Facebook, a social networking service which began at Harvard, expands to other universities.


October
Yelp, a social networking site where users can review local businesses, begins.


December 5
DIGG, a social news website, goes live.


December 30
Facebook reaches one million members.
2005
February
Youtube, a video-sharing website, goes live.


July
Mashable, a news website and blog, goes live.


September 2
Facebook becomes available to high schools in the United States.


October 1
Facebook becomes available in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
2006
June
Myspace becomes the most popular social networking site in the United States.


July 15
Twitter, a website for mini-blogging and social networking, begins.


September 5
Facebook launches its news feed feature to a mixed reaction. Users are not used to their every move being tracked in one general stream.


September 10
Google acquires Youtube.


October 4
WikiLeaks, which publishes submissions from anonymous sources, begins.
2007
March 1
Facebook reaches one million active users in the UK.


May
StumbleUpon is acquired by eBay.


May 24
Facebook starts allowing developers to use the site as a platform for games and widgets, leading to the success of popular games such as Farmville, Bejeweled Blitz, and Mafia Wars.


July 29
Apple releases the iPhone in the United States. iPhone users can access social media sites and apps through their phone.
2008
April
Facebook becomes the most popular social networking site, surpassing Myspace which had been in first place since June 2006.


July
Facebook Connect is revealed. Facebook Connect enables users to log onto third-party websites, applications, gaming systems, and mobile devices.


July 4
TweetDeck begins. TweetDeck is a desktop application for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and other social networking sites.


October 7
The App store opens via iTunes.


2009
January
Twitter becomes the third-highest-ranking social networking site. Its previous ranking was 22.



March 11
Foursquare, a location-based social networking website, goes live.



June 25
When Michael Jackson dies, Twitter servers crash after users send 100,000 tweets per hour.



July 14
The book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal is released. The book is later adapted into a movie, The Social Network.


September
Wordpress reaches 202 million users.


October
Flicker hosts more than 4 billion images.
2010
February
Twitter users are sending 50 million tweets per day.


April
Facebook now delivers more than half of all U.S. social medial referral traffic


May 10
Google Wave, a web-based platform designed to merge email and social networking, is released to the general public. By the end of 2010, Google would hand it over to the Apache Software Foundation.


June
Twitter users are sending 65 million tweets per day, roughly 750 tweets per second.


July 6
Lady Gaga becomes the first living person to have 10 million friends on Facebook. She is second overall only to Michael Jackson who has 14 million friends.


July 21
Facebook reaches 500 million active users. The site reaches the mark less than 18 months after it hit the 200 million active user mark.


October 1
The Social Network, a film about Facebook and its creator, Mark Zuckerburg, opens in movie theaters in the United States.


October 26
Lady Gaga becomes the first person to receive one billion overall views on YouTube.


November
WikiLeaks begins releasing U.S. State department diplomatic cables.
2011
January 28
Egypt shuts off all internet access in an effort to contain activists from organizing protests which threaten to end the reign of President Hosni Mubarak. The block is temporary and does not put an end to the protests.


February
Social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook help activists organize an uprising in Egypt. The trend of using social networking websites to organize protests and demonstrations continues throughout 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa. Various governments attempt to shut down social media and internet access to crackdown on protest movements throughout 2011 to varying degrees of success.


February 22
An Egyptian baby is named Facebook to honor the role that social media played in Egypt's revolution.


April
WikiLeaks begins publishing files on Guantanamo Bay detainees.


August 11
The British Parliament considers turning off social networking sites. Protesters use social networking sites to organize violent riots throughout the country. After exploring whether it is right or even possible to cut off social networking sites in England, the government decides not to do so.


August 19
StumbleUpon surpasses Facebook as the site that delivers more than half of all U.S. social media traffic.


August 22
A teacher in Missouri sues the state over what has become known as the Facebook law. The new state law prevents teachers from contacting students through non-work related websites. The teacher's lawsuit argues that the new law makes it illegal for her to chat with her own child over Facebook.
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