Happy 6th Birthday Twitter, But Who’s On First?
March 21, 2012 2 Comments
It’s Twitter‘s 6th birthday today (seems like we’ve been talking about it forever) and as it passes its 500 millionth user it’s a good time to think about who was on Twitter first. Now, the recognized first public tweet is from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who at 4:50 PM tweeted “just setting up my twttr“. Short and sweet, right, with the trendy Web style of the day: no vowels. Very cool, Jack, very cool.
But, some have confused it with a tweet from co-founder Biz Stone or one by the third member of the Twitter triumvirate Evan Williams and no wonder — they tweeted the exact same thing.
OK, so the three founders got together and in a show of solidarity coordinated their “first” tweets. But it doesn’t stop there. That same day six years ago it seems like everyone working on the Twitter product sent their first tweets, and at least 45 of them tweeted identically as the founders.
So, while Jack gets credit for being first, he loses points in my mind for originality (as if that matters to him) but he does get points for one first: he started the first “trending topic” in Twitter history.
They say you never forget your “first“, so here’s mine:
I know, hardly Shakespearean. So tell us, what was your first tweet?
About Ron Casalotti
Bottom of the Food Chain 
Good food for thought, Ron. At least they didn’t write “Hello world.”
And look how worldly and sophisticated you were back then!
As for me, sady to say, my first tweet was “Signing up on Twitter.” (From 5/5/2008) Pithy, I suppose, but rather uninspiring. But my 7th tweet was more eyecatching, as it was about…pornography. (And how it’s often at the leading edge of consumer technology.)
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Well said, Matthew. Truth be told, pornography is a frequent technology driver. First with the VHS industry and later with online video. The faster technology becomes, the more content expands pushing the envelope further. So in some ways, porn and just as importantly online games led to the Facebooks and gmails of the Web.
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