Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet
Though it only reaches eight years old tomorrow, Twitter is already getting nostalgic. To celebrate its birthday, the microblogging network has unveiled a First Tweets tool for users to look back on the tweets that started it all.
Twitter started in 2006, when co-founders Biz Stone (@biz) and Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent their famous first tweets on 21 March 2006, back when the service’s name lacked vowels.
Since these iconic tweets, millions more first chirps of no more than 140 characters have followed – some better than others. Current CEO Dick Costolo’s first tweet, for example, suggests he still didn’t quite get how the whole thing works.
Twitter has curated a list of the best first tweets in a custom timeline for users to explore, and it has also created a web tool for users to find their own. In fact, you can type any Twitter username into the First Tweets web tool and it will call up that user’s first-ever message to the Twitterati.
Actor Neil Patrick Harris poked fun at the service’s 140-character limit, Bill Gates coined a computing classic, while Oprah forgot to switch off the caps lock. Chat show host Ellen DeGeneres – now responsible for the tweet seen around the world – started off wondering ‘Is this anything?’
Celebrities and public figures are now part of the furniture on Twitter. The most-followed accounts are pop stars Katy Perry and Justin Bieber and US President Barack Obama.
Irish celebrities litter the Twitter network, too. From rugby heroes and comedians to cult-TV creators and drag queens.
The first tweet from @siliconrepublic was a test sent on 15 April 2008. Editor John Kennedy – that’s @MrJohnFKennedy to you tweeters – followed soon after on 5 March 2008 with what I’m sure is meant to be a friendly hello.
It was three years later that CEO Ann O’Dea joined Twitter as @AnnODeaSR, starting things off with a retweet of a story from the site on Halloween. Our newest recruit, Colm Gorey, just beat O’Dea to the micro-blogging network with a fairly confused tweet in early October 2011.
Regarding my own first tweet: consider that bandwagon firmly jumped upon in April 2009.
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