Wow, that was a very nice read. It's fun to see how ideas become real. Thanks.
Sam Marsh
· 10 months ago
Fascinating stuff! Really interesting to see how touch and go it was at times!
Thanks.
Rodney Rumford
· 10 months ago
Great detail of the birthing and history associated with Twitter and their growth. I have been on twitter for over 2 years and followed what they were doing at odeo as we were in the same space with another podcast hosting company that i own.
Twitter has become a phenom and a new communication form and channel that is here to stay. How you use it is up to you entirely. Its beauty is in its simplicity. It is moldable and malleable to many use cases.
Cheers!
Chralle
· 10 months ago
Very inspiring article. Thanks!
aokocax
· 10 months ago
Thx for share.
Tony Stubblebine
· 10 months ago
Dom, you have a great memory (or a great journal). Either way, I'm glad you wrote all this down, because I'm not able to keep it straight in my head.
There are two things that still amaze me about the early days.
One, no pundit gave us any credit at all. If you were an early user, Twitter's future success seemed obvious. It just felt powerful. But every journalist seemed stuck on measuring us against past products according to a feature list, not realizing that the only feature that mattered was people.
Two, Odeo was made up of a lot of past and mostly present company founders, Noah (audioblogger, odeo), Ev (blogger, odeo, twitter), you (this and dollarapp), adam (71miles and trazzler), tim (infectious), biz (twitter), jack (twitter), and me (crowdvine). That's eight and doesn't even count the major open source and community projects that rabble, kellan, and blaine have started. I think we needed that many rockstars to turn the middling opportunity we had in podcasting into the major opportunity that Twitter has.
Again, great write-up.
Andrew
· 10 months ago
Fascinating story. Twitter sure became huge and extremely popular since that time.
zEro
· 10 months ago
Thank you for sharing, an amazing story!
Rachael
· 10 months ago
Great story, great product! Thank you :)
Steve Hopkins
· 10 months ago
"oh this is going to be addictive"
I love that you all knew about how addictive this was going to become when you we're in the middle of it. That's not the way it is all the time, I'm sure.
@Tony Stubblebine I love how you describe the crew that was working at Odea. The fact that it took that much rockstar talent to birth (and incubate) twttr into twitter is indicative of a) how hard it is to really create world-changing techs and b) just how rockstar you guys must have been.
Cheers and thanks @dom for the post. Winner!
Cameron Reilly
· 10 months ago
Great history Dom, thx for taking the time to share it.
joshglid
· 10 months ago
was each sentence in that feature 140 char or less?
howard lindzon
· 10 months ago
awesome. thx for twitter.
Wm. Marc Salsberry
· 10 months ago
I love these kinds of 'backstories' and finding out what was considered important or 'noteworthy' at the time. I'm curious to know just how many photographs were taken of the original crew. I'd love to set up a photo shoot now with everyone to 'document' it for history. Great Read!
@CameronCollie
· 10 months ago
Great read. Thanks for sharing.
Louis Gray
· 10 months ago
Appreciate the summary. Often, it's not clear how interesting ideas turn into successful ideas, and later, successful companies. You've removed a lot of the mystery.
medyumhoca
· 3 weeks ago
İT İS VERY GOD SİTE
Amy Jussel
· 10 months ago
Such a small 'geek-chic' world...I remember writing about Twitter on Shaping Youth shortly after it launched thinking it was 'mobile social media minutiae' ...even though the Community Next hall at Stanford was abuzz about the addictive nature of same: http://blog.shapingyouth.org/?p=281
Then whammo...life hacks, Armano's citizen journalism, Beth Kanter's sending orphans to college w/fundraising, and on and on as you can see by all the trackbacks from subsequent posts on the same page!
Amazing post and story, Dom. Pleasure meeting you today at Teens in Tech, (ahem, Daniel's gotta do somethin' about that acronym) ttys...
Andy Sternberg
· 10 months ago
Great and inspiring article!
as I recall, wasn't the implementation of @ replies not really set into use until after SXSW07?
... and hasn't the world changed. I've travelled overseas and meet people introduced them to others and recorded podcast episodes due to the interactions that I've had on twitter. Thanks :)
Timothy Sykes
· 10 months ago
awesome story!
Gregg Masters
· 10 months ago
Twitter addictive?
I'm thinking of organizing a 12 step fellowship of tweeps a la "Twits Anonymous" where we admit that we're powerless over the compulsion to tweet.
Something tells me I am NOT alone. You guys/gals have created the central spine of the live web. Bravo to all!
@2healthguru
svandyke
· 10 months ago
What a great story and an inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere. Work hard figure it out and have passion. I love twitter.
Heidi
· 10 months ago
I was following Twitter from nearly the beginning and didn't even realize it. I knew I was somewhat of an early adopter, but now reading your story, and remembering keeping up to date on that first year at SxSW amazes me.
I'm so glad you posted this history for all of us to enjoy.
I think anyone who is part of something great has memories of what it was like in the beginning. Those days are always magical, and we need to keep moments like that fresh in our minds to keep us going whenever things seem rough in the present.
Kevin
· 10 months ago
I love seeing the idea evolution of startups. It really helps to know the origins of the tools we use :)
Sean
· 10 months ago
Thanks for the great story :)
Adam Walker Cleaveland
· 10 months ago
Loved reading the narrative of Twitter. I was a skeptical user - started up once - thought it was pointless. Then started up again about a year later, started following the right people, and I've been a hard-core user ever since...I work in youth ministry in Livermore, CA and have seen Twitter as a great way to connect with the youth of our church. So, thanks!
Also, I don't know if you ever saw something we did, "Twitter of Faith." You can check it out. It was a pretty cool thing - ended up being primarily Christians - but we tried to open it up to people of other faiths (or no faiths).
Thanks for Twitter!
madnilk
· 10 months ago
I'm glad to found out about this articles, such tremendous epic which start by idea. Its great to know that somewhere out there people are making dream into reality and share it with others :P (including me). Sure like and remember this info :P Great job Dom!!
@me
· 10 months ago
Dom, great article, but was it really necessary to say @jack all the time, couldn't you have just written Jack ?
This was an enjoyable read, thanks for putting this together. Speaking for myself as a fellow entrepeneur, learning about how ideas go from concept to reality is very interesting and inspiring.
Martin
· 10 months ago
Great story Dom, thank you for letting us know a twitter history. I am using Twitter for a year now and it quickly become very addictive.
Ross Hill
· 10 months ago
Thanks for the insight Dom, it's really interesting to see the baby steps a new startup makes before they hit the big time.
BillyWarhol
· 10 months ago
Amazing too the Huge # of 3rd Party Apps for Twitter* ;))
neville
· 10 months ago
Terrific story! I joined Twitter in Dec 06 without really knowing what it was, how I'd use it or even why I'd joined it. Heh, still trying to figure all that out :)
Thanks for the history.
matt lambert
· 10 months ago
There seems to be a collective feeling that this is history being written, amazing.
Ouriel Ohayon
· 10 months ago
thanks for reminding us that sometimes a success can be born out of failure. great story
Zoltán
· 10 months ago
Very interesting story, thank you for sharing it!
igorthetroll
· 10 months ago
My Twitter account @igorthetroll has been suspended. Can I have my account back?
Thank you, Igor
Lois Smithers
· 10 months ago
That was a fascinating read. I bet everyone was buzzed for months on end as Twitter evolved. Amazing creation, amazing people behind it.
mizdi
· 10 months ago
Tweeter is fast becoming a goldmine of information.. i read this article from a tinyurl tweeted... i just wish tweeps would say something about the topic of the tinyurl b4 posting... some would simply say: "check this out..." which isnt leading at all. Twitter as it is today has become a very useful and fast media tool for almost everything...even charities. I specially liked how the tweet about the " help the boywithout arms get a store" caught like wildfire and in no time, donations started to pour in. Thanks for Twitter.. truly "One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters.”
Ugur.-
· 10 months ago
That was an inspiringly nice story, thanks!
Ming
· 10 months ago
now I know the story, I feel very much a part of this story as a user=)
@MIN9
Annemieke
· 10 months ago
Yes, addictive is exactly the way to put it. I just love the speed and the format. And above all I like, what someone said here before, the beauty of its simplicity.
Steve
· 10 months ago
nice read!!! Keep good work up... I am focusing on my forum to get more and more members, so that we can build up a good community
Steve
· 10 months ago
the best thing of old twitter is the simple design
fred wilson
· 10 months ago
this is such a great read on so many levels. i got involved around the time this story ends so i've always wondered about those early days.
the story about sitting on top of the slide in south park is now etched in my brain as the place twitter was concieved.
thanks for that.
Jeanne
· 10 months ago
Great story - have the passion and desire you can do anything. I am new to twitter - have to learn more. Love being on twitter. tweets from a radio talk show host.
Thank you for a marvelous way to connect with all
Jeanne:)
Tom
· 10 months ago
I think this article will explain exactly how Twitter works to people I am trying to sign up from our biz. It's sort of a step by step guide of why you need it and how it works.
MassTwitFic
· 10 months ago
I'm passionate about twitter, it's completely changed my day-to-day interactions with other people, it's fantastic to see it exploding into more than just status updates, it's become the key source of news on the web, and a place for people to connect with like-minded individuals all over the world who share the same interests and whom they never would have met in real life, it's a place where you can geek out over your favorite celebrities and actually have them reply! It's streams of consciousness, it's a place for creativity and mass fiction... How does it feel to have changed the internet, to have changed the world?
The Koi Man
· 10 months ago
The sky is the limit when it comes to making dreams a reality. Having a lot of money like Bill Gates would probably make your dreams become a reality faster though.
MassTwitFic
· 10 months ago
I am passionate about twitter, it has completely changed my day-to-day interactions with people. It is great to read how it all began. It has become so much more than mere status updates. It's the key place on the web for news, it's a place where you can network with new people who share the same interests on the other side of the world, whom you'd never have met without it, where you can geek out over your favorite celebrity and actually have them reply! It's streams of consciousness, it's a place for creativity and mass fiction, it's... How does it feel to have changed the world?
chica4fe
· 10 months ago
Great article!
Jay
· 10 months ago
So glad i read this story about twitter. Always wondered how the 140 char limit came about.
Konstanze
· 10 months ago
Inventors of Twitter, This is a great post about an unlikely tool that has found a niche that spans the world and behaves like Morning Glory. It has become its own culture. The reason? I believe it fulfills a basic communicative need, it is its own rhetorical situation, it is each user's personal stage. Is it easy to explain to the un-initiated? Heck no, it's a nightmare to explain. In fact, when explaining it, one begins to stumble, feel silly in one's enthusiasm, and almost always end the conversation in something like, 'It's way better than it sounds. You just gotta try it.' That said, I am currently doing a research project on micro-blogging user motivation and put out a Tweet about that. Amazing response. Makes sense! Here's the link, in case you are interested (and if you want to comment, of course) = @Konstanze
Stefan
· 10 months ago
Twitter is an incredible story and a most addictive product. Congrats on a job well done. Great article as well. I enjoyed reading it.
Doson
· 10 months ago
Interesting Read... Innovation is always fun. Good that I'm using twitter
Vasudev Ram
· 10 months ago
Very interesting history ...
Like many, I'm also one of the people who signed up early for Twitter but didn't really use it much until sometime later. But now I find it a good and interesting tool, with lots of possibilities.
Thanks for creating it - to the whole Twitter team.
- Vasudev
PrairiePrimitives
· 10 months ago
Very inspiring story! Love to read about startups!
I'm a new twitterholic ... @prairieprims
Brody Bond
· 10 months ago
I was wondering where the 140 character limit came from. Good to know.
It's interesting how inter-connected all our ideas and technologies are (e.g. wireless carriers' SMS limits informing Twitter's structure).
Thanks for the story on twttr. Brody
Craig Mische
· 10 months ago
I used to read your blog when you were at Odeo and didn't realize until reading this post that you were one of the Twitter founders.
Brijesh
· 10 months ago
Gr8!!!
iSponsor
· 10 months ago
I'm glad Twitter was allowed to be born, and not aborted. And it is a legitimate one at that. Who would be considered the parents? And who would continue the legacy as the offspring? We shall soon see...
Ryan
· 10 months ago
Great backstory, really liked this.
DEckoff
· 10 months ago
As someone passionate about developing new products - and who's used Twitter for 2 years - I really enjoyed this view into how Twitter was born.
So cool to see your tweet with the recognition: "Oh this is going to be addictive".
My own similar moment of recognition came when I was at the Charles River Ventures CEO Summit April 2008, and @Ev was sitting nearby and I found myself twittering about the founder of Twitter. Ironic, don't you think?
Thanks for sharing this with us, it was a fascinating read!
@davideckoff
Misty Belardo
· 10 months ago
Wow, thanks for posting this story.. I do love twitter and now i look forward to interacting with the world using the powerful tool.. it's just great to know its beginnings. I kinda tell everyone to join in.. it is truly awesome tool! and the people on it are awesome as well!
Daniel
· 10 months ago
Good read of how Twitter came to be!!
Al
· 10 months ago
I am inspired!
Franco Frenette
· 10 months ago
Really inspiring story and a nice example that good can come out of any situation no matter how hopeless it seems at the time. Awesome!
@krjx
· 10 months ago
Thank you. That was an inspiring story.
Tim
· 10 months ago
Wow this was a great read. Now, with the president using it, and so many other millions, it's a testament to the founders' vision. Hey, I'm addicted too!
Steven A. Lowe
· 10 months ago
interesting back-story; congratulations on the funding - but what, exactly, are you funding? there is still no plan for monetization, and without that twitter will die. You could always ask for donations...but that would cheapen the entire image.
i suggest that instead of resorting to donations or ad support or automatic affiliate linking (as others have suggested) that you arrange for a kickback from SMS companies [no 'discount'/kickback, use another SMS service], and charge a monthly fee for users with more than (say) two tweets per day. This should help defray costs without impacting service, and also help combat the growing spam-tweet problems without manual intervention.
Twitter is a great idea and a great service, but it cannot remain free/unprofitable forever. Best of luck!
Shari
· 10 months ago
Wow very interesting stuff. Our company started as an idea too.. and of what we wanted in our package.. we love Twitter :)
@ggroovin
· 10 months ago
Thanks, Dom. Great to get the skinny on this for the book I'm working on about how to use Twitter for Business.
Cheers, mate!
Doug Williams
· 10 months ago
Great story, thanks for sharing.
TheBusyBrain
· 10 months ago
Very cool!
How accurate is "A Visual Journey into the History of Twitter"? http://bit.ly/QXJW
Jenny Beth ~ JenuineJen
· 10 months ago
Thank you so much for posting this. I've been using twitter for over 18 months. It is completely addicting, fun, and useful. Thanks for creating such an awesome app!
Matt Hoult
· 10 months ago
Really interesting stuff and a great style too. It's simple and readable and lets the story shine through the words. You have me hooked now and I am subscribing to your RSS as we speak.
Kashif
· 10 months ago
And thus, Twitter was born :) splendid reading.
shmuelix
· 10 months ago
Thanks @dom for an inspiring article. Take a look at my latest blog post:
It would be cool if you Twitter can publish their own, more comprehensive list..
Jay Parkhill
· 10 months ago
I remember going to a Niall Kennedy meetup/showcase at CNET that I swear was in Jan or Feb 2006. @Biz talked about Odeo and a side project the group came up with riffing on creative IM status messages like "shouldn't have eaten that whole burrito" instead of "busy".
It is amazing to think that was the frame of reference for short messaging back then. Good work to all of you for creating a totally new genre of communication.
Anthony Bynoe
· 10 months ago
Inspiring
NJGovDan
· 10 months ago
Fascinating account of how a few talented folks can take what seems like a simple concept and turn it into a phenomenon! Bravo!
Leave me a comment - it'll be data for my research. @Konstanze
leon jacobs
· 10 months ago
And with that you basically created the water cooler of Babel. Nice one.
Missy @missycaulk
· 10 months ago
Awesome story, for one of my fav apps.
Bob Uva
· 10 months ago
This is a great story. It's great to hear a story of a company telling people to go off and come up with ideas, sort of an internal competition of ideas. Inspiring.
Alif Rachmawadi
· 10 months ago
Just one word for this article.. INSPIRING..
ECS Dave
· 10 months ago
Wow... I never knew... Now I do!
I'm glad to know a little "twhistory" about Twitter, quite interesting to learn the ideas that sparked such an amazing and growing phenomenon...
"Friendstalker" great nickname. Well told story, thank you. Good to have it on "record."
nemrut
· 10 months ago
Great story, though i dont buy that you guys knew Twitter was going to change the world. Back then, and even today, it's being promoted as svc to post pithy updates(eg, 'What are you doing). I'm sure you're aware it has evolved well beyond that--something that neither you nor the rest of the team would have foreseen.
Ruhani Rabin
· 10 months ago
I was aware about the root of twitter but not the entire storyline and the details. Thanks this was a great read.
Rob from TweetBoxLive
· 10 months ago
Thank you for writing this. Very inspiring to see how you all rallied together etc in the face of adversity. Pretty much what I'm doing now, though solely on my own, with my Twitter SMS for the rest of us, service. After being made redundant in December, it's given me something to achieve. And is slowly gaining number after the launch on 1st February.
So without you guys and your innovation, I perhaps wouldn't have anything to do right now.
Thanks Rob
jim wolff
· 10 months ago
The birth of a phenomenon. great read
softladmachine
· 10 months ago
are you in the old Rocket Network offices?
greggace
· 10 months ago
Brain-storming and constant creative flux, will always produce... it's when ego= constant-negativity that failure is abound...
good read...greggace
Tim Roberts
· 10 months ago
Awesome write up Dom. A couple things pop to mind. One is that, even though Odeo and Twitter are worlds a part, i believe we got from one to the other as an evolutionary process. We spent a some time on the concept of 'social voice mail' or 'voice mail 2.0' using Asterisks - where a user could leave a voice mail for friends and the would be notified by txt to call in and check it out. And we quickly came to the conclusion that voice sucked and a pure group txting service would be more interesting. I believe this was one of the stepping stones or pieces by which we evolved out of Odeo.
Also worth noting, there was a pre-existing service we played around with a bunch and did some early prototyping based on learnings from using it. I can't remember the name for the life of me. But our use patterns of it played heavily into our pursuit of the Twitter path. The service had pub/sub like twitter functionality, a web/sms ui and also closed group capability. It was poorly designed and had numerous other problems. One of the critical innovations that i believe jack and ev deserve credit for is one of simplification and focusing on the most powerful elements of pre-existing technology. An innovation that is easily dismissed, but truly important.
Anyone remember what that previous service was?
mde3
· 10 months ago
Great story. It is good to see hard work getting rewarded.
silona
· 10 months ago
wow I totally didn't realize how close to the line that SXSW launch was... tis nifty.
Vanguy
· 10 months ago
Terrific recap - really enjoyed it! Took me back to my startup days. I had lunch in South Park literally every day from 1998-2000 and it was a great community/atmosphere. Torben
javed
· 10 months ago
I love twitter. Enjoyed reading Twitter Application's history. Very inspiring.
Blaine Cook
· 10 months ago
Nice writeup. :-)
There are some timeline problems towards the end; the SXSW award, WWDC, and MTV came after IM/API, but those are minor things. ;-)
Tim: Upoc.
Mike
· 10 months ago
A very interesting read - I love that it was a little friends & family service at first. One thing though, and this isn't meant to be a flippant comment, I'm actually quite curious:
Aren't companies supposed to make money?
I've always been confused as to just how Twitter funds its existence, and how it expects to go on existing in the future...
noele
· 10 months ago
nice post. cool to see credit given to the original team and thinktank from way back when.
medyumerdogan
· 2 weeks ago
this is very nice blog,thank you for all
Walt Ribeiro
· 10 months ago
Extremely interesting. Twitter is an awesome service. Everyone has turned it into a very cool site (and relatively 404 free) ^_^ Keep it up!
Wm
· 10 months ago
Having been a guy that wasn't laid off in a company that did NOT hit a home run, I know the roller coaster of feelings you must have endured. If it doesn't kill us, it makes us stronger.
Michey
· 10 months ago
It is an interesting story, approach of a problem, and inspirational for us all. This is way I always said: don't give up, you never know when an idea will raise or fall, when you win, and how big will be the win. Regards Michey
NAZAR
· 2 weeks ago
thanks for all it is very nice blog
Rob Whetzel
· 10 months ago
Inspiring Read. I never updated my facebook or myspace "status", but now after using twitter I find myself updating every networking site status that I have.
Great to see a process was followed with a fantastic result.
@flashcat7
· 10 months ago
Truly fascinating. I loved the pinata video. You can sense the excitement of an idea bigger than life. Thanks for the writeup– VIVA TWITTER!!
Rich Palmer
· 10 months ago
This is a great post. I joined Twitter 14 October 2006. I had no clue where it was going -- and I'm amazed that so many have become power users in a much shorter time than I've been on. I use Twitter productively, I think, and have no concern whatsoever about the number of posts that I may have made. By comparison, I'm a low number tweeter for the time I've been on! But I don't leave it!
Thanks @dom
With Appreciation, @richpalmer
buyucu
· 3 weeks ago
thanks for all
adam herod aka @mergeworship
· 10 months ago
Great read. Thanks! (and thanks for twitter)
Bruce Wagner
· 10 months ago
What an awesome story. I can see this story being made into a movie some day... or at least a documentary. :)
I'd love to interview some of you original, and present, "core team members" on my show sometime.
@toddlucier
· 10 months ago
Wow Dom, the story explains the growing pains of twitter beyond just the api limitations. This one is for the archives. How Twitter started, growing pains, tough decisions is a really good story for the economic challenging times we're in.
1 In the Beginning Berners-Lee created the Inter and the Web. 2 And the Web was without Social Media, and void, and the spirit of Biz moved upon the face of the ethernets.
3 And Biz said, "Let There Be Code", and there was Code. 4 And Biz saw that the Code was good; and Biz separated the Code from the ethernets. 5 Biz called the Code Alpha, and it was so. And there were emails and there were reviews, one day.
6 And Biz Said, "Let There Be An Interface in the midst of the Code, that the Users can Tweet from many clients". 7 And Biz made the Interface, and separated the Interface from the waters of the Code. And it was so. 8 And Biz called the Interface the API. And there were emails and there were reviews, a second day.
9 And Biz said, "Let the Code and the API be gathered together into one place, and let the UI appear". And it was So. 10 Biz called the UI Beta. And Biz saw that it was good. 11 And Biz said, "let the Beta go forth into the Internets, and yield testers and early adopters, each according to their nerdiness". And it was so. 12 The Beta brought forth testers and early adopters, each according to their nerdiness. And Biz saw that it was good. 13 And there were emails and there were reviews, a third day.
14 And Biz said, "Let There Be DMs in the Firmament of the Beta to separate the Private from the Public, 15 and let there be Replies so the Users may answer thusly". And is was so. 16 And Biz made the two great Tabs, the Replies to rule the Public, and the DM to Rule the Private. 17 And Biz set them in the firmament of the Beta to give flexibility to users, 18 to rule over the Interface, and to separate the Private from the Public. And Biz saw that it was good. 19 And there were emails and there were reviews, a fourth day.
20 And Biz said, "let the Internet bring forth swarms of Celebs, and let Celebs fly above users in the firmament of the Beta". 21 So Biz created the Twitterstreams and accounts for every Celeb that Tweets, according to their kinds, and created the @Stephenfry account and every Celeb according to its kind. And Biz saw that it was good. 22 And Biz blessed them, saying, "be fruitful and full the twitterstream with your tweets, and the Users will follow and worship". 23 And there were emails and there were reviews, a fifth day.
24 And Biz said, "Let the Web bring forth dicks according to their kinds; stalkers and creeping trolls and spammers according to their kinds". And it was so. 25 And Biz made accounts for the dicks according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the Internet according to their kind. And Biz saw that it was good.
26 Then Biz said, "Let us make accounts for the Users, and let them have dominion over their own twitterstreams, and their Followers, that they may Tweet whatever irrelevant bollocks they wish". 27 So Biz created accounts for the Users, and in the disks of The Beta he made images of the accounts. 28 And Biz blessed the Users and said to them "Be fruitful and fill the Twitterstream with your Tweets, and have dominion over your own Twitterstream, and your Followers, that you may Tweet whatever irrelevant bollocks you wish". 29 and Biz said, "Lo, I have given you swarms of celebs to Follow and worship, and the Replies to rule the Public and DMs to rule the Private, and you shall have Twitter conversations. 30 And I have given you dicks according to their kinds, for you to flame, ignore and block". And it was so. 31 And Biz saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there were emails and there were reviews, a sixth day.
Chapter 2
1 Thus the Alpha and the Beta were finished, and all the hosting sorted. 2 And on the seventh day Biz finished the work that he had done. 3 But Biz hadn't sorted scalability, so on the seventh day Biz created the Fail Whale and blessed it, so that he could rest from all His work he had done in creation.
AskJacki
· 10 months ago
Tremendous story on all of your determination. What an inspiration.
Are Morch
· 10 months ago
Great informative here. It's was cool to learn something from behind the scene of Twitter. Great to carry on for everyone that want to coach and educate people on Twitter.
Provide us more of this info .. thanks..
Cheers..
omtv
· 10 months ago
Twitter really rocks!
Sean Boone
· 10 months ago
This is incredible documentation of the history... thank you for compiling that.
Cassie ST
· 10 months ago
Do you suppose that "tweet, tweet, tweet" will enter the lexicon in the way that, say, "blah, blah, blah" or "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" or "yada, yada, yada" has?
Aw Guo
· 10 months ago
Awesome story. I've been also introducing Twitter to my friends/readers in China. Now Twitter is very pop among some Chinese geeks! :)
Tim
· 10 months ago
I would love to follow you @dom, except that Twitter appears to be in a spot of bother this morning. It was completely down when I got into work, and now it's "Over capacity". The price of success I suppose.
Tim
· 10 months ago
I would love to follow you @dom, except that Twitter appears to be in a spot of bother this morning. It was completely down when I got into work, and now it’s “Over capacity”. The price of success I suppose.
rabble
· 10 months ago
Hey Dom, it's a great writeup.
I'd like to add a couple things reflecting back on twitter. First was that Blaine did a similar project which used voice and voice mail type stuff during the same hack week. Clearly text is much more powerful. Ev was playing a lot with casual privacy and casual messaging with the Odeo send me a message stuff. I think that was critical in his thinking about how this stuff happens.
The other thing was @blaine and i were hacking on txtmob.org which is an open source group text messaging system. We spent a lot of time talking about txtmob, trying it, figuring out why it didn't work.
We also had been playing with what it would be like to replace voicemail with something better, and what groupware 2.0 might look like.
The creation of twitter was something which was intentional, but nobody knew what would be built. We just knew they were interesting places to explore, built prototypes, threw most of them away. Twitter had promise so @jack, florian, and @noah went off to work on it.
Even then it took a good 6 months from when we thought, twitter's got potential, to when it started really being usable.. it took adding easy IM integration, and a simple API. Those were both hacks engineers added because they wanted to work with twitter from overseas or when blaine lost his cellphone for a month.
The features you think are important are often not important, and the ones which really are important are the ones which you personally NEED.
mohammad222
· 2 months ago
i love this website and visit it everyday
Tombul
· 10 months ago
A really interesting story. Love to hear more.
Eric
· 10 months ago
I've been a member of twitter since May 5, 2007. It's so unbelievable to me that I've been using this for almost 2 years!
Thanks for this little bit of history!
UK Hosting
· 10 months ago
Thanks for posting this, most enjoyable :)
@Jag
· 10 months ago
that was a good story
Simon
· 10 months ago
This is awesome. It all start with an idea and if people persist, the idea will come to fruition. Thanks for telling the story.
buyucu
· 3 weeks ago
thanks for blog
tomute
· 10 months ago
Thank you for posting a really interested article. I really enjoyed reading this article, so I translated into Japanese on my blog. Thanks again. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/tomute/20090211/1234383859
David Badash
· 10 months ago
Great story. Excellent detail and depth. Thanks. Just one minor point: Should the title be "How Twitter Was Hatched"?
Edu
· 10 months ago
Yet again... successful apps are often born away from the core activities a venture takes... let it be born...
Nalora
· 9 months ago
Absolutely fascinating read. Thanks so much for writing this!
Nal
Gerhard_Kaiser
· 9 months ago
Thats an amazing story! It is good to see how the hard work and dreams going real. Thank you for sharing.
smithdidit
· 9 months ago
Great to hear the narrative on this.
Donna Miller
· 8 months ago
Really interesting reading the backstory. You do have a phenomenal memory, and you've told the story really well. It took me a while to 'get' twitter... When I had a cellphone I use SMS almost exclusively, rarely used voice calls, but still twitter just seemed like more noise to filter out of my already information-overloaded world. So it's really interesting for me to read how you guys got the value of twitter even while you were inventing it.
Rachel
· 8 months ago
Just had to be the 140th comment. =)
vertjaars
· 8 months ago
Tweeters anonymous? We could have our meetings on Twitter!
Spencer Ante
· 8 months ago
Dom, Thanks for sharing the genesis story of Twitter. I love that the side project ends up being the main attraction! And great inside details! It's also interesting that Twitter is a San Francisco product--and not a Valley creation. It seems like SF is flexing its muscles more these days as a place for startups.
I had two questions if you had a moment: Why did you form Obvious Corp to house Twitter? And then why spin Twitter off again?
medyumlar
· 3 weeks ago
thanks for all
Totti Anh Nguyen
· 8 months ago
Fabulous idea !! :)
ShirleyLin
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the first person narrative witnessing a history in the making. It takes a team to rock. It takes many birds to lift the whale.
sparrow
· 7 months ago
i can not register to twitter anyone help me!
medyumlar büyü
· 1 month ago
thanks for all
Steven
· 7 months ago
And above everything Twitter gives us mysteries such as Mark Hoppus' (blink-182) Octopus USB drive...
Koli Cutler
· 7 months ago
The question has always burned from within my hippocampus about the need to shed light on the source - of life itself, the reason for human existence, where that dripping noise is coming from, or what my firends are doing in thier lives RIGHT NOW. With the advent of facebook, my space and twitter, we move closer to the band aid on the symptom, but still yearn for the the source of our curiosity to be well lit, and ultimately become clear as day. I wonder why i wonder why...? Ahh, just drink Bud Dry. And twitter it so we all know!
Koli Cutler
· 7 months ago
The question has always burned from within my hippocampus about the need to shed light on the source - of life itself, the reason for human existence, where that dripping noise is coming from, or what my friends are doing in thier lives RIGHT NOW. With the advent of facebook, my space and twitter, we move closer to the band-aid on the symptom, but still yearn for the the source of our curiosity to be well lit, and ultimately become clear as day. I wonder why i wonder why…? Ahh, just drink Bud Dry. And twitter it so we all know!
dap
· 7 months ago
wow
eng yeow
· 7 months ago
it seems most great concepts start from "People still didn’t quite “get it”" and once it gets going, its a avalanche!
Great article, thanks!
sole_phoenix
· 6 months ago
this is really gud to post a "history" of Twitter! as it was said above many people dont get what Twitter is for,how it was born,etc. but by posting those "stories" u take attention and help to understand better... thanks alot!
Bernd Schiffer
· 6 months ago
Hi Dom. Great story! Thanks for sharing your memories!
One little detail: Your first tweet wasn't #38, it was #31: "just setting up my twttr" -> http://twitter.com/Dom/statuses/31 Though #38 is much more visionary than #31 is :-)
rize gündem
· 6 months ago
On FF works fine.Anyway, I like too much your plugin, it’ the best I have seen on syntax highlighting.
rize haberleri
· 6 months ago
: Cómo nació Twitter (traducción completa) | El Blog de Sebastián Lorenzo
withheld
· 6 months ago
Twitter is fucking stupid and you're all noobs.
karen wroten
· 5 months ago
this is so inspiring...my son (30 something) and a small team have a product in development ready for launch soon...with no money and trying to keep up with a web design agency to pay the bills, very few people in His life have given him the back up support to power on.....except for me, his mom and his sis. His dad passed away 5 years ago....your story is one of encouragement and I know he has read about the evolution and birth of your product. These are the stories that have continued to inspire him to move forward...Thanks for sticking it out and not giving up...Hopefully, the world will soon see and hear about ?????, can't let the cat out of the bag just yet, but innovation is about to birth once again...believin Mom
Women's Shoes Wholesale
· 5 months ago
A good team.
Sumeet
· 5 months ago
Very interesting piece of info!!!! Hope to develop some ideas while hanging out with frens
mayamaya
· 5 months ago
i often thought sucess of twitter was more of a luck thing than any other, and i still maintain that
Anang
· 5 months ago
yea nice info
geoffreygordon
· 5 months ago
Rock on and from such humble beginnings, this stuff is already legendary.
Fascinating story. Twitter has become a phenom and a new way of communication. Great article as well. I enjoyed reading it.
catatantukang
· 4 months ago
nice article..thanks a lot for share
buyucu
· 3 weeks ago
thankss
kristen
· 4 months ago
i think that twitter should make it to where people can upload more than just one picture!! :)
bussgang
· 4 months ago
Great story. The Twitter founding and Jack's role is a great case study of passionate, tenacious entrepreneurs.
medyum
· 4 months ago
Very interesting piece of info. That was a very good read.
akbysnaslyaplr
· 3 months ago
Very inspiring article. Thanks!
Jesse
· 3 months ago
The last thing we need is something that validates the literary retardation of our culture.
sooran
· 3 months ago
Thank you. That was an inspiring story. very good
telefon_dinleme
· 3 months ago
I'm curious to know just how many photographs were taken of the original crew. I'd love to set up a photo shoot now with everyone to 'document' it for history
beritaunik
· 2 months ago
very great to be here i'm just a newbie and need to help how to be a good blogger, if you have a time pls visit me at berita unik thanks
30nema31
· 2 months ago
and with i love 140characters bye
hotmail email
· 2 months ago
Wow interesting story how twitter was born enjoy your article
Alleinunterhalter Köln
· 3 weeks ago
omg i like those storys. i think everyone had at least once an idea like this. if you only try to realize them, you will have huge success.
medyumhakan
· 1 week ago
wanderfull web site for information thaks for admin
All Comments
Thanks.
Twitter has become a phenom and a new communication form and channel that is here to stay. How you use it is up to you entirely. Its beauty is in its simplicity. It is moldable and malleable to many use cases.
Cheers!
There are two things that still amaze me about the early days.
One, no pundit gave us any credit at all. If you were an early user, Twitter's future success seemed obvious. It just felt powerful. But every journalist seemed stuck on measuring us against past products according to a feature list, not realizing that the only feature that mattered was people.
Two, Odeo was made up of a lot of past and mostly present company founders, Noah (audioblogger, odeo), Ev (blogger, odeo, twitter), you (this and dollarapp), adam (71miles and trazzler), tim (infectious), biz (twitter), jack (twitter), and me (crowdvine). That's eight and doesn't even count the major open source and community projects that rabble, kellan, and blaine have started. I think we needed that many rockstars to turn the middling opportunity we had in podcasting into the major opportunity that Twitter has.
Again, great write-up.
I love that you all knew about how addictive this was going to become when you we're in the middle of it. That's not the way it is all the time, I'm sure.
@Tony Stubblebine I love how you describe the crew that was working at Odea. The fact that it took that much rockstar talent to birth (and incubate) twttr into twitter is indicative of a) how hard it is to really create world-changing techs and b) just how rockstar you guys must have been.
Cheers and thanks @dom for the post. Winner!
Great Read!
Then whammo...life hacks, Armano's citizen journalism, Beth Kanter's sending orphans to college w/fundraising, and on and on as you can see by all the trackbacks from subsequent posts on the same page!
Amazing post and story, Dom. Pleasure meeting you today at Teens in Tech, (ahem, Daniel's gotta do somethin' about that acronym) ttys...
as I recall, wasn't the implementation of @ replies not really set into use until after SXSW07?
Brilliant that twttr got its vowels too ;)
I'm thinking of organizing a 12 step fellowship of tweeps a la "Twits Anonymous" where we admit that we're powerless over the compulsion to tweet.
Something tells me I am NOT alone. You guys/gals have created the central spine of the live web. Bravo to all!
@2healthguru
I'm so glad you posted this history for all of us to enjoy.
I think anyone who is part of something great has memories of what it was like in the beginning. Those days are always magical, and we need to keep moments like that fresh in our minds to keep us going whenever things seem rough in the present.
Also, I don't know if you ever saw something we did, "Twitter of Faith." You can check it out. It was a pretty cool thing - ended up being primarily Christians - but we tried to open it up to people of other faiths (or no faiths).
Thanks for Twitter!
ciao,
'enzo
--
http://twitter.com/_enzo
Thanks for the history.
Thank you,
Igor
Twitter as it is today has become a very useful and fast media tool for almost everything...even charities. I specially liked how the tweet about the " help the boywithout arms get a store" caught like wildfire and in no time, donations started to pour in.
Thanks for Twitter.. truly "One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters.”
@MIN9
the story about sitting on top of the slide in south park is now etched in my brain as the place twitter was concieved.
thanks for that.
Thank you for a marvelous way to connect with all
Jeanne:)
This is a great post about an unlikely tool that has found a niche that spans the world and behaves like Morning Glory. It has become its own culture. The reason? I believe it fulfills a basic communicative need, it is its own rhetorical situation, it is each user's personal stage. Is it easy to explain to the un-initiated? Heck no, it's a nightmare to explain. In fact, when explaining it, one begins to stumble, feel silly in one's enthusiasm, and almost always end the conversation in something like, 'It's way better than it sounds. You just gotta try it.' That said, I am currently doing a research project on micro-blogging user motivation and put out a Tweet about that. Amazing response. Makes sense! Here's the link, in case you are interested (and if you want to comment, of course) =
@Konstanze
Congrats on a job well done. Great article as well. I enjoyed reading it.
Like many, I'm also one of the people who signed up early for Twitter but didn't really use it much until sometime later. But now I find it a good and interesting tool, with lots of possibilities.
Thanks for creating it - to the whole Twitter team.
- Vasudev
I'm a new twitterholic ... @prairieprims
It's interesting how inter-connected all our ideas and technologies are (e.g. wireless carriers' SMS limits informing Twitter's structure).
Thanks for the story on twttr.
Brody
So cool to see your tweet with the recognition: "Oh this is going to be addictive".
My own similar moment of recognition came when I was at the Charles River Ventures CEO Summit April 2008, and @Ev was sitting nearby and I found myself twittering about the founder of Twitter. Ironic, don't you think?
Thanks for sharing this with us, it was a fascinating read!
@davideckoff
i suggest that instead of resorting to donations or ad support or automatic affiliate linking (as others have suggested) that you arrange for a kickback from SMS companies [no 'discount'/kickback, use another SMS service], and charge a monthly fee for users with more than (say) two tweets per day. This should help defray costs without impacting service, and also help combat the growing spam-tweet problems without manual intervention.
Twitter is a great idea and a great service, but it cannot remain free/unprofitable forever. Best of luck!
Cheers, mate!
How accurate is "A Visual Journey into the History of Twitter"? http://bit.ly/QXJW
Take a look at my latest blog post:
Twitter's First Tweets Ever
It would be cool if you Twitter can publish their own, more comprehensive list..
It is amazing to think that was the frame of reference for short messaging back then. Good work to all of you for creating a totally new genre of communication.
Leave me a comment - it'll be data for my research.
@Konstanze
I'm glad to know a little "twhistory" about Twitter, quite interesting to learn the ideas that sparked such an amazing and growing phenomenon...
Be Well!
ECS Dave
So without you guys and your innovation, I perhaps wouldn't have anything to do right now.
Thanks
Rob
it's when ego= constant-negativity that failure is abound...
good read...greggace
Also worth noting, there was a pre-existing service we played around with a bunch and did some early prototyping based on learnings from using it. I can't remember the name for the life of me. But our use patterns of it played heavily into our pursuit of the Twitter path. The service had pub/sub like twitter functionality, a web/sms ui and also closed group capability. It was poorly designed and had numerous other problems. One of the critical innovations that i believe jack and ev deserve credit for is one of simplification and focusing on the most powerful elements of pre-existing technology. An innovation that is easily dismissed, but truly important.
Anyone remember what that previous service was?
Took me back to my startup days.
I had lunch in South Park literally every day from 1998-2000 and it was a great community/atmosphere.
Torben
There are some timeline problems towards the end; the SXSW award, WWDC, and MTV came after IM/API, but those are minor things. ;-)
Tim: Upoc.
Aren't companies supposed to make money?
I've always been confused as to just how Twitter funds its existence, and how it expects to go on existing in the future...
This is way I always said: don't give up, you never know when an idea will raise or fall, when you win, and how big will be the win.
Regards
Michey
Great to see a process was followed with a fantastic result.
Thanks @dom
With Appreciation,
@richpalmer
I'd love to interview some of you original, and present, "core team members" on my show sometime.
Chapter 1
1 In the Beginning Berners-Lee created the Inter and the Web. 2 And the Web was without Social Media, and void, and the spirit of Biz moved upon the face of the ethernets.
3 And Biz said, "Let There Be Code", and there was Code. 4 And Biz saw that the Code was good; and Biz separated the Code from the ethernets. 5 Biz called the Code Alpha, and it was so. And there were emails and there were reviews, one day.
6 And Biz Said, "Let There Be An Interface in the midst of the Code, that the Users can Tweet from many clients". 7 And Biz made the Interface, and separated the Interface from the waters of the Code. And it was so. 8 And Biz called the Interface the API. And there were emails and there were reviews, a second day.
9 And Biz said, "Let the Code and the API be gathered together into one place, and let the UI appear". And it was So. 10 Biz called the UI Beta. And Biz saw that it was good. 11 And Biz said, "let the Beta go forth into the Internets, and yield testers and early adopters, each according to their nerdiness". And it was so. 12 The Beta brought forth testers and early adopters, each according to their nerdiness. And Biz saw that it was good. 13 And there were emails and there were reviews, a third day.
14 And Biz said, "Let There Be DMs in the Firmament of the Beta to separate the Private from the Public, 15 and let there be Replies so the Users may answer thusly". And is was so. 16 And Biz made the two great Tabs, the Replies to rule the Public, and the DM to Rule the Private. 17 And Biz set them in the firmament of the Beta to give flexibility to users, 18 to rule over the Interface, and to separate the Private from the Public. And Biz saw that it was good. 19 And there were emails and there were reviews, a fourth day.
20 And Biz said, "let the Internet bring forth swarms of Celebs, and let Celebs fly above users in the firmament of the Beta". 21 So Biz created the Twitterstreams and accounts for every Celeb that Tweets, according to their kinds, and created the @Stephenfry account and every Celeb according to its kind. And Biz saw that it was good. 22 And Biz blessed them, saying, "be fruitful and full the twitterstream with your tweets, and the Users will follow and worship". 23 And there were emails and there were reviews, a fifth day.
24 And Biz said, "Let the Web bring forth dicks according to their kinds; stalkers and creeping trolls and spammers according to their kinds". And it was so. 25 And Biz made accounts for the dicks according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the Internet according to their kind. And Biz saw that it was good.
26 Then Biz said, "Let us make accounts for the Users, and let them have dominion over their own twitterstreams, and their Followers, that they may Tweet whatever irrelevant bollocks they wish". 27 So Biz created accounts for the Users, and in the disks of The Beta he made images of the accounts. 28 And Biz blessed the Users and said to them "Be fruitful and fill the Twitterstream with your Tweets, and have dominion over your own Twitterstream, and your Followers, that you may Tweet whatever irrelevant bollocks you wish". 29 and Biz said, "Lo, I have given you swarms of celebs to Follow and worship, and the Replies to rule the Public and DMs to rule the Private, and you shall have Twitter conversations. 30 And I have given you dicks according to their kinds, for you to flame, ignore and block". And it was so. 31 And Biz saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there were emails and there were reviews, a sixth day.
Chapter 2
1 Thus the Alpha and the Beta were finished, and all the hosting sorted. 2 And on the seventh day Biz finished the work that he had done. 3 But Biz hadn't sorted scalability, so on the seventh day Biz created the Fail Whale and blessed it, so that he could rest from all His work he had done in creation.
Provide us more of this info .. thanks..
Cheers..
I'd like to add a couple things reflecting back on twitter. First was that Blaine did a similar project which used voice and voice mail type stuff during the same hack week. Clearly text is much more powerful. Ev was playing a lot with casual privacy and casual messaging with the Odeo send me a message stuff. I think that was critical in his thinking about how this stuff happens.
The other thing was @blaine and i were hacking on txtmob.org which is an open source group text messaging system. We spent a lot of time talking about txtmob, trying it, figuring out why it didn't work.
We also had been playing with what it would be like to replace voicemail with something better, and what groupware 2.0 might look like.
The creation of twitter was something which was intentional, but nobody knew what would be built. We just knew they were interesting places to explore, built prototypes, threw most of them away. Twitter had promise so @jack, florian, and @noah went off to work on it.
Even then it took a good 6 months from when we thought, twitter's got potential, to when it started really being usable.. it took adding easy IM integration, and a simple API. Those were both hacks engineers added because they wanted to work with twitter from overseas or when blaine lost his cellphone for a month.
The features you think are important are often not important, and the ones which really are important are the ones which you personally NEED.
Thanks for this little bit of history!
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/tomute/20090211/1234383859
Nal
We could have our meetings on Twitter!
Thanks for sharing the genesis story of Twitter. I love that the side project ends up being the main attraction! And great inside details! It's also interesting that Twitter is a San Francisco product--and not a Valley creation. It seems like SF is flexing its muscles more these days as a place for startups.
I had two questions if you had a moment: Why did you form Obvious Corp to house Twitter? And then why spin Twitter off again?
Great article, thanks!
thanks alot!
One little detail: Your first tweet wasn't #38, it was #31: "just setting up my twttr" -> http://twitter.com/Dom/statuses/31 Though #38 is much more visionary than #31 is :-)
:)
Great article as well. I enjoyed reading it.
That was a very good read.
very good
i think everyone had at least once an idea like this.
if you only try to realize them, you will have huge success.
I can’t understand English.
I am Japanese.
http://www.twitter.com/kizantei