1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 3 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,599 Speaker 1: Radio and how the tech are you. We are continuing 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: our series of episodes about the history of social networks. 6 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: This one will be the fourth one in that series. 7 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: So in our first episode, we covered some of the 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,240 Speaker 1: really early examples of social networks like six degrees, dot 9 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: com and high five. In episode two, we talked about 10 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: how my Space became the dominant player in social networks 11 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: until Facebook swept up from behind and overtook it. And 12 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: then in the third episode we talked about Google's early 13 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: attempt at a social network, a Orchid, and we also 14 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: talked about Bibo, and I covered some networks that are 15 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 1: related to social networks but maybe not a full social 16 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: network on their own, like YouTube and Reddit, and just 17 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: as a reminder, I am tackling these kind of one 18 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: network at a time. So while the episodes are organized 19 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: chronologically in regards to when these networks were founded, I'm 20 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 1: not going like year by year. This isn't like and 21 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: now we're covering two thousand ten to two thousand fourteen, 22 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: because you would have to jump back and forth across 23 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 1: so many different stories would be impossible to keep them 24 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: all sorted. It would be Madness or Sparta, or you know, 25 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: one of those two. Anyway, we're up to two thousand six, 26 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: and that year would see the birth of a microblogging 27 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: service that would be founded early on uh and then 28 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: launch publicly in the summer. And this microblogging service would 29 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,880 Speaker 1: end up taking advantage of the technology of things like 30 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: short messaging system that kind of thing. And I am, 31 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: of course talking about jaiqu got you didn't I maybe anyway, 32 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,240 Speaker 1: it might have sounded like I was talking about Twitter, 33 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: you know, being founded in two thousand six and launching 34 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: publicly in that summer. But technically a couple of engineers 35 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: in Finland founded Jaiku one month before Twitter would emerge. 36 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,799 Speaker 1: As to who was working on what first, I don't know, 37 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: but they weren't aware of each other at the time. 38 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,239 Speaker 1: They couldn't have been, because Twitter was not a publicly 39 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: known entity yet at the finished team built their tool 40 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: with a specific phone operating system in mind, the Symbian 41 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: operating system specifically on the Nakia S sixty platform. Now 42 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 1: keep in mind two thousand six is still a year 43 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:50,079 Speaker 1: before the iPhone would launch, and while smartphones would take 44 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,519 Speaker 1: time to get some traction here in the US, over 45 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: in Finland, Nokia and the simian Os already had a 46 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: leg up. Jaiku's creators figured that young people were starting 47 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: to do this crazy thing called texting, and they had 48 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: also taken up the practice of journaling online using blogs, 49 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,239 Speaker 1: So why not combine the two and build an application 50 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: that would allow for really concise blog posts microblogging in 51 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: other words, and it would work on mobile devices so 52 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 1: that you could post your thoughts right when you had 53 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: them and maybe have no filter. Many of the same 54 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: concepts that Twitter would embrace were also present in Jaiku. 55 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: Now there was also a web based components, so you 56 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: could go to the Jaiku web page and access your 57 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: account there rather than using the phone interface if you preferred. 58 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: And I suspect that because the service launched overseas, it 59 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: didn't really get as much attention here in the United 60 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: States as Twitter would. Also, the engineers would later say 61 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: that the s sixty platform was quote impossible to develop 62 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: for end quote. It did still an attention, however, and 63 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: the folks who heard about Jaiku got into it pretty 64 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: quickly and used it a lot. And while the team 65 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: had been hoping for this kind of success, the rapid 66 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: adoption created some new challenges for the small group of 67 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: engineers because now they had to figure out how to 68 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:20,680 Speaker 1: scale the service to meet demand, and they were having 69 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:24,280 Speaker 1: lots of performance issues as a result, because it's expensive. 70 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,280 Speaker 1: It's something that's really hard for a small team to do, 71 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: and it soon became clear that they were going to 72 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: be completely overwhelmed. And that's what when something that appeared 73 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: to be a lifeline showed up. In the long run, 74 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: it wasn't a lifeline, but at the time it seemed 75 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: that way. So in late two thousand seven, Google bought Jaiku, 76 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:50,919 Speaker 1: perhaps sensing that maybe the company Google could push Jaiku 77 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: to greater heights and challenge the now trendy Twitter, which 78 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: we will talk about in a second, because by two 79 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:02,839 Speaker 1: thousand seven, Twitter was quite the phenomenon now. Unfortunately, the 80 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: same thing happened with Jaiku that we've seen happen in 81 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:11,679 Speaker 1: countless other examples of Google acquired companies and services. Google 82 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: didn't really know how to promote Jaiku or to develop Jaiku, 83 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: and it failed to gain any real traction. While Twitter 84 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: continued to grow in popularity. In two thousand nine, Google 85 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: decided to stop actively developing Jaiku as a company, but 86 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: turned it into an open source project. But even that 87 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: move only kept Jaiku around for a couple more years. 88 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: In two thousand eleven, Google announced it was going to 89 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: kill off Jaiku at the start of the following year, 90 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:47,480 Speaker 1: and in January, Jaiku guessed its last breadths and then 91 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: was heard no more, as was predicted by the Mayan 92 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: Long Count calendar. Yes, that's what the two twelve stuff was. No, 93 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: not really, I'm being asias obviously, but yeah, it was gone. 94 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: Jaiku did not stand the test of time. But let's 95 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: get back to two thousand six, because that is also 96 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: the year that Twitter would launch. As I said a 97 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: little bit earlier, it launched a month after Jaiku did 98 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: well after Jaiku was founded. Technically, Jaiku didn't launch publicly 99 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 1: until July, which was after Twitter had its public launch. 100 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: So I've talked a lot about Twitter's history over the years, 101 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:34,080 Speaker 1: especially this year. So we're gonna keep this really bare 102 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:37,560 Speaker 1: bones and relatively fast. I mean, you know me, nothing 103 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: is fast but as fast as I go. Anyway, So, 104 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 1: once upon a time there was a company called Odio, 105 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: and this company developed directories for stuff like podcasts. The 106 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: idea was, how can we make podcasts easier to discover 107 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,359 Speaker 1: and to subscribe to because early, early, early on in 108 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,239 Speaker 1: the days of podcasts, you kind of had to hunt 109 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: down our ss feed and subscribe to it. There was 110 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: not like a whole lot of easy options for you know, 111 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: doing this without hunting and pecking. Of course, this isn't 112 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: the very very early days of podcasts now. The brief 113 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 1: story of Odio is a pretty interesting one. It's complete 114 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: with drama around who started the company versus who got 115 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: you know, the credit for being a founder, and lots 116 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: of things like that. But that's for another time. But 117 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: by two thousand and six, Odeo was struggling to be relevant. 118 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,920 Speaker 1: The main problem was that shortly after Odio became a thing, 119 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: Apple began to support podcasts and incorporate podcast subscriptions into iTunes, 120 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 1: and you know, we even call them podcasts because of 121 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: the Apple iPod. That kind of gives you an idea 122 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: of how dominant Apple was in the space and still 123 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: is to a great extent. So Odio quickly found itself 124 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,680 Speaker 1: looking for ways to keep investors on board because the 125 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: company was really struggling with its main product. Now a 126 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: side project in Odeo was also developing. This project was 127 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:08,880 Speaker 1: to create a messaging service that would let one person 128 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:12,600 Speaker 1: post a short message via SMS or short messaging service 129 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: to their own timeline of posts, and it would also 130 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: send it out to their contacts or followers, and it 131 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: became a form of microblogging, journaling in very short character messages. 132 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: That character limit was because the limitations of SMS itself. 133 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:34,960 Speaker 1: The project leaders, among them Noah Glass, decided to call 134 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: the service Twitter, but there were no vowels. It was 135 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: t W T t R. Now, of course this would 136 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: become Twitter t w I T t e R, and 137 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,320 Speaker 1: it launched in March two thousand six. Jack Dorrisey created 138 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,960 Speaker 1: the first profile on the platform and sent out the 139 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Speaker 1: first tweet, which read, just set up my Twitter, and 140 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: he spelled it the the no vowels way. So worlds 141 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: are turned on such tweets. So that's Marched two thousand six, right, 142 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:07,960 Speaker 1: But Twitter would launch to the public a few months 143 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: later in July. Actually, July is the same month that 144 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: Jaiku would launch to the public too, so both services 145 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:15,920 Speaker 1: hit the public at the same time. But to keep 146 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: in mind. Jaiku is launching in Finland and didn't get 147 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:21,679 Speaker 1: nearly the same amount of coverage as Twitter did here 148 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:25,839 Speaker 1: in the United States. Ev Williams, biz Stone and Jack 149 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:31,479 Speaker 1: Dorsey decided to purchase up most of odio in October 150 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:34,439 Speaker 1: of two thousand six. They bought it back from the 151 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: various stakeholders and investors, and we're consolidating ownership and pivoting 152 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,920 Speaker 1: the business away from podcasting where clearly Apple was going 153 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:46,080 Speaker 1: to dominate, and instead they were going to focus on 154 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:50,120 Speaker 1: this new kind of social network and messaging service. The 155 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: service grew over the course of two thousand six, but 156 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: it really began to take off the following March in 157 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: two thousand seven, So essentially a year after Dorsey sent 158 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: out that first tweet, Twitter itself would become famous. It 159 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:07,680 Speaker 1: was the year that Twitter had gone to south By 160 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: Southwest in Austin, Texas. It's a big festival. It's got 161 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,120 Speaker 1: lots of different components to it, like there's a film 162 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 1: component and a music component, but there's also a tech 163 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 1: or interactive component in south By and south By is 164 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: how some people refer to it. I always feel weird 165 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:27,959 Speaker 1: calling it south By. I don't think I'm cool enough. 166 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,319 Speaker 1: That's the problem is that really cool people can call 167 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:34,600 Speaker 1: it south By and sound like, you know, they're not 168 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:37,559 Speaker 1: total dweebs. But if I try and say cool things, 169 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: my dweet bishness comes to the surface and it's undeniable. 170 00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 1: And I'm cool with that. By the way, I'm not. 171 00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: I'm not upset. I just know who I am. Anyway, Uh, 172 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 1: it was seen as sort of the cool conference in 173 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 1: the tech space. You know, it's where the young startups 174 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: would show off what they could do while rubbing elbows 175 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: with you know, the mon e and Uh. South By 176 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: was leaning more towards trendy and fashionable, much more than 177 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,839 Speaker 1: larger tech industry conferences like ce S, which were still important, 178 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: but they weren't seen as being like, again, you're gonna 179 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,400 Speaker 1: think I'm terrible because I'm gonna use terrible, antiquated language. 180 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: But you know, they didn't seem hip anyway. The Twitter 181 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:25,480 Speaker 1: teams set up displays around south By Southwest that showed 182 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: the latest tweets that were sent across the microblogging service. 183 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,440 Speaker 1: And I'm sure you know this. Folks really like it 184 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:36,439 Speaker 1: when they see themselves or their words up on screens. 185 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:39,840 Speaker 1: Gives them a real kick. So for more proof of that, 186 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: just go to any big sporting event in the United 187 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: States and watches the jumbo tron shows video of fans 188 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: in the stands. They go bonkers for that kind of thing. 189 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:53,559 Speaker 1: So Twitter was declared the best startup at south By 190 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: Southwest and thousands of people signed on. Moreover, the people 191 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: who attend south By south West tend to fall into 192 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 1: the category of influencer, so these folks had their own 193 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: fan bases, which also began to join the platform. Twitter 194 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:12,520 Speaker 1: proved to be really popular as it seemed to give 195 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,240 Speaker 1: folks a more personal insight into the lives of folks 196 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: that they liked, whether those folks were close friends or 197 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:22,160 Speaker 1: you know, like a celebrity crush. Twitter spun off to 198 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 1: become its own company in two thousand seven, and Jack 199 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: Dorsey was the first CEO. Dorsey would serve as CEO 200 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 1: another time later on in Twitter's history actually, but in 201 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,040 Speaker 1: the summer of two thousand seven, Twitter began to see 202 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: some emergent behavior that would become foundational for the service. 203 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: And I'm talking about the hashtag. So that's the pound sign, 204 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:48,760 Speaker 1: that little cross hatch sign. The hashtag when used in 205 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 1: front of a name or a keyword would make it 206 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,960 Speaker 1: easier to search Twitter for that specific topic to see 207 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: what folks were saying about it. Because Twitter wasn't really 208 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:03,680 Speaker 1: designed to make large conversations a possibility, right, Like, it's 209 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: hard to participate in a conversation on Twitter beyond back 210 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,679 Speaker 1: and forth with just two people. So some users came 211 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,680 Speaker 1: up with this idea of using a hashtag in front 212 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 1: of a keyword, like what the conversation is actually about, 213 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,359 Speaker 1: so that people could do a search for that hashtag 214 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,760 Speaker 1: word and pull up the actual relevant tweets. Tweets that 215 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:28,680 Speaker 1: did not have the hashtag in front of the word, 216 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 1: those wouldn't get tagged, right, Those wouldn't get pulled up 217 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: in search results. So this made it easier to look 218 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:38,320 Speaker 1: for specific kinds of content. And again, this was just 219 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,400 Speaker 1: something that emerged through user behavior, but over time Twitter 220 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: would adopt that and some other user behaviors and incorporate 221 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 1: those as features. In two thousand eight, Jack Dorsey stepped 222 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:55,000 Speaker 1: down as Twitter's CEO and co founder Evan Williams would 223 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,960 Speaker 1: take a turn. But don't worry, we'll be back with 224 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey in a little it. Before we can do that, though, 225 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:15,800 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, Okay, we're back. In two 226 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: thousand nine, Twitter got the first account to hit one 227 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: million followers. That actually was a kind of a race. 228 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 1: The account belonged to Ashton Kutcher, the celebrity who campaigned 229 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:31,440 Speaker 1: hard to be the first to hit one million, because 230 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:34,360 Speaker 1: CNN was closed again on a million followers right around 231 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,560 Speaker 1: the same time. These days, you can find lots of 232 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 1: accounts that have many millions of followers. But keep in mind, 233 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: you know, this event where we hit the first one 234 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:47,400 Speaker 1: million followed account was in two thousand nine. It was 235 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: just a few years after launch, and really folks outside 236 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: of the text space hadn't really found out much about 237 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 1: Twitter at all, Like they didn't know that it was 238 00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:58,520 Speaker 1: a thing. It was really the tech space that was 239 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: aware of it, and in a few folks on the 240 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,440 Speaker 1: periphery of tech. This would change when Oprah set up 241 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: her own Twitter account on an episode of her daytime 242 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: talk show, which led to thousands more people signing up. 243 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: I should also add Twitter in the United States is 244 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:18,680 Speaker 1: seen as a pretty big deal, but it's not as 245 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: big in other regions. There are other social networks that 246 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 1: actually are used more frequently than Twitter. In those cases, 247 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: I say this because even as someone who is on Twitter, 248 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: I often forget that it's not as widely used as 249 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: you might think. And while you might feel that that 250 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:44,080 Speaker 1: certain sentiments that are really popular on Twitter, uh have 251 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 1: widespread appeal, you're really looking at a kind of slice 252 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 1: of the overall population. I say this because it means 253 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: that if you spend a lot of time on Twitter, 254 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:57,600 Speaker 1: your perspective could be skewed so that you think that 255 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:01,480 Speaker 1: more people think a specific way, and that's not necessarily 256 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 1: the case. I know I've been guilty of falling into 257 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: that trap myself, so I just thought I would mention 258 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: that here now. It's also good to remember that Twitter's 259 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: early years coincided with the growth of the consumer smartphone. 260 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:17,240 Speaker 1: Like I said, smartphones have been kind of a thing 261 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,040 Speaker 1: in certain parts of the world, but here in the 262 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 1: United States, they just were not the domain of the 263 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 1: general consumer. It was pretty much your executive on the 264 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: go who had a smartphone, and that was it until 265 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 1: Apple debuted the iPhone and made smartphones sexy, and then 266 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 1: they had a really disruptive effect on the web. In general, 267 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:43,360 Speaker 1: services like Twitter could be repackaged as an app, and 268 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: this really helped boost user numbers as well. Now, in 269 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:49,800 Speaker 1: these early years, Twitter didn't really have a means to 270 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: generate revenue. Uh, it was dependent upon influxes of cash 271 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:58,240 Speaker 1: from investors. But in two the company introduced promoted tweets, 272 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: so then an account could pay a to have a 273 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: message promoted so that it would show up on the 274 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: feeds of hundreds of thousands of Twitter users. Even if 275 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,880 Speaker 1: those users didn't follow that specific account, they would see 276 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: the tweet. We started seeing more brands engage with Twitter 277 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:18,360 Speaker 1: as a way to promote themselves and their products as 278 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: well as to interact with customers. And we also saw 279 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:22,800 Speaker 1: the beginning of folks using Twitter as a way to 280 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 1: fast track issues to get them resolved with customer service 281 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:30,919 Speaker 1: of various companies. I saw so many tweets directed at airlines. 282 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: Oh and those early years would also be when we 283 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: would see the famous fail whale a lot. So This 284 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: image created by artist Kooney a k a k a 285 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,080 Speaker 1: Dash ninety two has the official title of Lifting a 286 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,800 Speaker 1: Dreamer and it shows a flock of little birds holding 287 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:50,359 Speaker 1: onto strings that serve as a kind of harness for 288 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: a happy whale. This was the image that greeted users 289 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:58,320 Speaker 1: when Twitter services were put which happened frequently enough that 290 00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:00,159 Speaker 1: if you were using Twitter back in those days, you 291 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,719 Speaker 1: undoubtedly saw the fail whale at some point or another. 292 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,960 Speaker 1: Twitter users would sometimes push Twitter beyond capacity, particularly during 293 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 1: really popular live events where everyone was trying to give 294 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,320 Speaker 1: their hot take on what was going on at the 295 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: same time. In Evan Williams stepped down as CEO in 296 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: order to focus more on product development. He would leave 297 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:28,400 Speaker 1: the company no several years later. He actually completely divorced 298 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,439 Speaker 1: himself from Twitter by like twenty seventeen, so in his place, 299 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:37,040 Speaker 1: Dick Costolo became the new CEO. In two thousands thirteen, 300 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:40,520 Speaker 1: Twitter would transition from being a private company to a 301 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: publicly traded one, and so it held its I p 302 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,119 Speaker 1: O or initial public offering on November. Uh, well, in 303 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 1: November of two thousand thirteen, I don't have the specific 304 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,440 Speaker 1: date in front of me, but not everything was going 305 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,640 Speaker 1: super smoothly for Twitter even as it was making this transition. 306 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 1: For one thing, the platform was starting to get a 307 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:06,600 Speaker 1: reputation for abusive users. People were complaining that Twitter failed 308 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:12,000 Speaker 1: to handle abuse properly. Like it it wasn't responding quickly enough. 309 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 1: In fact, a little bit later it was it got 310 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,000 Speaker 1: so bad that the CEO copped to it. In an 311 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:21,920 Speaker 1: internal memo. Costolo said that Twitter had failed to handle 312 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,960 Speaker 1: trolls and abuse and as a result, had lost users 313 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,840 Speaker 1: in the process. Now, this was around the time of 314 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:33,919 Speaker 1: gamer Gate, which was really a harassment campaign conducted mainly 315 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:38,520 Speaker 1: online but also in other ways. And while Twitter would 316 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,439 Speaker 1: see quite a bit of action during gamer Gate, the 317 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: real battles were being fought elsewhere online in the real world. 318 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:48,760 Speaker 1: But lots of folks in the gaming industry, particularly women 319 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,200 Speaker 1: who dared to be so bold as to work professionally 320 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:56,240 Speaker 1: in the field, found themselves the targets of abuse. In 321 00:19:56,280 --> 00:20:01,200 Speaker 1: the summer of Dick Costolo stepped down as CEO, and hey, 322 00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey came back as CEO, you know, the first 323 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,160 Speaker 1: CEO of Twitter, one of the code founders, and Dorsey 324 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,920 Speaker 1: remained in charge of Twitter until the fall of when 325 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:16,040 Speaker 1: he would resign and the former c t O, Parague 326 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:19,880 Speaker 1: Agraval would take over and Agrival would lead the company 327 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,959 Speaker 1: until a certain tech billionaire would really shake things up. 328 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: That tech billionaire was, of course, Elon Musk. He made 329 00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 1: waves in the spring of So it feels like it 330 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 1: was an eternity ago at this point by announcing his 331 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: intention to acquire Twitter. First, he purchased a significant percentage 332 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,879 Speaker 1: of shares in the company. Then he declined an invitation 333 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 1: to join the company's board of directors because he learned 334 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:48,680 Speaker 1: that if he did that it would prevent him from 335 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: being able to acquire even more stake in the company. 336 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:54,920 Speaker 1: Then he said he wanted to buy the company, and 337 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,400 Speaker 1: he started going about to secure the funding for it. 338 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: Then reconsidered and decided he wanted out of the deal, 339 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 1: but at that point he had already committed to it. 340 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: There was no easy way to back out. Twitter went 341 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,960 Speaker 1: to court to force Musk to go through with the 342 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: acquisition bias gosh darn it, you're legally bound to And finally, 343 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: in the fall of Musk actually did purchase Twitter. Then 344 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: Musk fired like all the leadership at Twitter and half 345 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: of the employees. Then another quarter of the employees left 346 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,040 Speaker 1: the company. And that's kind of where Twitter is today. 347 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,720 Speaker 1: Musk is aiming to transform Twitter into what he calls 348 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:41,200 Speaker 1: Twitter two point oh. And obviously that's a super fast, 349 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: super high level treatment of Twitter. We could talk about 350 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: so much more, but honestly, we kind of have, particularly 351 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,199 Speaker 1: throughout this year, so I thought I would leave this 352 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 1: here for now, but if people want me to do 353 00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:58,479 Speaker 1: like an honest to goodness deep dive on the history, 354 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: the evolution, the influence of Twitter, let me know, um 355 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,960 Speaker 1: and I guess I can do that. But that'll that's 356 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:10,240 Speaker 1: almost a mini series on its own because it's just Twitter. 357 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,400 Speaker 1: While again, while it's reach is not as big as 358 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,920 Speaker 1: the way a lot of people think has been incredibly important, 359 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: particularly here in the United States, but also in other 360 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: parts of the world, like in in Egypt. But we'll 361 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,439 Speaker 1: save that for some other time. If y'all want me 362 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,360 Speaker 1: to talk more about it, some of you are probably 363 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 1: sick of hearing about Twitter, so hey, why don't we 364 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,919 Speaker 1: talk about something else. So that same year that that 365 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: Twitter in Jaiku launched in two thousand and six, saw 366 00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 1: the launch of yet another social networking slash microblogging site, 367 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,439 Speaker 1: but this one was called Tumbler. I mean it launched 368 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:50,359 Speaker 1: in private beta towards the end of two thousand six. 369 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:54,120 Speaker 1: It would become a publicly accessible social network the following 370 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:58,200 Speaker 1: year in two thousand seven. David carp who turned twenty 371 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: in two thousand six, dude, anyway, he was behind Tumbler. 372 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: He had already established himself as a web developer and 373 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: tech enthusiasts by then, Like when I looked into his background, 374 00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: because I really didn't know much about David carp. I 375 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: know much about Tumbler apart from being somewhat familiar with 376 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: it as a platform, but I looked into his background, 377 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: I was just so astonished and humbled, because holy cow, 378 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: this guy, by the time he was twinning, had accomplished 379 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:33,760 Speaker 1: so much. So he creates this site along with Marco Armett. 380 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:39,160 Speaker 1: I don't mean to diminish Marco's contributions. And the whole 381 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:41,840 Speaker 1: idea was to give a place where users could create 382 00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:46,440 Speaker 1: profiles and write what we're called tumble logs. So these 383 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: are short, warm blogs, sometimes longer than tweets, but shorter 384 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,359 Speaker 1: than what you would typically find in a regular blog. 385 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: And Tumbler gave tools to users to let them incorporate 386 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: all kinds of multimedia stuff like photos and audio clips 387 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,040 Speaker 1: and videos and even things like chat logs. You could 388 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,400 Speaker 1: just post those directly into a Tumbler feed, right from 389 00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: the user interface. So it was really streamlining that process 390 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,600 Speaker 1: so that you could create a really engaging and interesting 391 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,440 Speaker 1: tumble log about whatever it is that you wanted to 392 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: write about. You know, maybe it's a journal about your 393 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,200 Speaker 1: own experiences, maybe it's about something you really are passionate about, 394 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:32,760 Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. So users had a few 395 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: options when it came to designing the look of their feed. 396 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: They had a lot of default options, or they could 397 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,239 Speaker 1: actually shell out some real world money to purchase a 398 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: pre made theme from Tumbler, kind of like a you know, 399 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 1: a premier theme. And like Twitter, Tumbler let users follow 400 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,399 Speaker 1: accounts that they found interesting, so that each user had 401 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:59,480 Speaker 1: a curated experience based upon their own preferences. Now, one 402 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: thing was very different with Tumbler, and that was that 403 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: Tumbler posts didn't feature a comment section, so you could 404 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:11,879 Speaker 1: not comment on someone else's post. Carpet had seen how 405 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:18,359 Speaker 1: comments could become a breeding ground for abuse and he 406 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: really wanted to avoid that, so users were not given 407 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:26,000 Speaker 1: the option to comment on posts. Alternatively, however, they could 408 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,679 Speaker 1: choose to reblog someone else's post, and in the reblog 409 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,520 Speaker 1: they could include their own commentary. So while you might 410 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: not be able to leave a comment on one of 411 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: my posts and write you're a jerk face, you could 412 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,879 Speaker 1: reblog one of my posts and write, this guy is 413 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,879 Speaker 1: a jerk face as your commentary that would work words 414 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,640 Speaker 1: can hurt. Tumbler's emphasis on multimedia really kind of set 415 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,919 Speaker 1: it apart from other platforms at the time, and it 416 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,560 Speaker 1: became a place where fandoms would coalesce around various pieces 417 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:04,439 Speaker 1: of pop culture, very active communities around fan fiction and 418 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: fan theory and things that are in that realm. Like really, 419 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:11,160 Speaker 1: when you use the word fan you know, it's short 420 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,639 Speaker 1: for fanatic. Fanaticism really was playing out on Tumbler. You 421 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:20,560 Speaker 1: would see like entire communities grow up around specific theories 422 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 1: and wish fulfillment for certain characters in pop culture to 423 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,720 Speaker 1: get together. That kind of thing. The whole browny culture, 424 00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: which was a male identifying people who are fans of 425 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:36,800 Speaker 1: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. That all started on Tumbler. 426 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,240 Speaker 1: So you had these kind of micro communities that were 427 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:46,320 Speaker 1: really passionate about their specific area of focus. Humbler was 428 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:51,240 Speaker 1: pretty popular when in Yahoo came a callin and we've 429 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: talked about Yahoo already in this series because that's the 430 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,400 Speaker 1: same company that came around and acquired Flicker a few 431 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:03,560 Speaker 1: years earlier. Yahoo shelled out a cool billion dollars for Tumbler. 432 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,160 Speaker 1: That's billion with a B. David carp stayed on as 433 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,919 Speaker 1: CEO for the time being. But unfortunately for Yahoo and 434 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:17,879 Speaker 1: for Tumbler, that popularity didn't really translate into profitability, and 435 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,080 Speaker 1: in two thousand and sixteen, Yaho actually did a write 436 00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:26,160 Speaker 1: down of that acquisition of more than seven hundred million dollars. Yeah, 437 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:29,600 Speaker 1: that's essentially Yahoo's saying, yeah, we paid way too much 438 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:34,080 Speaker 1: for this asset. When Verizon bought Yahoo in tween, Because 439 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:39,680 Speaker 1: as quigon Jin reminds us, there's always a bigger fish, Tumbler, 440 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:45,000 Speaker 1: like Flicker, was shuffled underneath a parent company called Oath 441 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 1: O A t H. In two thousand eighteen, Tumbler made 442 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,640 Speaker 1: a change that had a dramatic effect. See I talked 443 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,000 Speaker 1: about fandoms and stuff, but one thing I did not 444 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: mention is that Tumbler was also a really popular site 445 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: for posting material of a more adult nature, whether it 446 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:10,560 Speaker 1: was fan fiction, illustrations, photographs, videos. Some users relied on 447 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,200 Speaker 1: Tumbler to share material that was a bit too hot 448 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,680 Speaker 1: for Oath. So Tumbler would make a change that would 449 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:23,119 Speaker 1: have an enormous impact on the site and its followers. 450 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:37,400 Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's take another quick break. Okay, 451 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:40,040 Speaker 1: so I'm sure all of you could at least guess 452 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,640 Speaker 1: where this was going if you didn't know already. Tumbler 453 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,920 Speaker 1: when faced with this issue of adult content proliferating across 454 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,360 Speaker 1: the site, which by the way, made it very hard 455 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,520 Speaker 1: to work with advertisers, right because advertisers don't want their 456 00:28:54,560 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: ants showing up next to illustrations that depict a raw 457 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:06,760 Speaker 1: adic liaisons between Captain Kirk and Darth Vader or whatever. 458 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 1: So Tumbler passed a new policy banning adult content on 459 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:19,000 Speaker 1: the site, and usage plummeted by about thirty percent. That's 460 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: a lot. When you say, hey, no more porn and 461 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,040 Speaker 1: you lose a third of your traffic, that definitely tells 462 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: you something about how your users were using your platform. 463 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: Now that brings us up to two thousand nineteen. So 464 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: at this point Tumbler is wallowing under Oath, which, now 465 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 1: that I actually think about it, that that came out 466 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 1: away that was different from what I intended. Not wallowing 467 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: under Oath, but wallowing under the company called Oath. And 468 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,800 Speaker 1: it continued to struggle, and at this point David carp 469 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:55,920 Speaker 1: had already left the company. He actually did that in 470 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen, and Oath ended up selling Tumbler off 471 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,200 Speaker 1: to another company called Automatic, which in turn is kind 472 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,920 Speaker 1: of connected to WordPress, the publishing platform. And the price 473 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: tag of Tumbler when it was sold in two thousand 474 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: nineteen was three million dollars. Y'all, if you've been following 475 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: this series, you know, like there have been some notable 476 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,320 Speaker 1: cases where companies were bought for massive amounts and sold 477 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,640 Speaker 1: for a tiny percentage afterwards, Like my Space was something 478 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:33,280 Speaker 1: like five million dollars, that Newscore bought it four and 479 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,320 Speaker 1: then sold it for like thirty five million, And you know, 480 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: we've had other examples where something was bought for like 481 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:42,959 Speaker 1: nine million and then sold for ten million. But this 482 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:47,320 Speaker 1: was bought for a billion dollars and then sold off 483 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:54,360 Speaker 1: for three million. Yikes, huge drop in value. But importantly, 484 00:30:55,200 --> 00:31:00,840 Speaker 1: Tumbler did not die. It also didn't change that much. 485 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,760 Speaker 1: Leadership decided to really focus on how Tumbler allows users 486 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,120 Speaker 1: to choose how they post and how they consume content, 487 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,400 Speaker 1: and users began to return to the platform, though there's 488 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: still a ban on adult content there, so not all 489 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,720 Speaker 1: of them did. Something else that sets Tumbler apart from 490 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: its competitors is that The site follows a chronological ordering 491 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,280 Speaker 1: system for posts, with the most recent posts being at 492 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,680 Speaker 1: the top. You do not get an algorithm shuffling everything 493 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,440 Speaker 1: around so that you see what the algorithm thinks will 494 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,960 Speaker 1: keep you there longer. That is different from Twitter. It's 495 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,920 Speaker 1: different from Facebook, and you might notice, if you've ever 496 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,760 Speaker 1: been on Facebook or Twitter that the posts you're looking 497 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,160 Speaker 1: at are all out of order chronologically. Tumbler passed on 498 00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,360 Speaker 1: that particular approach, which I certainly appreciate. I think a 499 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: lot of users much prefer having a reverse chronological ordering 500 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: of content and you just keep on scrolling down until 501 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: you reach the point where you're like, oh, I've seen 502 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:03,400 Speaker 1: this before, now I'm all caught up. Tumbler is also 503 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:09,640 Speaker 1: not as dominated by brands and influencers as a Facebook 504 00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: and Instagram and Twitter are. It has more of a 505 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: community feel to it than other platforms. Now, I'm not 506 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,760 Speaker 1: saying Tumbler is perfect. In fact, I haven't really used 507 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,280 Speaker 1: Tumbler very much myself at all, but I do think 508 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,480 Speaker 1: it is a breath of fresh air if you felt 509 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: lost in a sea of influencers, algorithms, brands promoting themselves 510 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. But if you're tired of drama, 511 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,840 Speaker 1: Tumbler might not be a solution to that. Funny little 512 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,880 Speaker 1: side note, I actually decided to log into Tumbler for 513 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,840 Speaker 1: the first time in years while writing this, and one 514 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,480 Speaker 1: of the top things to populate in the trending tab, 515 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: which is where it dumped me. I didn't realize that 516 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: at first. I'm looking at like, I don't recognize any 517 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:54,400 Speaker 1: of these accounts. Did I follow all of these back 518 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: when I was actually on Tumbler years and years ago? 519 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,200 Speaker 1: But one of the things I saw was a post 520 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: about safety tips for new witches, which I thought was funny. 521 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:07,920 Speaker 1: Several of my friends consider themselves to be witches. That 522 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,239 Speaker 1: actually really tickled me to see this. I was like, 523 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: does Tumbler know who my friends aren't? But then I realized, 524 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,760 Speaker 1: oh no, I'm in the trending tab. Once I popped 525 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:21,240 Speaker 1: over to the four you tabu, the posts were fewer 526 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,040 Speaker 1: and further between, and they were all very techy, so 527 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,760 Speaker 1: I was like, oh, okay, no, this is this is 528 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,400 Speaker 1: where I left off, all right. Next up, we got 529 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,959 Speaker 1: a company created by some ex Googlers. So Brett Taylor 530 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,400 Speaker 1: and Jim Norris had worked on Google Maps before they 531 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,280 Speaker 1: struck out on their own to work on their own 532 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 1: idea at a Finchure capital firm called Benchmark Capital, which 533 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,640 Speaker 1: had its own kind of incubator program. So their idea 534 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: was to bring together in one place all the different 535 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: social network activity of a single user, so that you 536 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,840 Speaker 1: could catch up on a person's activities no matter where 537 00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:00,040 Speaker 1: they were posting. Two other ex Googlers, Sanjeev Singh and 538 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 1: Paul bou Kite, whose name I'm sure I have completely mispronounced, 539 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,279 Speaker 1: so I apologized for that. They helped build Gmail back 540 00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,359 Speaker 1: in the day. Well, they ended up joining on this 541 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,759 Speaker 1: project as well, and the tool became friend Feed. It 542 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,840 Speaker 1: could aggregate social network activity across more than twenty different 543 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,319 Speaker 1: platforms when it launched, and even more as time went on. 544 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: So that included stuff like Facebook and Twitter, but it 545 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 1: also included stuff like Netflix and YouTube and last Fm 546 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,360 Speaker 1: and read It and things like that nature. So on 547 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,960 Speaker 1: friend Feed users could like posts and they could leave comments, 548 00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,480 Speaker 1: much as you would on Facebook later on, but you 549 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,719 Speaker 1: could also see activity across all these different things. If 550 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:50,440 Speaker 1: if a user activated all these platforms on their their feed, 551 00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,719 Speaker 1: anytime they would post at any of those sites, friend 552 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,280 Speaker 1: feed would aggregate it and pull it into that feed 553 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:00,479 Speaker 1: as well, so you'd have like this consolidated feed, which 554 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: made it interesting for folks like me where I would 555 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: post variations of the same thing on different platforms, and 556 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:10,480 Speaker 1: so on friend feed, you would get like multiple versions 557 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:14,000 Speaker 1: of essentially the same message, but it would be tailored 558 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: to whatever platform I was going to. So, for example, 559 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: I might make a longer post on Facebook to promote say, 560 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,040 Speaker 1: podcast episode, but on Twitter it would be a much 561 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: shorter message. Meanwhile, friend feed you'd be like, Jonathan, just 562 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,319 Speaker 1: can't shut up about this podcast episode you did. But 563 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:31,319 Speaker 1: let's say you've got a friend who's really active on 564 00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,640 Speaker 1: numerous social networks. So instead of having to go place 565 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:36,840 Speaker 1: to place to keep up with this friend, you know, 566 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,319 Speaker 1: all right, well have they posted new YouTube videos? Have 567 00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: they been active on Reddit? You would just subscribe to 568 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:45,920 Speaker 1: friend feed and you would get kind of a fire 569 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:48,400 Speaker 1: hose of all the content they were posting at different places, 570 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:52,760 Speaker 1: assuming that they enabled those platforms when they were joining 571 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,840 Speaker 1: friend Feed. So the number of supported services grew and 572 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,120 Speaker 1: it became a really impressive from that kind of perspective, 573 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: But the problem was it didn't really fit in anywhere. 574 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:06,480 Speaker 1: The UI felt kind of like a hybrid between Twitter 575 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,279 Speaker 1: and Facebook, it never quite took off. Plus, in two 576 00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:14,480 Speaker 1: thousand nine, Facebook itself decided to acquire friend Feed. Facebook 577 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,160 Speaker 1: would continue to operate friend Feed for several more years, 578 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:19,920 Speaker 1: but in two thousand and fifteen it officially pulled the 579 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: plug and the aggregator went dark. All right, let's go 580 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,279 Speaker 1: back to our timeline. In two thousand and eight, we 581 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,879 Speaker 1: got Plerk. So at this point, Twitter and Jaiku had 582 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,720 Speaker 1: both been out for a couple of years, and Plurk 583 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:38,839 Speaker 1: was another one character limit microblogging service that later would 584 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 1: expand up to two characters. But clerks Ui was different. 585 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: You know, Twitter and a lot of other social networks 586 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:51,600 Speaker 1: would arrange their messages vertically in roughly reverse chronological order, 587 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,759 Speaker 1: although as we've said, algorithms would change the order quite 588 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,560 Speaker 1: a bit depending upon what was being used at the time. 589 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:03,280 Speaker 1: But on the plerk website, messages are organized horizontally along 590 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,719 Speaker 1: a timeline, and the leftmost plurics represent the most recent messages, 591 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 1: and as you go to the right you get to 592 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,120 Speaker 1: the older and older messages. This company was founded in 593 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:19,000 Speaker 1: Toronto with co founders Danny Lynn and Alvin Woon. Now 594 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,759 Speaker 1: the name Plurk has a few different meanings. One is 595 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:26,680 Speaker 1: a combination of the words people and lurk plerk. Another 596 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:31,080 Speaker 1: is the combination of play and work, and yet another 597 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:37,359 Speaker 1: is an acronym which is peace, love, unity, respect and karma. 598 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:42,000 Speaker 1: Plurk like other services I'm pluric. You can follow other 599 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 1: people and you can read their timelines. You can upload photos, 600 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 1: you can share links, you can import YouTube videos, that 601 00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 1: sort of thing. For a while, Plurk had something called Qualifiers, 602 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,799 Speaker 1: which was sort of like a menu of words that 603 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 1: would let you quickly use them those words to make 604 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: a message. So you could use a word like loves 605 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,719 Speaker 1: or hates or likes or wishes, and you could do 606 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:10,560 Speaker 1: this to craft a message. And those words had highlight 607 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,320 Speaker 1: to them, so like the word loves obviously was associated 608 00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,800 Speaker 1: with the color red, hates was associated with the color black. 609 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,080 Speaker 1: So you would very quickly be able to just glance 610 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:22,400 Speaker 1: at a message and you would see one of these 611 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 1: highlighted words and you think, oh, I get the just 612 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: Jonathan's mad about something again, I'm not even gonna bother 613 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,280 Speaker 1: reading this, which I think was a very useful tool 614 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,920 Speaker 1: for people who followed me. Not that different from how 615 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,440 Speaker 1: Facebook would incorporate moods like you would see that on 616 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 1: Facebook posts for a while. I don't know if people 617 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:41,720 Speaker 1: still use it. I haven't been on Facebook and ages, 618 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:43,560 Speaker 1: so I don't know if people still use moods or not, 619 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,840 Speaker 1: or if it even is still a thing. Anyway, users 620 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,120 Speaker 1: could also respond to Clark messages. They could leave comments 621 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,520 Speaker 1: on a post, and it was way easier to follow 622 00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,879 Speaker 1: a conversation on Plerk than it was at Twitter at 623 00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:01,400 Speaker 1: the time. Anyway, Twitter had really yet to introduce threaded messages, 624 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,560 Speaker 1: and it was not easy to follow along and read 625 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:09,400 Speaker 1: responses to tweets, so it would be really tough to 626 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: kind of figure out where a conversation was going on 627 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:14,720 Speaker 1: Twitter if you were not a direct part of it. 628 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,239 Speaker 1: But I'm plerk, it was way easier. You would just 629 00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,440 Speaker 1: click on the relevant comment and then or or plerk 630 00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,000 Speaker 1: and you would see all the comments below, so you 631 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,800 Speaker 1: could just follow the conversation and take part of it. Uh. 632 00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,759 Speaker 1: That way, it was really easy. Clerk also introduced karma, 633 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,399 Speaker 1: so folks could award karma they saw stuff they liked doing. 634 00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,640 Speaker 1: Certain actions would get you karma, like if you added 635 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,479 Speaker 1: a photo to your profile that got you karma and 636 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,160 Speaker 1: receiving karma meant that you would be able to do, 637 00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:47,960 Speaker 1: you know, to access certain features like special emoticons that 638 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,320 Speaker 1: otherwise we're not available, you know, or being able to 639 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:54,799 Speaker 1: assign a title to your timeline if you had enough 640 00:39:54,880 --> 00:40:00,320 Speaker 1: karma around. Alvin Woon relocated to Taiwan. He took Pork 641 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,200 Speaker 1: with him. The service never got a ton of love 642 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,160 Speaker 1: here in the West. Like you know, there are people 643 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:10,440 Speaker 1: who used it, but it really wasn't popular. But it 644 00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:13,160 Speaker 1: did have a steady user base over in Asia and 645 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:17,040 Speaker 1: particularly in Taiwan. So the company got a round of 646 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:21,520 Speaker 1: Series A funding in as well, and it is still 647 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: around today. You can actually go to pluric dot com 648 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,960 Speaker 1: and make yourself an account if you like, actually have one. 649 00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,359 Speaker 1: I've posted maybe like a dozen times since I first 650 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,720 Speaker 1: made the account way back in I don't know ten 651 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:35,560 Speaker 1: or something like that. I don't know when I made 652 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:38,439 Speaker 1: my Plark account, but I haven't posted to it very much. 653 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: It didn't stick with me the way Twitter did for 654 00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:45,160 Speaker 1: a very long time. Okay, that's enough for it today. 655 00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,760 Speaker 1: I don't want to go super long with this episode. 656 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,000 Speaker 1: We've got a few more we're going to cover before 657 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,640 Speaker 1: we conclude the history of social networks, We've got some 658 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,240 Speaker 1: ones that we need to chat about, like Google Plus. 659 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:58,320 Speaker 1: I think it's an important one to talk about because 660 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 1: it really kind of illustrate some mistakes that Google made 661 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,600 Speaker 1: in the process of trying to create another social network. 662 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:08,359 Speaker 1: And there are a few other examples that we can 663 00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,680 Speaker 1: talk about. But obviously, like we've hit most of the 664 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 1: really big ones, at least the big ones in the West, 665 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,719 Speaker 1: there are some that are really big in other parts 666 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,120 Speaker 1: of the world, like in China and in Russia. And 667 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:25,400 Speaker 1: I'm sure I have listeners in places where they're thinking, hey, 668 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,160 Speaker 1: you're not really covering the ones that are popular here, 669 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:32,160 Speaker 1: and to that I apologize, Um, but you know, I 670 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,319 Speaker 1: just I just drew the line to the ones that 671 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:39,000 Speaker 1: were really big or known at least here in the West, 672 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: and not you know, the ones that that people had 673 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:48,319 Speaker 1: less contact with over here. Maybe in the future I'll 674 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: do an episode where I focus on some of these 675 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,440 Speaker 1: other social networks that are almost unknown here in the 676 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:59,280 Speaker 1: United States. But I have already four episodes into this series, 677 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:01,440 Speaker 1: and if I kept on doing it, it it would probably 678 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,840 Speaker 1: be like eight episodes long. And uh, I still have 679 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:06,920 Speaker 1: to do my end of the year wrap up, folks. 680 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: So yeah, to that end, if you have suggestions for 681 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:13,560 Speaker 1: topics I should cover on tech Stuff, including any big 682 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,000 Speaker 1: news tech news items from two that you think should 683 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,120 Speaker 1: be included in my end of the year wrap up, 684 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:21,680 Speaker 1: please get in touch with me. You've got a couple 685 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:23,800 Speaker 1: of ways of doing that. One as you can download 686 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,560 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app. It's free to download, it's 687 00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:29,080 Speaker 1: free to use. Navigate over to tech Stuff. You just 688 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: put tech Stuff in the little search field pop up 689 00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: over to the podcast. Over on the podcast page, you'll 690 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:36,839 Speaker 1: see there's a little microphone icon. If you click on that, 691 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:39,200 Speaker 1: you can leave a voice message up to thirty seconds 692 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,080 Speaker 1: in length, and if you even like, you can let 693 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:44,120 Speaker 1: me know and I can play it in a future episode. 694 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:45,880 Speaker 1: But I won't do it unless you tell me too, 695 00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,760 Speaker 1: or if you prefer, you can use Twitter. The handle 696 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,319 Speaker 1: for the show is tech Stuff H s W and 697 00:42:53,360 --> 00:43:02,680 Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is 698 00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:05,880 Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I 699 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:09,560 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 700 00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:11,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.