Sunday, March 27, 2011

First Words

Twitter launched five years ago with the simple message "just setting up my twttr".  In the same way, many technological breakthroughs that ultimately shaped the world began life, not with a fanfare of trumpets, but with a few humble words.  The BBC lists other major openers:

  • Telegram message, 1844: "What hath God wrought"
  • Telephone, 1876: "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you."
  • Wireless communication over open sea, 1897: "Are you ready?"
  • BBC Radio 1, 1967: "And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1".
  • Moon landings, 1969: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
  • E-mail, 1971: Qwertyuiop [probable]
  • Text message, 1992: "Merry Christmas"
  • Google, Jan 1996: no record of first search term, it says
  • Facebook, Feb 2004: no record of first post
  • YouTube, 2005: Video called "Me at the zoo", with first words: ""Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants"
  • Twitter, 2006: "just setting up my twttr"
I'd suggest some had more impact than others and some had more importance.  Guess where Twatter is on my list? 

No comments:

Post a Comment