Tech History

Articles about tech history and its impact on our culture.

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Twitter in 2007: The Open Platform That Wasn't

How do Bluesky and Mastodon compare with Twitter in 2007? Nobody quite knew what Twitter was back then, yet devs were already building on it.

May 25 •

Richard MacManus

ReadWriteWeb Turns 20

I look back on two decades of RWW, including the more than 10 years since I left! ☯️

Apr 20 •

Richard MacManus

The Golden Age of Microblogging, with Soup.io and Tumblr

I take a nostalgic trip back to 2007-11, when Tumblr, Soup.io, FriendFeed and other microblogging apps roamed the web. Also: are activity streams poised…

Mar 22 •

Richard MacManus

Foursquare Raps by the Go-Bang Mayor

I look back on a forgotten age in social media, when you checked-in to a place 100 times and took photos of your huevos rancheros 🍳 🫘 ☕

Feb 21 •

Richard MacManus

Flickr Before Smartphones and Instagram

What was it like using Flickr in early Web 2.0, in the age of digital cameras and before Instagram changed everything? 📸

Jan 26 •

Richard MacManus

BowieNet: The Inside Story of its Creation

I interviewed one of the creators of David Bowie's 1998 web portal, BowieNet.

Jan 10 •

Richard MacManus

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