History of Twitter and the Twitosphere

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site, where users can share their interesting sites. For each bookmark, a user can specify one or more tags to describe the bookmark. Tags are a great way to discover interesting things on the Web.

Many Del.icio.us users have created bookmarks for Twitter, for all kinds of Twitter tools and gadgets and for blogposts and articles discussing Twitter and the Twitosphere. I traced the Twitter and Twitosphere history by retracing the first bookmark for Twitter and the most popular Twitter tools. Furthermore I added also websites (blogs and wikis) set up to publish and discuss all kinds of observations regarding Twitter and the Twitosphere. Blogposts and articles discussing Twitter, Twitter tools or the Twitosphere from various sites were not taken into account in this overview, although some of these blogposts and articles had an influential role in the rise of the popularity of Twitter. It was my intention to focus on the dedicated tools and dedicated sites.

Del.icio.us is a dynamic environment, people add bookmarks on a daily basis, for already known sites or for new sites that are launched also on a daily basis. The list is below is only a snapshot of the situation today. The first bookmark for Twitter.com was made on August 8, 2006, the last one just an hour ago.

The list contains at first sight multiple entries for the same tool. This is caused by bookmarks for slightly different URLs, e.g. with or without www.

August 2006
  August 8, 2006 - Twitter : 4478 del.icio.us bookmarks
  August 8, 2006 - Twitter : 174 del.icio.us bookmarks

September 2006

October 2006
  October 6, 2006 - Twitter : 1655 del.icio.us bookmarks

November 2006
  November 20, 2006 - Twitter Fan Wiki : 585 del.icio.us bookmarks
  November 22, 2006 - Twidget : 39 del.icio.us bookmarks

December 2006
  December 1, 2006 - Twitter Wordpress Sidebar Widget : 68 del.icio.us bookmarks
  December 31, 2006 - Twadget : 26 del.icio.us bookmarks

January 2007
  January 15, 2007 - Twitterific : 621 del.icio.us bookmarks
  January 27, 2007 - Twitteroo : 218 del.icio.us bookmarks

February 2007
  February 15, 2007 - Twessenger : 53 del.icio.us bookmarks
  February 26, 2007 - AutoTwit : 88 del.icio.us bookmarks
  February 27, 2007 - Twitterbox : 52 del.icio.us bookmarks

March 2007
  March 8, 2007 - GeoTwitter : 39 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 11, 2007 - Twitterlicious : 33 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 14, 2007 - gtwitter : 52 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 14, 2007 - Twittermaps : 107 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 15, 2007 - Triqqr : 46 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 16, 2007 - Twitterbar : 91 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 16, 2007 - Twittersearch : 83 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 17, 2007 - Twittervision : 1990 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 18, 2007 - Twittervision : 833 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 19, 2007 - Twitterbuzz : 23 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 19, 2007 - Twitterholic : 235 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 20, 2007 - TweetBar : 70 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 21, 2007 - TinyTwitter : 41 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 22, 2007 - Twitterfeed : 232 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 22, 2007 - Twitthis : 272 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 22, 2007 - Twitthis : 107 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 25, 2007 - Rss2twitter : 136 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 26, 2007 - Twitter Hacks : 19 del.icio.us bookmarks
  March 27, 2007 - Twitterfeed : 80 del.icio.us bookmarks

April 2007
  April 2, 2007 - Tweetr : 149 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 3, 2007 - EmailTwitter : 34 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 4, 2007 - TwitterEarth : 42 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 6, 2007 - Twifter : 37 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 9, 2007 - Twitterverse : 177 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 10, 2007 - TwitterCamp : 147 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 11, 2007 - Twitterment : 186 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 12, 2007 - Twitterfacts (this blog) : 19 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 13, 2007 - Twitterati : 29 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 19, 2007 - MSNTwitter : 40 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 20, 2007 - TwittyTunes : 50 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 20, 2007 - Twitternotifier : 83 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 22, 2007 - Twittown : 44 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 26, 2007 - Twitterquotient : 14 del.icio.us bookmarks
  April 28, 2007 - MoniTwitter : 92 del.icio.us bookmarks

May 2007
  May 1, 2007 - Twitter.FM : 30 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 1, 2007 - TwitterLit : 63 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 2, 2007 - Twitku : 71 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 4, 2007 - Twitbin : 103 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 4, 2007 - Twitbin : 313 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 13, 2007 - 24oclocks : 143 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 18, 2007 - Twittervision 3D : 161 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 18, 2007 - TwitterLine : 32 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 19, 2007 - Twitter Reader : 66 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 23, 2007 - Tweetvolume : 147 del.icio.us bookmarks
  May 24, 2007 - Twitdir : 66 del.icio.us bookmarks

June 2007
  June 12, 2007 - Twittermosaic : 29 del.icio.us bookmarks


The graph below shows the complete history, from August 8, 2006 until today. For each bookmark, a column showing the total number of bookmarks appears at the date of the first bookmark. The first peak is for Twitter itself, at August 8, 2006. The second peak, on October 6, 2006 is again for Twitter (twitter.com/home). The next big peak appears at March 17, 2007 for Twittervision. All other Twitter tools bookmarked for the first time after March 18, 2007 have received less then 320 bookmarks.



If you would know other Twitter tools or sources of information regarding the Twitosphere that are not yet present in this list and for which there at least 20 bookmarks in Del.icio.us, please let me know. You can leave a comment below of mail me at twitterfacts at gmail.