If you think the late Orkut You are a pioneer in the world of social networking, you need to reconsider your virtual date.
And in the era of dial-up Internet, in 1997, in the United States, Andrew Weinrich, the true pioneer of this sector, launched: Six degrees.
SixDegrees: The world’s first social network
SixDegrees is the world’s first social network – Image: Reproduction
The platform, the “firstborn” of social networking, includes features that remain popular to this day, such as the ability to create groups and communicate with different users.
Named after the Six Degrees Theory of Separation, which posits that all people in the world are connected through six friendships, SixDegrees allowed emails and invitations to be sent to… friends Join the platform.
This approach helped spread the network, reaching 3.5 million users.
However, despite its innovation, SixDegrees lacked a crucial element of today’s most popular social networks: the ability to share… Photos and videos.
The absence of these resources, which were highly desirable even in the 1990s, has become a challenge. With a combination of slow communications and people’s disinterest in communicating with strangers, the SixDegrees initiative ended in 1999.
The next chapter in this saga was written in 2002, with the advent of Friendster, a social network containing a news feed that could only be accessed via computer, as well as allowing the addition of friends with common interests.
However, Friendster couldn’t resist the phenomenon he had become Facebookwas launched in 2004 and quickly gained mass adoption.
As for the Orkut program mentioned at the beginning, it is worth noting that although it gained great popularity among Brazilians in the 2000s, it also underwent competition from Facebook and announced its closure in 2014.
The evolution of social media continues to tell the dynamic and competitive story of the digital age.
Edward Langley is a contributor at Mediarunsearch.co.uk, covering a wide range of topics including news, politics, business, technology, sport, entertainment and lifestyle. He focuses on delivering clear, balanced reporting and useful information that helps readers stay informed about current affairs and developing stories. His work highlights issues, trends and events that matter to everyday audiences, with an emphasis on accuracy, relevance and accessible journalism.