4 ms·

Since this is from Lili Cheng's team, I suspect this is a MSR/Labs effort as opposed to a full-blown 'product'. That team is spectacular -she built one of the f

by sriramk 14y ago

Since this is from Lili Cheng's team, I suspect this is a MSR/Labs effort as opposed to a full-blown 'product'. That team is spectacular -she built one of the first social networks to ever exist - Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004.

sriramk 14y ago
The text at the bottom says 'FUSE Labs'. FUSE stands for 'Future of Social Experiences' if I remember correctly. This was a team Ray Ozzie created to experiment with social behavior. They have some of the smartest people around in MSFT (and some good friends).
jaredsohn 14y ago
>she built one of the first social networks to ever exist If anyone is curious about what it means to be an "early social network" and where this fits in history, here is an article that talks about a few: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505250_162-57437460/beyond-facebook-a-look-at-social-network-history/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505250_162-57437460/beyond-faceb.... Wallop was created at roughly the same time as friendster, myspace, linkedin, and tribe.net.
DanBC 14y ago
> Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "one of the first". Friendster got 1 million users before anyone else, and was launched 2002. PlanetAll launched 1996. SixDegrees launched 1997. Friends Reunited launched 2000. SuicideGirls launched 2001. MySpace launched 2003. LinkedIn launched 2003. Social networking features were also common in many other communities.
- marcusf 14y ago
  I remember Swedens first social network, StajlPlejs, started at 96 and changed name to LunarStorm in 2000. Had about 20% of Sweden on that site. Well before 2004.
- btipling 14y ago
  I'd say the first social network I ever saw was Prodigy in 1991. AOL also had social networking features, as did Yahoo! and MSN.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Well... Wallop was one of the first... thousand. ;-) I really hate when people claim they were first on something hoping nobody remembers what came before. Disclaimer: I helped build one of the first e-commerce applications in Brazil - a supermarket mailed CD-ROMs to clients who shopped and an application sent a text file over the phone (it was 1994 or 1995, months before the first proper ISP launched) and a program on the receiving end would process everything. Payment was money or check, paid upon receiving the merchandise. The client-side was mostly ToolBook and the back-end was Visual Basic. That supermarket was one of the first to launch a website a year later built upon the backend processes we helped build, but with completely new software. Later in 1996 I wrote the e-commerce site for Brazil's then largest department store. At 10 orders per day, it was a huge success. I usually say it was one of the first and I'm aware of 2 other stores that came before.
- nknight 14y ago
  In my mind, LiveJournal (April 1999) is the first really successful "social network". And as far as I can tell, it's the oldest one of any particular significance that still operates.
mkramlich 14y ago
I've been in technology long enough that I've learned that when I see some random person I don't know claim that something was "the first" it usually was no higher than like the 4th. And if someone says "one of the first" it usually means like the 13th or 29th or so. But yeah, I'll let this one pass as possibly legit for certain narrow definitions. :) Meanwhile, back in the 80's we had BBSes and later Usenet and we had user profiles, notifications (only while logged-in, only some BBS instances), chat and topic/interested-based discussion groups, and file sharing. Shocking I know. Yes with simple to no graphics. Yes with slow speeds. Yes with weak computers. But we had it. And one positive it was mostly academics and techies in the community, so the minimum quality bar in terms of intelligence and education was fairly high. I'll be back on my old man porch.

by sriramk 14y ago

sriramk 14y ago

The text at the bottom says 'FUSE Labs'. FUSE stands for 'Future of Social Experiences' if I remember correctly. This was a team Ray Ozzie created to experiment with social behavior. They have some of the smartest people around in MSFT (and some good friends).

jaredsohn 14y ago

>she built one of the first social networks to ever exist If anyone is curious about what it means to be an "early social network" and where this fits in history, here is an article that talks about a few: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505250_162-57437460/beyond-facebook-a-look-at-social-network-history/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505250_162-57437460/beyond-faceb.... Wallop was created at roughly the same time as friendster, myspace, linkedin, and tribe.net.

DanBC 14y ago

> Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "one of the first". Friendster got 1 million users before anyone else, and was launched 2002. PlanetAll launched 1996. SixDegrees launched 1997. Friends Reunited launched 2000. SuicideGirls launched 2001. MySpace launched 2003. LinkedIn launched 2003. Social networking features were also common in many other communities.

marcusf 14y ago
I remember Swedens first social network, StajlPlejs, started at 96 and changed name to LunarStorm in 2000. Had about 20% of Sweden on that site. Well before 2004.
btipling 14y ago
I'd say the first social network I ever saw was Prodigy in 1991. AOL also had social networking features, as did Yahoo! and MSN.
rbanffy 14y ago
Well... Wallop was one of the first... thousand. ;-) I really hate when people claim they were first on something hoping nobody remembers what came before. Disclaimer: I helped build one of the first e-commerce applications in Brazil - a supermarket mailed CD-ROMs to clients who shopped and an application sent a text file over the phone (it was 1994 or 1995, months before the first proper ISP launched) and a program on the receiving end would process everything. Payment was money or check, paid upon receiving the merchandise. The client-side was mostly ToolBook and the back-end was Visual Basic. That supermarket was one of the first to launch a website a year later built upon the backend processes we helped build, but with completely new software. Later in 1996 I wrote the e-commerce site for Brazil's then largest department store. At 10 orders per day, it was a huge success. I usually say it was one of the first and I'm aware of 2 other stores that came before.
nknight 14y ago
In my mind, LiveJournal (April 1999) is the first really successful "social network". And as far as I can tell, it's the oldest one of any particular significance that still operates.

mkramlich 14y ago

I've been in technology long enough that I've learned that when I see some random person I don't know claim that something was "the first" it usually was no higher than like the 4th. And if someone says "one of the first" it usually means like the 13th or 29th or so. But yeah, I'll let this one pass as possibly legit for certain narrow definitions. :) Meanwhile, back in the 80's we had BBSes and later Usenet and we had user profiles, notifications (only while logged-in, only some BBS instances), chat and topic/interested-based discussion groups, and file sharing. Shocking I know. Yes with simple to no graphics. Yes with slow speeds. Yes with weak computers. But we had it. And one positive it was mostly academics and techies in the community, so the minimum quality bar in terms of intelligence and education was fairly high. I'll be back on my old man porch.