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As people increasingly use Twitter for social media, news, video, information, searches and other reasons, we may want to look back to ye olden days of 2008 to see how Twitter looked then. 10 years ago Twitter was a very different platform, a place where fewer users were tweeting and had a mere 140 characters to send a message.
In 2008, Twitter didn’t allow images to be added in a tweet and no re-tweets were permitted. If you wanted to refer to an image back then, you had to add a link to the image in your tweet. Many on Twitter used the “tinyurl” link for images.
American to charge $15 for checked baggage http://tinyurl.com/4aw8ke
— Delaware Online (@delawareonline) May 21, 2008
Twitter introduced retweets in 2009 and allowed images to be added to tweets in 2011. No emojis, GIFs or live video in 2008. No favorites or saved tweets back then either. No Moments, hashtags or trending topics.
The feed looked, well, a bit boring.
In 2008, users composed a 140 character tweet and hoped for the best.
Don’t miss => Twitter Doubles Character Limit to 280 for Tweets
Twitter user and former Kickstarter Chief Technical Officer Andy Baio recently figured out how to show Twitter from 10 years ago so we can easily go back in time and see what our Twitter feed would have looked like in 2008.
Want to see what your Twitter timeline would’ve looked like 10 years ago today, if you followed all the same people you do now? https://t.co/41a6iQcYhc
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 24, 2018
By clicking on the link Twitter Search from 2008, you can see what your Twitter stream would have looked like back then. You don’t have to have had a Twitter account in 2008 to see search results from that time. The search will show accounts you follow now that existed back in 2008.
Also check out => Take a Trip Down Internet Memory Lane with the Wayback Machine
The search results will show your stream from 2008, filled with tweets from the accounts you follow now that were on Twitter in 2008 (note my account was not one of them as I joined Twitter in 2009 and didn’t switch to the username @wonderoftech until later). No images, likes, replies or conversation. Just plain old tweets.
If you’re viewing the tweets from 2008 on a mobile device, tap “Latest” to see the tweets from that search link.
You can see tweets from that time and may see some interesting observations that may seem out of place today, or totally timeless.
Amazon store on your iPhone + 1-click ordering enabled? Holy crap that’s a dangerous (yet handy) combo.
— Matt Haughey (@mathowie) May 24, 2008
AAA says gas prices over $4 a gallon in Pa. http://tinyurl.com/43qcte
— Delaware Online (@delawareonline) May 23, 2008
Some may seem humorous.
tip from #cfp08: if you’re going to break up with a significant other, make sure to do it BEFORE changing your Facebook relationship status.
— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) May 21, 2008
Some may seem eerily sad.
The Hill | McCain is cancer-free and healthy, doctors say: Presumptive Republican presidential .. http://tinyurl.com/5a3utb
— The Hill (@thehill) May 23, 2008
In the search field, you can change the date to view tweets from a different time, such as five years ago or after a significant world event.
For more information about the history of Twitter, check out the Wikipedia entry The Timeline of Twitter.
Your Thoughts
Have you gone back to see what your Twitter stream looked like in 2008? Were you surprised by what you found? Do you like how Twitter has changed since 2008?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
wow good to read all these stuff, how much twitter has changed down the lane.. I m newbie to Twitter hardly a year or so.. really loved the way the hashtags works. very useful indeed. thank you for sharing
Hi Paul, Yes, if you’re new to Twitter then you might not realize how much Twitter has evolved in the past 10 years. Even those who were on Twitter then may forget what it looked like in 2008. By using this search link, we can take a trip back in history and see how much Twitter has changed.
Hello
Caroyln,
I have visited the link “Twitter search from 2008” to see how twitter stream looked like in 2008. From that time and now there has been a lot of changes in twitter and this change has been very beneficial for us. Now, twitter has added many new features like adding images to tweets, retweet option, live videos and much more for better engagment with the users.
Really, Happy to read this post.
Thansk for sharing.
Have a great day ahead.
Praveen verma
Hi Praveen, That’s great you took the time to visit your Twitter feed from 2008. Isn’t it amazing how different Twitter looked back then? Getting a peek at Twitter from 10 years ago helps us truly appreciate how far Twitter has come since that time.