LinkedIn is ten years old today. Happy birthday to what has become the biggest and busiest business-networking site on the Internet.
Let’s take a moment to just consider how different the web was just a decade ago. Most people were still using dial-up modems – remember those? Of course it was possible to get broadband and a wifi router at home a decade ago, but it was still not very common.
Blogging had been developing for a few years. Blogger was launched in 2000, but it was still seen as a niche pursuit. Let’s face it, some business executives still see it as a niche pursuit today!
If blogging was new, social networking was really just in its infancy. Facebook and Twitter did not even exist and Myspace was only launched in 2003 – it rose to prominence then collapsed as Facebook grabbed all the attention.
But Myspace launched the careers of bands such as the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. 2003 was still a time when a new band could get signed by a record company with a fat advance and support to go touring the world. People still bought records back then.
And now LinkedIn has been around for all of that decade. When it was launched I found it an annoyance as the moment I updated any of my details, salespeople would swoop on my profile and email attempts to sell me anything and everything. That has changed – now it’s become an essential business tool. If I ever run out of business cards today I just offer to connect on LinkedIn – and I’ve got friends who just don’t even bother with business cards now.
So do join me in wishing a happy birthday to LinkedIn. A decade ago we were on dial-up modems and Facebook didn’t exist. Can you imagine where technology will be a decade from now?
Photo by Debbie R licensed under Creative Commons
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