Section 1

Social networks

Facebook was six years old and about to pass 500 million users. Twitter was becoming the world's newswire, MySpace was fading, Tumblr was exploding, and Digg was about to hand its crown to Reddit.

The big six

Facebook
Verified
The social network at 500 million users
In 2010 Facebook was six years old, had just overtaken Google as the most-visited site in the United States on some weekly measures, and passed 500 million users in July. Its blue-and-white pages became the default way to share photos, plan events, and play FarmVille.
Launched
2004
Used for
Status updates and the News Feed; Photo albums and tagging
Later
Facebook went public in 2012, passed a billion users the same year, bought Instagram and WhatsApp, and renamed its parent company Meta in 2021. It remains the largest social network on Earth.
Explore Facebook »
Twitter
Verified
140 characters and the Fail Whale
Twitter turned four in 2010 and became the internet's newswire. Users sent about 50 million tweets a day in February and roughly 90 million a day by September, the Library of Congress agreed to archive every public tweet, and the World Cup repeatedly summoned the Fail Whale error page.
Launched
2006
Used for
Breaking news and live events; Celebrity updates
Later
Twitter went public in 2013, expanded tweets to 280 characters in 2017, was bought by Elon Musk in 2022 and renamed X in 2023.
Explore Twitter »
MySpace
Supported
The fading giant with glitter graphics and a Top 8
By 2010 MySpace had lost its crown to Facebook and was shedding users and staff under News Corp, which had bought it in 2005. In October it relaunched as a "social entertainment" site with a new logo, but the customisable, music-heavy MySpace of the mid-2000s was already a memory.
Launched
2003
Used for
Customised profile pages; Discovering bands and profile songs
Later
News Corp sold MySpace in 2011 for a reported $35 million. It survives as a music-focused site, and a 2019 server migration lost most user uploads made before 2016.
Explore MySpace »
Tumblr
Supported
Reblogs, GIFs and the dark blue dashboard
Tumblr grew explosively in 2010. Its dashboard, a dark blue page of posts from the blogs you followed, made reblogging and animated GIFs the currency of a new creative culture, from fandoms to fashion blogs to single-serving joke sites.
Launched
2007
Used for
Short-form blogging; Reblogging photos, GIFs and quotes
Later
Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013. After a 2018 adult-content ban drove users away, it was sold to Automattic in 2019 for a reported few million dollars.
Explore Tumblr »
Reddit
Supported
The front page of the internet, before it was
In 2010 Reddit was a spartan, text-heavy site owned by Condé Nast, far smaller than Digg at the start of the year. Digg's disastrous August redesign sent a wave of users to Reddit, and subreddits like IAmA, AskReddit and the rage-comics board f7u12 defined its culture.
Launched
2005
Used for
Link and text submissions voted by users; Subreddit communities
Later
Reddit was spun out of Condé Nast in 2011, grew into one of the world's biggest sites, redesigned in 2018, and went public in 2024.
Explore Reddit »
Digg
Supported
Social news, and the redesign that broke it
Digg let users "digg" stories onto a front page that could crash a small website with traffic. In August 2010, Digg version 4 removed favourite features, let publishers auto-submit content, and triggered a user revolt so complete that Reddit links took over Digg's own front page.
Launched
2004
Used for
Voting news stories onto a shared front page; Commenting on tech and politics stories
Later
Digg was sold in pieces in 2012 and relaunched as a news aggregator; it changed hands again several times and was revived once more in 2025.
Explore Digg »

Beyond the big six

Social networking in 2010 was not only an American story: Orkut ruled Brazil, Qzone and Weibo dominated China, VK ran Russia, and Bebo, Friendster and hi5 still mattered in their regions. New arrivals like Instagram, Foursquare and Formspring were the year's fresh obsessions.

Verified
Instagram
Square photos, filters, iPhone only
Instagram launched on 6 October 2010 as an iPhone-only app for square photos with retro filters and reached a million users by December. Its filters,...
social networkinstagramphotos
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Bebo
The UK and Ireland's teen network, sold for a pittance
Bebo had been the biggest social network among teenagers in the UK and Ireland, and AOL bought it for $850 million in 2008. In June 2010 AOL sold it...
social networkbebouk
Supported
Formspring
Ask me anything, anonymously
Formspring launched in late 2009 and spread through high schools in 2010: a page where anyone could ask you questions, often anonymously, and you...
social networkformspringteens
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Foursquare
Check in, become the mayor
Foursquare made 2010 the year of the check-in. Users broadcast their location to friends, collected badges, and fought to become the "mayor" of their...
social networkfoursquarecheck-in
Supported
Friendster
The original social network, thriving in Southeast Asia
Friendster predated MySpace and Facebook, and although it had faded in the West by 2010, it was still one of the most popular sites in the...
social networkfriendsterasia
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hi5
Big in Latin America and Portugal
hi5 was one of the world's largest social networks in the mid-2000s, especially in Latin America, Portugal, Romania and Thailand. In 2010 it was...
social networkhi5latin america
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LinkedIn
The professional network before it became a feed
LinkedIn in 2010 was the online résumé: profiles, connection requests from people you met once, and recruiters' InMail. It reported passing 90...
social networklinkedinprofessional
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LiveJournal
Communities, moods and friends-only posts
LiveJournal was the blogging community that fandoms, writers and teenagers had used since 1999. Owned by Russian company SUP since 2007, it was in...
blogginglivejournalcommunities
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Orkut
Google's social network that Brazil and India loved
Orkut, Google's 2004 social network, was largely ignored in the United States but was the biggest social network in Brazil and hugely popular in...
social networkorkutgoogle
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Qzone
China's biggest social network, built on QQ
Tencent's Qzone, attached to the QQ messenger, was by most measures the largest social network in China in 2010, with hundreds of millions of active...
social networkqzonechina
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Sina Weibo
China's microblog, one year old
Launched in August 2009 after Twitter was blocked in China, Sina Weibo grew rapidly through 2010, mixing 140-character posts (which fit far more...
social networkweibochina
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VKontakte
Russia's Facebook, with a music library
VKontakte (VK) was the dominant social network across Russia and the former Soviet states in 2010. Its interface closely resembled early Facebook,...
social networkvkontaktevk

Social events of 2010

SocialVerified
Google launches Google Buzz inside Gmail
Google Buzz, a social feed built into Gmail, automatically followed people's frequent email contacts and exposed them publicly, causing a privacy backlash within days. It was shut...
SocialSupported
Twitter reports 50 million tweets a day
Twitter's blog reported that users were sending about 50 million tweets a day, up from 5,000 a day in 2007; by September the figure was around 90 million.
SocialSupported
Facebook passes Google as the most-visited US site for a week
Hitwise reported that Facebook received more US visits than Google for the week ending 13 March 2010, the first time a site had beaten Google in its measurements for a full week.
SocialVerified
Twitter launches Promoted Tweets and holds Chirp
Twitter announced its first advertising product, Promoted Tweets, and at its Chirp developer conference reported 105 million registered users and 300,000 new sign-ups a day.
SocialVerified
The Library of Congress will archive every public tweet
The Library of Congress announced a deal to receive Twitter's entire archive of public tweets since 2006, a sign of how seriously the medium was now taken.
SocialVerified
Facebook launches the Open Graph and the Like button for the web
At its f8 conference Facebook let any website add a Like button and share data through the Open Graph, spreading Facebook's blue thumb across the internet within weeks.
SocialSupported
Facebook simplifies privacy settings after a backlash
After weeks of criticism over confusing, increasingly public defaults, Mark Zuckerberg announced simpler privacy controls; a "Quit Facebook Day" on 31 May drew tens of thousands...
SocialSupported
The World Cup sets Twitter records and summons the Fail Whale
The FIFA World Cup in South Africa drove record tweet rates, including 3,283 tweets per second after Japan's goal against Denmark on 24 June, and repeated Twitter outages.
SocialVerified
Facebook reaches 500 million users
Mark Zuckerberg announced that half a billion people were now using Facebook, launching a "Facebook Stories" site to mark the milestone.
SocialVerified
Facebook launches Places
Facebook added location check-ins to its iPhone app and mobile site, taking direct aim at Foursquare and Gowalla.
SocialSupported
Digg v4 launches and users revolt
Digg's redesign removed favourite features and let publishers auto-submit stories; users flooded the front page with Reddit links, traffic collapsed, and founder Kevin Rose...
SocialVerified
Twitter unveils #NewTwitter
Twitter's redesigned website added a second pane showing photos, videos and conversations beside the timeline, its biggest visual change to date.
SocialVerified
Instagram launches on the iPhone
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released a free app for square, filtered photos; it gained 25,000 users on its first day and a million by December.
SocialSupported
MySpace relaunches as a "social entertainment" site
MySpace unveiled a new logo and a redesign focused on music, film and TV, conceding the social-networking fight to Facebook.
SocialVerified
Facebook announces the new Messages with @facebook.com email
Facebook unveiled a unified inbox combining chat, texts and email addresses, widely reported as a "Gmail killer"; it was not.
SocialSupported
Tumblr goes down for about a day
A database failure took Tumblr offline for roughly 24 hours, a sign of how fast the site had grown in 2010 and how many people now depended on it.
SocialVerified
Time names Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year
Time chose the 26-year-old Facebook founder, noting that Julian Assange had won the magazine's readers' poll.