The First Social Network

My 10-year college reunion is at Caltech this weekend. I’m not there right now because I am an antisocial loser. But here’s a blast from the past:

screenshot_ecircles

The summer before my freshman year at Caltech, my future classmate Jon set up a “Class of 2003” group on eCircles. eCircles was the Facebook of 1999, a site where users could congregate and share photos and messages. Of course, it died in the dot-com crash, and now, 14 years later, Jon works for Facebook.

ECircles Closes, Latest Web Community Casualty –PCWorld 2001 (how much longer is this going to be a thing?)