Twitter users are digging into the service’s improved searchable archive of every tweet ever posted publicly, and they’re using the hashtag #TwitterFirsts to document some of the unique tweets they’ve found.
Here are some of the more interesting things you’ll find by browsing that hashtag:
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams was the first person to tweet about an earthquake, back in August 2006 — just months after Twitter launched.
did anyone just feel that earthquake? — Ev Williams (@ev) August 3, 2006
Fellow Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was the first person to mention the iPhone, back in September 2006.
Had a dream last night that Steve Jobs gave me a demo of the iPhone and the ringtones were all hyphy. Hrm. — Jack (@jack) September 26, 2006
The first mention of Facebook came even earlier, when Adam Rugel tweeted this in May 2006:
i fell into facebook and i can't get out — Adam Rugel (@Adam) May 10, 2006
And before that, the first mention of Google came from the aforementioned Evan Williams when Google Calendar launched in April 2006.
just learned calendar.google.com is being launched right now — Ev Williams (@ev) April 13, 2006
A guy named Jon Bohlinger was the first to say he’s quitting Twitter, all the way back in October 2006.
quitting twitter — Jon Bohlinger (@jbohlinger) October 25, 2006
He’s still active on Twitter, if you’re curious.
President Barack Obama was first mentioned in November 2006 by Alex de Carvalho.
Off to the Miami Book Fair and then to see B. Obama talk — Alex de Carvalho (@alexdc) November 18, 2006
Derek Featherstone posted the first link on Twitter in December 2006. It’s not clickable now.
is amazed at Grant Hutchinson's Newton Server: http://66.18.227.240:8080/ — Derek Featherstone (@feather) December 4, 2006
Gina Dwyer holds the distinction of being the first person to use the word “selfie” in a tweet — this happened in March 2007.
new selfie on flickr: http://tinyurl.com/yt3btfyay :) — Gina Dwyer (@rockergina) March 19, 2007
First mention of Justin Bieber? August 2008.
@asherroth man… that Justin Bieber kid is fire… — Brandon D (@BDray) August 9, 2008
That’s just a sample of the stuff you’ll find on the #TwitterFirsts hashtag.
And here’s a hint for brands: Go find the first person to mention your company positively on Twitter and reward him/her handsomely. With that in mind, here are a couple #TwitterFirsts I was curious to find:
First mention of Marketing Land? Nareg Kirkian tweeting a link to our blog post announcing the switch from Sphinn to Marketing Land. Thanks, Nareg!
Goodbye Sphinn … Hello Marketing Land! http://t.co/EGSQO0kJ #SMM #SEM #SEO — Nareg Kirkian Նարեկ (@NaregKirkian) November 11, 2011
The first mention of our sister site, Search Engine Land, was a tweet from Techmeme in March 2007. Thanks, Techmeme!
Google Warning Against Letting Your Search Results Get Indexed (Danny Sullivan/Search Engine Land) http://tinyurl.com/yut7ab — Techmeme (@Techmeme) March 12, 2007
If you want to find some first tweets of your own, go to Twitter’s advanced search page, put in your keyword(s) and use the date range search options to go back in time.
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