The Early Social Networks

My first involvement with online services was in 1986. I had just purchased a Leading Edge Model D (so that I could learn about the kinds of things one might do with a personal computer). I signed up as a member of Prodigy, launched a couple of years earlier by CBS, IBM, and Sears. The underlying premise of Prodigy was that advertisers—attracted by members—would play a key role in the business success of what was called the first “consumer online service.” On the typical Prodigy page, the lower one-third of the screen was devoted to ads. These ads—more or less untargeted by today’s standards—were nonetheless a significant ....individual