What Happened to AIM? It Ended on December 15, 2017
Twenty years, then a date. The away message was a broadcast medium before there were any,…
What Happened to Delicious? Bought Four Times, Then Frozen
Pinboard's owner bought Delicious in 2017 and put it into read-only mode. Saving links stopped being…
What Happened to StumbleUpon? Nothing Replaced the Button
A button that sent you somewhere you had not asked for. The reason nothing has replaced…
What Happened to Digg? Did Reddit Kill It, or Did Digg?
A redesign the users rejected, on a site whose entire value was the users' judgment. That…
What Happened to Friendster? Being First Was the Problem
It had the lead and lost it, then became a games site, then closed. The most…
Failed Facebook Alternatives: Ello, Path and the Wave
Ello, Path, Diaspora and App.net all promised a better Facebook. What happened to each, with dates,…
What Happened to MSN Messenger? Two Migrations, One Dead End
Microsoft moved Messenger users to Skype in 2012. Skype was retired on May 5, 2025. The…
What Happened to Google Reader? The Announcement, Read Again
Google retired Reader on July 1, 2013. The announcement was item five of eight in a…
What Happened to Orkut? Brazil, India, and 2014
Orkut closed on September 30, 2014. The sourced timeline of why Google's first social network died…