Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Image from the Irisheyes photostream | 99 words
WHEN TWITTER WAS ONE year old, nobody in Ireland was using a mobile Twitter client. The most popular cameraphone on Flickr was the Sony Ericsson K800i (like the one in the shot browsing my newsfeeds).
Irish blogging was one year away from its all-time peak. More new cars were sold in Ireland during the first quarter of Twitter's life than in the entire calendar year 2009. Back in 2006, the first year of Twitter's public existence, more people in Ireland used Jaiku (now totally wrapped up) than used Twitter and a lot of the fast-breaking news emerged on Boards.ie. I had fewer than 10 Irish friends on Facebook back in 2006 because only a handful of clever people knew how to get .edu email addresses while living in Ireland. My iPod weighed more than my 2006 phones. Nobody used apps, Internet Explorer was the default browser for most companies, and Google was doing no evil (as well as doing no maps). Hipsters (not even a word in 2006) used widgets but common people compared their ringtones . The road warriors I knew had clever mobile web page work-arounds because nothing downloaded fast while on the road since you couldn't find a free and open public wifi spot that served coffee. Our email didn't sync. Working mail on the road meant downloading headers only via the wireless modem connectivity that charged you by the minute. In six short years, the internet has well and truly moved into our pockets and purses. I would not have made a five-year long bet that would have predicted the kind of phone I'm using today.
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