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  1. Gallery

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    On the seventh birthday of the earliest version of Twitter we’ve been taking a look at our coverage of the platform as it started to emerge. The earliest article we can find which mentions Twitter is on a Comment is Free piece on 28 November 2006 by  where he writes amusingly:

    For the ultimate in solipsism, check out twitter.com, a site where you can answer the question, “What are you doing?” At 7:47 am on Monday, for example, Lynda was going to get a glass of cold water. This raises more questions. Did she get it? Was it cold enough? Tragically, we won’t know until someone starts a site about what you were doing before what you’re doing now. Or a site about what you are going to do after you finish what you’re doing now. There could be multiple options. People could vote. Someone call Google. We’re rich! 

    Then there’s the Bobbie Johnson piece pictured above comparing Twitter to MySpace written on 16 March 2007 and this piece Bobbie wrote just the day before on 15 March 2007 has another smirk-inducing quote:

    The rapid-fire model may be superseded when internet access become ubiquitous, but right now Twitterers have found that a quick text message does the trick for them. It’s even been the medium of choice for some breaking news announcements.

    If only we had known back then what we do now…

  2. Tony Nicklinson, locked-in syndrome sufferer, has died

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    Tony died six days after the failure of his high court bid to be allowed to end his life with the help of a doctor.

    In June, he used Twitter to speak with readers and Observer journalist Elizabeth Day about his life, his hopes and living with locked-in syndrome.

  3. Quote

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    The physical and mental effort involved is exhausting. To select a single letter from the computer screen, Tony must look at it, then blink. It is a process with obvious limitations: the technology is sensitive and will occasionally throw up the wrong letter and Tony has to start again. The most exasperating thing is how slow it all is. In his former life, he used to enjoy a good conversational ruck and the satisfaction of a perfectly pitched punch line. Elizabeth Day speaks to Tony Nicklinson, who has locked-in syndrome, about communicating with the world via Twitter and his right to die campaign

  5. Quote

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    Twitter is like – it’s like I blinked into existence. I’ve been writing comedy for 20 years, but I only got invited on to Have I Got News For You” – which has been going for 22 years – “six months ago. It’s because suddenly I existed for a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have known me. Twitter has made me – it’s not only brought me out as an individual, but people don’t ask me about priests any more, people don’t ask me about Ireland – two things that are a part of my life, but priests are not a big part of my life. It’s been great to be able to talk about different things because of Twitter. Graham Linehan, the IT Crowd and Father Ted writer, talks about social networks, internet distractions and why so-called pirates are really fans

  6. John Prescott on Twitter’s 10m milestone

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    Life is tweet, says the UK’s former deputy prime minister John Prescott, as the number of people in the UK using Twitter reaches 10 million:

    Twitter is OUR media, the public have become the news editors and the Twitter trend list is the running order.

    It’s given me a voice and a connection to millions of people that the distorted prism of the mainstream media denied.

  7. Can’t tweet this

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    So MC Hammer tweeted about our new ad:

    And we got a little excited:

    He doesn’t auto follow folks.

    (Source: twitter.com)

  8. Occupy: Cardiff group march against the death of protest

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    Steven Morris tweets from the trial in Cardiff of two men arrested after trying to set up an Occupy camp in Cardiff castle. Read a letter to the guardian from those opposing the action here. Here’s an extract:

    As trade unionists, elected representatives, lawyers and campaigners, we feel that the 11 November police action constitutes an attack on the right to peacefully protest. Furthermore, the subsequent CPS decision to prosecute, far from serving any public interest, endangers free expression and risks chilling democracy. We call for the charges against Eric and Jason to be dropped. We also call on South Wales Constabulary to act responsibly when called on to “police” protest.

  10. Wendi Deng joins husband Rupert Murdoch on Twitter

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    Wendi Deng joins Twitter - following in the footsteps of Rupert Murdoch.

    Update - seems the real Wendi isn’t tweeting just yet…

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A selection of stories, photos, quotes, video and audio from guardian.co.uk, curated by James Walsh, Hannah Waldram, Carmen Fishwick and the Guardian's editorial team. We are also editors of the news tag.

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