Stop Calling Me! Trivia Quiz

Answer: ICQ

ICQ ("I Seek You") was developed by an Israeli company named Mirabilis. Released in 1996, it was the first centralized instant messenger service on the internet. When it was first released to the public, ICQ was free to download and completely advertising free. Users were assigned a sequential UIN (user identification number) upon registration and as ICQ's populalrity grew, having a low UIN became cause for bragging rights.

AOL purchased Mirabilis in 1998 and successfully patented ICQ. By 2010 the instant messaging client arena had fierce competition, including AOL's own AIM. This prompted AOL to sell ICQ to Digital Sky Technologies (now known as Mail.ru).

ICQs popularity in the US dropped significantly, but it remains popular in Russia and Europe.

Answer: Facebook

Created in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is a hugely popular social media platform. Originally intended to be available to only Harvard students, Facebook then expanded to other Boston and Ivy League schools and finally to anyone aged 13 and older. Interestingly, Facebook's primarily blue color scheme is due to the fact that Zuckerberg is red/green colorblind.

The impact Facebook has made is phenomenal - both positive and negative. On the plus side, it's helped reunite families and friends, and brings together like-minded groups of people that has factored into positive political and social change.

On the down side, various studies of the social and emotional impact of Facebook concluded that an alarming one third of users feel worse about their lives after spending time on Facebook. Additionally, feelings of rejection were noted in users who were 'unfriended'. Another study determined that college students' emotions were negatively impacted after an increased time on Facebook.

Answer: Twitter

Launched in July of 2006, Twitter allows users to post messages, "tweets", that are limited to 140 characters, although at the time of this writing Twitter is testing a 280 character limit.

Essentially conceived to be an online short message service (SMS), or microblog, Co-founder Jack Dorsey explains the name 'Twitter': "..we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was."

Answer: Pinterest

The original concept behind Pinterest was a platform that would allow users to gather information from the internet, saving images to different 'boards' and categorizing them how they liked. The 'red and white' clue is reference to Pinterest's red and white logo.

Launched in March 2010, Pinterest's growth was extremely slow. At the four month mark they only had a few thousand users, compared to Instagram's one million.

The release of an iPhone app in March 2011, a year after its launch, finally generated the interest and growth Pinterest was looking for. It was that same year that "Time" magazine named Pinterest one of the "50 Best Websites of 2011".

Interestingly, studies revealed that Pinterest is a better platform for businesses than Facebook. Potential shoppers spent more time on a business's Pinterest page and shoppers driven to a company by Pinterest spent over 100% more on their purchases than those who arrived via Facebook.

Answer: Snapchat

Launched in 2011 as an iOS-only app, Snapchat started out as a class project by three Stanford students. Originally the concept was peer to peer sharing of pictures and messages that were self-deleting after a short time.

It was later revisions that added video chat, the ability to send short videos, and the "My Story" feature which allowed users to create photo timelines that friends could access.

Snapchat had 166 million users as of May 2017.

Answer: Vine

Bought by Twitter before its release in early 2013, Vine allowed users to create, upload, and view six-second looping videos. Originally only available for iOS devices, versions were later released for Android, Windows phone, and Xbox One.

Effectively discontinued in early 2017, Vine became "Vine Camera" which still allows the creation of videos, but users can only upload them to Twitter or save them to their phone.

Answer: Skype

Skype is a robust telecommunications platform that allows users to voice chat, video chat, send and receive files, group chat, instant message, as well as make calls to and receive calls from landlines. The name 'Skype' is a shortened version of 'Sky peer-to-peer'.

Developed by Estonians, two years after its release it was purchased by eBay, and two years after that, acquired by Microsoft for a whopping $8.5 billion.

Skype's Online Number service allows users to have a 'local' number regardless of their geographic location.

Answer: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform. Users can post resumes and create professional connections. Job seekers and employers also use the platform to find a good match.

Founded in 2002, LinkedIn was purchased by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.4 billion and had 500 million users in April 2017.

Answer: Tinder

Conceptually designed to be a simple social chat service connecting people who wouldn't normally meet, Tinder quickly grew into a hugely popular dating application.

Tinder utilizes Facebook and Spotify profiles to create matches and is also the first app to use 'swiping'. Another interesting feature is its double opt-in system, in which both users need to 'swipe right' for the match to be made.

Since its launch in 2012, Tinder has offered numerous new services, including Tinder Boost (user gets top profile for 30 minutes), Instagram integration, and Tinder Gold - its premium service.

Answer: YouTube

Created by three former PayPal employees, YouTube is a video sharing site that allows users to upload, view, comment on, subscribe to, and share videos. The very first video posted (by one of the creators), was 'Me at the Zoo'. The video is still available on YouTube.

Founded in 2005, the idea for YouTube was born when one of the creators was frustrated by the difficulty he had finding video clips on the internet of events - such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. One centralized location for people and organizations to post videos seemed the perfect solution.

Since its inception, YouTube has offered YouTube Kids, premium service YouTube Red, and YouTube Gaming.

Gooogle purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.