From “What are you doing?”
to “Happening now”

Our first capture, from December 30, 2006, has the word twitter in pale blue bubble letters at the top left. Under it: A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? On the right, a green box says Please Sign In!, and lower down, Join for Free! It’s fast and easy!

The big white frame under the question held a Flash slide show, slide_show.swf, which we hid for the screenshot. Below it, Recent Public Updates lists three answers from members, sent from the web or by instant messaging. We blurred them; the quotes here come from the capture’s HTML.

The footer reads © 2006 Obvious, with no Twitter in the copyright line. Under the sign-in fields sits a line whose relatives turn up in our captures until 2013: Already use Twitter on your phone? Complete your sign-up. The service was nine months old. Jack Dorsey had posted the first Tweet in March 2006, when it was still called Twttr.^[1][2]

Biz Stone later wrote that he and Jack Dorsey even published our phone numbers on the front page.^[3] None of the captures we picked shows them.

By March 4, 2007, the page sits on a turquoise background patterned with pale round birds, and the question has grown a second sentence: Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web! Under Look at what these people are doing right now… come nine updates.

We blurred them, but the HTML keeps the stamp on each one, how long ago it arrived and where it came from: less than 5 seconds ago from txt, from im, from web, and once from twitterrific. The phone, the messenger and the browser from the question all turn up in the stream.

The phone explains a famous number. Twitter’s 2013 IPO filing traces the 140-character limit to the service’s origins as an SMS-based messaging system.^[4]

The copyright line still says Obvious, and the phone link under the sign-in box is missing from this capture. The very end of the code holds a note for anyone who reads it.

In June 2008 the stream is gone, and Twitter’s homepage explains itself. A white card asks What is Twitter?, with three small tabs, What?, Why? and How?, over a drawing of a bird on a curly branch. The text under it: Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Three press quotes do the selling. Twitter is the telegraph system of Web 2.0. (Nicholas Carr). It's one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet. (New York Times). And from Jeff Barr of Amazon.com, simply: I really like Twitter. By June 2009 Barr and the Times have made room for TIME, Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app., and Wired, Incredibly useful. Carr stays.

The phone link under the sign-in box reads Already using Twitter by SMS or IM? Click here. in 2008, and Already using Twitter from your phone? Click here. in 2009.

Twitter had one more drawing, for when things went wrong. None of our captures shows it.

In June 2009 the browser tab still says Twitter: What are you doing? On November 19, 2009, Twitter changed the question in its posting box to What’s happening? and noted we’ve shortened it by two characters.^[6] Two days later the code of a homepage capture explains its trends: New Moon, the second Twilight movie, was released to theaters Nov. 20.

On June 15, 2010, the homepage opens a window on Twitter. A blue band at the top holds a search box, then Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world, then a row of trending topics: Nintendo 3DS, BOCA GALVÃO, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pretty Little Liars, Vuvuzela, Seleção Brasileira. A green button leads to World Cup 2010. Beside it run Top Tweets, and a box called See who’s here shows 20 small profile pictures. We blurred the grid and one Top Tweet.

The trends come with explanations in the page’s code, hidden on the screenshot. CALA BOCA GALVÃO refers to Galvão Bueno, a Brazilian soccer narrator/commentarist. Kinect is The recently released name for Microsoft's Project Natal, which is a video game system.

In March Twitter had tested this kind of homepage, with top tweets that automatically appear every few seconds.^[7]

The trend list in the code includes #worldcup, and hashtags were a user’s idea. Chris Messina suggested them while the team was fixing an outage. Biz Stone, by his own account, ended the conversation with Sure, we’ll get right on that. He dates the first hashtag Tweet to August 23, 2007.^[3]

Twitter is a rich source of instant information. Stay updated. Keep others updated. It's a whole thing.The “New to Twitter?” box on the June 2010 homepage, above a button that says “Let me in ›”

The phone link has moved into the closed sign-in drop-down. The code still has it: Already using Twitter on your phone?

June 16, 2011: a gray-blue world map with a white headline, Follow your interests, and under it Instant updates from your friends, industry experts, favorite celebrities, and what’s happening around the world. The sign-up form sits beside it with a yellow Sign up button. At the top left, the word twitter now has a small bird after it.

Along the bottom runs a strip of profile pictures. Their alt texts in the code name 30 accounts, from Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Kimmel and NASA JPL to The Economist, Polyvore, the Design Museum and Winnebago Man. In 2007 the page showed strangers’ updates. This strip shows accounts to follow.

The code also holds the next step of the form, hidden until you start typing: We’ve picked a username for you. The phone link is still in the closed sign-in drop-down, renamed: Already using Twitter via SMS?

In June 2012 the homepage turns red. A concert photo fills the left side: stage lights, a dark crowd, one phone held up toward the stage. Over it: Welcome to Twitter. Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about. To the right are two forms, one to sign in and one to sign up.

The capture is from June 16, ten days after Twitter introduced a new bird. At the top left the word twitter is gone, and a small blue bird sits alone. Twitter said the bird was drawn from three sets of overlapping circles and that There’s no longer a need for text, nor for bubbly type or a lowercase t.^[8]

By June 2013 the photo is gone and the red has turned brown. The page is the same sentence and the same two forms. Its code shows how far Twitter had spread: the language selector has 28 options in 2012 and 36 in 2013, counting the selected English. One of the 2013 additions is LOLCATZ.

The phone link survives one last time, in the code of the sign-in menu: Already using Twitter via text message? The 2014 code no longer has it.

June 16, 2014: a soft blue gradient, and in the middle a white card with two smartphones showing Twitter’s app. Welcome to Twitter. The line under it has changed: Start a conversation, explore your interests, and be in the know. Below the phones are badges for the App Store and Google Play and a link, View other devices.

The homepage is selling the app. In the second quarter of 2013, according to Twitter’s IPO filing, 75 percent of its average monthly active users had reached the service from a mobile device.^[4]

The footer has a new Cookies link, and the code still carries the warning first seen in 2013: Twitter.com makes heavy use of browser cookies. Nothing on the page or in its code asks any more whether you already use Twitter on your phone.

In June 2015 the homepage turns into a directory. A green-to-blue header says See what’s happening right now. Below it sit 18 photo tiles, each one a kind of account: Cute Animals, Comedians, Writers & Late-Night Hosts, Country Artists, Space News & Publications, NASCAR Drivers & Teams, High-End Fashion Labels.

The code goes further: 10 groups with 58 subcategories, from WWE wrestlers & personalities to Wedding guides. Each tile names three accounts. Cute animals is featuring Cats, Animal Planet, Baby Animals & more, and the politics tile features The Hill, The First Lady and Sarah Palin.

Five months after this capture, on November 3, 2015, Twitter replaced its favorite star with a heart and started calling favorites likes.^[9] The next capture counts them.

June 16, 2016: the same header, now above a row of tabs, Featured, Sports, News, Music, Entertainment, Lifestyle and More. Under them come Moments, picture stories of the day. The cards’ titles are cut short on the screenshot; in full, in the code, one is EgyptAir wreckage found in Mediterranean, officials confirm and another 15 of the funniest Tweets on the Brexit flotilla. Scroll down and Featured Tweets fill the page, from Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton to Lady Gaga, each with its retweets and likes.

In June 2017 the header is pink, and it asks the posting box’s question: What’s happening? The browser tab now says Twitter. It's what's happening. The Moments are lighter. Their full titles in the code: LeBron has officially gone bald, The humanized versions of SpongeBob & Patrick are deeply unsettling and There is a Kim Jong Un romper and you can buy it.

A yellow strip announces a privacy policy effective June 18th, 2017, three days after the capture. Five months later Twitter raised the limit from 140 to 280 characters, except in Japanese, Korean and Chinese.^[10]

In 2018 the homepage splits in two. On the left, a blue panel with a large pale bird and three lines with icons: Follow your interests., Hear what people are talking about., Join the conversation. On the right, a small bird, See what’s happening in the world right now and Join Twitter today. Our capture is from March 2, 2018.

Signing up starts with Phone or email, and for the phone route the code holds the line that comes next: We will text a verification code to this number. Standard SMS, call, or data fees may apply. In 2007 a text message was one way to post. Here it carries a code to prove the number is yours. One bird on the page is a drawing in the code, with a comment left by the program that made it: Generator: Sketch 45.2.

By June 2019 the phone field is gone, replaced by two buttons, Sign Up and Log in. In July 2019 Twitter launched a new twitter.com for its users, with side navigation and two dark modes, Dim and Lights Out.^[11] A signed-out visitor, like the archive’s crawler, still got the split screen. The June 2020 capture looks identical, and comparing the two captures’ text finds exactly two changes.

In June 2021 the headline shrinks to two words. Next to a collage of torn blue posters printed over and over with WHAT'S HAPPENING, with a white bird on top, two words stand in heavy black type: Happening now. Below: Join Twitter today., Sign up, Log in. A black bar across the bottom begins By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use.

In June 2022 the collage moves to a band under the form, and a small blue bird sits at the top left. A Sign up with Apple button appears above Sign up with phone or email. From 2022 to 2025 our captures render the page as a narrow column at the left. The footer reads © 2022 Twitter, Inc. That spring the company had agreed to a sale to Elon Musk valued at about $44 billion; the deal closed on October 27, 2022.^[12][13]

Our 2023 capture was made at 00:00:16 UTC on July 24, 2023. The page still says Join Twitter today., the bird is still blue at the top left, and the footer still lists Twitter for Business. The copyright line has moved on: © 2023 X Corp. Twitter was rebranded as X that month,^[14] and later on July 24 TechCrunch reported that the X logo was already live on the website (reported).^[15]

Each browser-tab title in our captures, listed at the first capture that shows it after a different one.

March 1, 2024: the same narrow column, with a small black X where the bird was. Happening now, then Join today. The word Twitter is gone from the sentence, from the browser tab and from the footer, which now offers Download the X app and X for Business. The copyright line says © 2024 X Corp.

In May 2024 X moved its core systems to the x.com domain, AFP reported (reported).^[16] Our October 2, 2025 capture adds a Sign up with Google button to the Apple one, Create account turns black, and a new button at the bottom says Get the app. The footer adds a link named Grok.

In March 2026 the page fills the window again. A giant black X takes the left half. On the right: Happening now, Join today., buttons for Google and Apple, a black Create account, and under Sign in one more button, Get Grok. Our capture, requested at twitter.com, is filed by the archive under x.com.

The footer has two links the earlier footers lack, one of them in German: MStV Transparenzangaben and Imprint. The capture doesn’t say where the archive’s crawler was visiting from.

2006 · question2026 · X

◀ ▶

The first capture asked What are you doing? and answered with strangers’ updates, half a minute old. The last one shows no Tweets at all. In place of the question stands a headline, Happening now, and a button to join.

The copyright line at the bottom tells the rest in four steps: © 2006 Obvious, © 2008 Twitter, © 2022 Twitter, Inc. and © 2026 X Corp. In our captures the yellow question appears until 2007, and the browser tab asks it until 2009. The phone link shows up, visible or in the code, until 2013. The bird is last seen at 00:00:16 UTC on July 24, 2023.