Six Degrees

Six Degrees, launched in 1997, was the first recognizable social networking site that allowed users to create profiles, list friends, and browse friends-of-friends networks, directly implementing the "six degrees of separation" theory. The platform combined profile creation with network visualization, enabling users to see how they connected to others through their social graph.

Why Six Degrees Matters

Six Degrees proved the commercial concept of social networking by demonstrating user demand for digital relationship mapping and social discovery, laying the groundwork for all subsequent social platforms. Despite closing in 2001 due to limited internet adoption and slow dial-up connections, it established the fundamental social networking features that Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook would later scale successfully.