Twitter turns 8: Five tech kingpins whose first tweets are UNBELIEVABLE

Unbelievably dull, that is ... like some of our hacks', admittedly

Twitter celebrated its eighth birthday today, and has provided a tool to help tweeters pull up their first ever tweet.

"In 2006, people began to say a little something on Twitter through 140-character bursts of plain text," the newly IPO'd company said in a blog post.

"Eight years later, our users have transformed Twitter into place where you can discover new ideas, make real human connections and express yourself freely. So as we mark our 8th birthday, we’d like to say thank you — to you."

The tool saves users the tedious chore of scrolling down endlessly to find out what they first said. Based on a quick straw poll of journalists in El Reg's San Francisco bureau, the prevailing theme seems to be along the lines of "Right, so this is Twitter, eh.." although our official Twitter feed @TheRegister was slightly more surreal:

Squwack!

— The Register (@TheRegister) September 28, 2009

Twitter also mentions some first tweets by notable celebrities and site co-founder Jack Dorsey – who posted the rather uninspiring message on March 26, 2006 of "just setting up my twttr."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron's first tweet was posted on October 6 2012, showing how down he is with the new technology. His message was: "I'm starting Conference with this new Twitter feed about my role as Conservative Leader. I promise there won't be 'too many tweets...' – a promise he, or his staff, has since gone back on as he's now posting several times a day.

US President Barack Obama was way ahead of Call Me Dave, tweeting in 2007 before he was elected leader of the free world: "Thinking we're only one signature away from ending the war in Iraq."

As for tech giant bosses, the good news is that their first tweets were as dull as ours and possibly yours:

"Hello World." Hard at work on my foundation letter - publishing on 1/25.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) January 19, 2010

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria on Nov 29th, starts around minute 17; Fareed is a very good interviewer http://bit.ly/6GwGjn

— Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) December 7, 2009

Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 20, 2013

machine learning!

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) February 11, 2009

Learning about twitter

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 1, 2009

Although the Woz's was a little better:

Rare massage (for me), then dance practice. No pain, no gain. Awkward but fun, this dancing. I still can't do Macarena.

— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) March 7, 2009

Finally, Pope Francis waited four days after his election to the role before tweeting on the papal @Pontifex stream set up by his predecessor with a simple, well punctuated message: "Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me. Pope Francis." ®