My First Follow
What follows is a quick little thing I wrote up on Christmas day ‘08 that shows you who your first follow was on Twitter. I’m not currently sure how accurate it is, but it’s been right for a few people. There are a couple notes:
- You must be logged in to Twitter
- It will only show who your first follow was if you are still following them
Update: Fortunately, Twitter updated the API and I can no longer determine who you are automatically. Why is this a good thing? Because it was a privacy leak and any site you visited could have determined your twitter username. While not a huge issue, we should be able to make choices on the Internet as to who we give out such personally identifying information to.
Yet Another Update: Twitter went and changed their API again, pretty much completely breaking the ability to (easily) retrieve the beginning of your friends and/or followers. I’ll take a look soon and see if it’s something easily overcome. 
— @dacort
Form removed until a workaround is found after some Twitter changes
You may also be interested in my other Twitter creations, TweetStats and my DM Whacker.
Enjoy.
As I said on Twitter, very cool!
December 25th, 2008 at 7:27 pm[...] Cort brings us another fun and interesting Twitter tool – First Follower. First follower shows you the first person you followed on Twitter that you are still [...]
December 25th, 2008 at 7:57 pmVery cool new twitter tool. What a gift you have!
December 25th, 2008 at 8:33 pm[...] first person you ever followed could be determined very easily. A few hours later and I tossed up My First Follow, an application that shows who your first friend on Twitter was. Ah, [...]
December 25th, 2008 at 9:42 pmfunny trivia fact: your and mine first follow seem to be the same.
December 26th, 2008 at 4:04 amRe: “Hi, @xxx. Your first follow (that you still follow”
–> How do you know who I am? Reading Cookies?
December 26th, 2008 at 7:53 amwow… nice feature. thanks a lot
December 26th, 2008 at 8:08 amsehr cool, dann gibt es bald einen Twitter-Stammbaum
December 26th, 2008 at 9:34 am[...] Twitter genutzt hat, wird über diesen Satz gestolpert sein. Es handelt sich dabei lediglich um eine kleine Applikation, welche anzeigt, wem man bei Twitter als Erstes gefolgt ist. Eine kleine, nette Spielerei, der sich [...]
December 26th, 2008 at 10:30 amFun tool. Cool result for me.
December 26th, 2008 at 1:52 pmI’m sure that this tool will become more popular as more people join Twitter
Thanks for sharing.
@mr_gadget
December 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm[...] Cute little feature – find out who was your “First Tweet” on Twitter (I couldn’t remember that long ago, can you?) http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ [...]
December 26th, 2008 at 8:48 pmOh noes! My first follow was @chrisbrogan! How’d that happen? Must have met him from podcasting space or something….
December 26th, 2008 at 8:58 pm[...] DCortesi . blog » My First Follow [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 12:01 amAnd my first follow was @sizemore. Good choice when you consider all the people I met as a result of tweetups he organised and such.
December 27th, 2008 at 12:45 amMy first follow was @chatterboxpr. It was by accident as I was just clicking buttons attempting to figure out what was what with Twitter. Since Chatterbox is a PR Company that I’m familiar with I figured it couldn’t hurt to follow and learn how this Twitterville thing worked.
“THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE!”
December 27th, 2008 at 2:28 am-JaWar, Motivational Speaker/Author/Business Consultant
This is such a great tool my man!
December 27th, 2008 at 2:53 amCool but frightening that you can figure out who I am just by reading my cookies – time to disable those pesky things
December 27th, 2008 at 6:24 am[...] wrote up on Christmas day ‘08 ‘My First Follow’ a quick little thing that shows you who your first follow was on Twitter. Already this little [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 6:49 amAs always, another great Twitter tool. Great job! Nice holiday treat.
December 27th, 2008 at 7:36 amVery well done!
December 27th, 2008 at 7:46 amDamon, this is very fun. Thanks for building and sharing!
December 27th, 2008 at 7:56 amAwesome! You are brilliant, kiddo.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:13 am[...] first person @zssz followed was @JasonCalacanis. http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ #firstfollow « előző | Zsombor Szabó — 2008. 12. 27. [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 8:23 amNice. Thanks for sharing.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am[...] have a great twitter tool, My First Follow, wherein you will be able to remember who was the twitter user you have first followed. The tool [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 8:30 amfunny tool
December 27th, 2008 at 9:48 amThis is a bit unsettling. It feels like Big Brother watching. What is the value of this info.?
December 27th, 2008 at 9:49 amFun! Brings back fond memories of discovering Twitter during SXSW 2007! My first follow was @sxsw Nice hack!
December 27th, 2008 at 10:02 amGreat tool!
December 27th, 2008 at 10:08 am[...] My first follow – On this website you can find out who your first follow was on Twitter. [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 10:13 amBrilliant, I sense a Viral upstart with this!
December 27th, 2008 at 10:17 amvery nice tool!
I would like know too the date of my first tweet or when I join to Twitter. can you say?
thanks
December 27th, 2008 at 10:34 amGreat!!
December 27th, 2008 at 11:12 amPretty cool thanks
December 27th, 2008 at 11:38 am[...] Et le grand gagnant qui, je n’en doute pas, est très fier de l’apprendre aujourd’hui, c’est Cédric giorgi (@cgiorgi de son twitterprénom) ! Et pour le découvrir, il faut être connecté et se rendre à cette adresse… [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 2:15 pmNice Job! I didn’t have a clue who it would be, but I’m not surprised at all. It’s very fitting actually, because he was going on and on about it for over a year before I reluctantly joined. At first, I thought it was the silliest thing I had heard of. But, I seemed to have an endless curiosity to learn more about it. I’m glad I finally gave in; Thanks to @Scobleizer.
December 27th, 2008 at 2:59 pmoh, i didn’t even know you had a little program for that. cool. and i guessed right! sooo much has happened since!
thanks for putting this together!
December 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pmThanks for all the comments, folks! To answer a couple questions:
1. (NatalieDG) No value, it’s just fun to see who you first followed on Twitter.
2. (Pankaj and seb) re: How I do this. I’m not actually reading cookies, but I do make use of the fact that you’re already logged in to Twitter. The API allows you to access some information and combined with a quirk in how Twitter stores friend information, it is possible to determine who you first followed.
3. (Daniel) Depending on how many tweets you have made, my other site (TweetStats) will be able to show when you first joined Twitter. It can’t go back further than 3,200 tweets, though, as Twitter currently limits access to people’s archives.
Thanks again!
December 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pmThanks for sharing-Fun..
December 27th, 2008 at 3:57 pmStastistics are yummie!! Thanks and keep’em coming!
December 27th, 2008 at 4:01 pmNice app, better stats
Grtz from Athens, GR and χρόνια πολλά!
December 28th, 2008 at 4:55 am[...] My First Follow Very quick, simple and straightforward, check out who you first followed on Twitter. (http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/) [...]
December 28th, 2008 at 10:11 amNice, thanks. Is good tools for some of us.
December 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pmI’ve played with this a bit and created a GraphViz based image of the first follows of many tweeters that I’m interested in. I’ll be writing more about this later.
http://ad.vu/su28
December 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm[...] foi a primeira pessoa que te seguiu ? Bom isto é possível graças a este site. Entre e descubra! http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ « [...]
December 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pmThis was actually cool. I was surprised and yet it also made sense. My first follow. I respected the, shall I say, savvyness of this tiwitter-er. latourelle
December 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pmAnd, also, i do not mind that you could find this out for me. {I’m not afraid of my cookies} I heart my cookies.
[...] Apps « Tweetwasters My First Follow December 29, 2008 My First Follow – Find out who you followed first on Twitter. Note that you need to be logged in to Twitter (but [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 4:27 am[...] lembrar quem foi o seu primeiro seguido no twitter? December 29th, 2008 Então vá para http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ (deve estar logado no Twitter já, em outra aba do seu browser) e vai aparecer para quem foi seu [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 4:38 amGreat fun! I’m really new to Twitter so I’m still figuring this stuff out. Is there a similar #lastfollow sort of scriptlet that’ll show the most recent “follow” on Twitter?
December 29th, 2008 at 8:35 amHi Rob,
If you just go to http://twitter.com/friends Twitter orders that in the order that you followed people. That little quirk is ultimately how I was able to figure out the #firstfollow.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:40 amHah! I’d seen a bunch of people tweeting about this, but just realized YOU were behind it. Should have known.
Wish you guys were here at 25C3!
December 29th, 2008 at 11:27 am[...] aqui e descubra, o meu primeiro seguido foi o @renefraga [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 11:38 amDamon – this is very cool. Before I took a second look and found out that you had already done my work for me, I went all the way back in my Twitter followers to check who I followed first (kind of hard to remember 3,500+ people later).
Thanks for the memories!
December 29th, 2008 at 3:38 pmBest,
Aaron | @astrout
[...] My First Follow (EN) [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 4:34 pm[...] DCortesi . blog » My First Follow Find out who your first follow was! (tags: tools followers username authentication web2.0 javascript tool friends twitter-tools follow herramientas app api online json twitter follower first) [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 5:02 pm[...] la atención estas herramientas para twitter, me gustan. En este caso les cuento que existe “FirstFollow“, es muy sencillo, te dice quién fue la primera persona a la cual seguiste, y después, como [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 8:10 pmVery interesting tool.Definitely adds a lot of value when its been a yr since you joined twitter and follow hundreds.
Cheers to you for this.
December 29th, 2008 at 8:39 pmVaibhav
Nice one.
December 29th, 2008 at 8:40 pmYOu accessed my cookies ???!!!!
This is a pretty cool tool.. I am amazed at all the tweet tools out there… Fantastic..
December 29th, 2008 at 9:04 pm[...] lo podremos hacer gracias a un sencillo servicio web llamado My first follow, y lo único que hay que hacer es entrar estando previamente logueado en twitter, y te indicarán [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 12:01 amThis is a lot of fun to see everyones comments daily. Thanks Virualjsn.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:46 am> How do you know who I am? Reading Cookies?
Actually, it seems that nothing is sent to the blog server, all happens via JavaScript here: http://dcortesi.com/tfollow.js. So “he” doesn’t really know who “you” or “me” are, Twitter info is just fetched locally by the browser and displayed on the page.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:25 amFascinating! Thanks for sharing. I notice if you keep following the trail of #firstfollows you get to some core influencers pretty quickly…but then you hit a mutual admiration society (two people who followed each other first) and after that it just loops back and forth. Still, very cool mini-app!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:26 amHey.. this is pretty cool. The first person I followed doesnt even post anymore. Passing along the app. Thanks
December 30th, 2008 at 10:07 amthanks, it’s interesting!
December 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am[...] December 30, 2008 · No Comments Today, I ran across this interesting twitter tool from dcortesi.com: My-First-Follow. [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 11:28 amThat is so cool! My first follow was not who I thought it was.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pm[...] 上次我们介绍了『MyTweet16』，它能帮您很快就找回自己在twitter上的第一条更新；那么，您还记得您再twitter上follow的第一个人是谁吗？这里给您介绍『MyFirstFollow』。 [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 2:08 pmGET OUT OF MY HEAD!! AAAHH!
December 30th, 2008 at 6:20 pmHey Damon – lovely idea, but unfortunately I think the underlying assumption may be wrong – at least, it is for me. I’m looking through my following list on twitter.com and it’s definitely *not* in correct adding order. (I joined Twitter in November 2006, username yoz)
December 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pmNice tools. Happy twitter.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:27 pmEhhhhhxcellent. Now I, er, we can take over. OH, WAIT -you don’t follow me yet? Do people besides ME know about this technology? @dacort
December 31st, 2008 at 5:48 am[...] have a great twitter tool, My First Follow, wherein you will be able to remember who was the twitter user you have first followed. The tool [...]
December 31st, 2008 at 6:19 am[...] 3 URL(s), 319 users: http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 2:54 pm[...] 2 URL(s), 120 users: http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm[...] DCortesi . blog » My First Follow [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm[...] I came across a couple of tweets the other day from friends who said I was their first follow. The tweets were being generated by a nifty little service that searches your Twitter history to see who you followed first called My First Follow. [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:07 pm[...] My First Follow: What follows is a quick little thing I wrote up on Christmas day ‘08 that shows you who your [...]
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm[...] ce qui me concerne, ce fût baptisteblog. Pour visualiser le votre, c’est ici. Sympa également, je vous invite à découvrir “19 Handy Twitter Mashups and [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 11:00 pm[...] be still following that person, otherwise it will show the next person you followed. Head over to My First Follow page & find out whom you followed first on [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 3:11 amMore accurately, it’s the first person you followed CONTINUOUSLY. If I leave my first follow and then re-follow them, I still have a new first follow.
(So I’m pretty sure my first was really @scobelizer since he showed me Twitter, but I couldn’t keep up with his volume for a while, so it became @missrogue, but I left/re-followed her as an experiment and now see that it has become @pascale)
January 7th, 2009 at 1:28 pm[...] Check out the My First Follow tool here. [...]
January 8th, 2009 at 1:30 am[...] DCortesi . blog » My First Follow Find out who you first followed. (tags: twitter tools) [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 11:08 pmIs your security Update still accurate. Seems like this page demonstrates accessing the current twitter user ID w/o the user’s permission by using cross-site scripting.
http://faves.com/users/mike/dot/137655853630
January 10th, 2009 at 9:59 pmMike,
When called from this site, a request for Basic Auth for the Twitter API is displayed. Interesting that it’s not the case when request the method directly, though.
I hope the fix wasn’t checking for a referer…
January 10th, 2009 at 10:24 pm[...] now you can certainly give an answer to this tricky question as well. Thanks to DCortesi’s My First Follow. The tool gave an accurate answer for me. I still remember joining Twitter around the Barcamp [...]
January 16th, 2009 at 6:32 pm[...] My First Follow – Just put in your username and share with your twitter friends who you first followed. [...]
January 17th, 2009 at 9:08 pm[...] there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.My First Follow is a simple script that shows who you first followed when you created your Twitter [...]
January 24th, 2009 at 10:53 pm@jonlyles
Great tool. I totally forgot who my first follow was. Kudos.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:45 pmJon Lyles
[...] dabbling you more, coming to the point. There’s a tool developed by DCortesi using which you can figure out whom did you (or your friends) follow first on twitter. Just visit [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 12:30 am[...] My First Follow Solo sirve para saber a qué persona followeaste primero… curioso al menos. [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 4:58 pm[...] My First Follow – This application will tell you who you first followed on Twitter. I’m not sure what this shows you, but people do seem to use it! [...]
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 am*Blush* “adbert@cluckhoff Hello! Did you know? YOU was my first follow. I made a good first choice, Catherine!
http://bit.ly/3Iy19” – Thanks 
February 27th, 2009 at 2:20 am[...] My First Follow – This application will tell you who you first followed on Twitter. [...]
March 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am[...] My First Follow – Find out who you followed first on Twitter. Note that you need to be logged in to Twitter (but when are you ever not logged in, huh?) [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm[...] My First Follow: Shows you who your first follow was on Twitter. [...]
April 15th, 2009 at 4:53 pm[...] the number of tweets per hour and per month); TweepSearch (searches followers’ bio information) and My First Follow (shows your first Twitter follower.)And then there’s Tweetsum, which got huge laughs when it was [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 7:50 am[...] of tweets per hour and per month); TweepSearch (searches followers’ bio information) and My First Follow (shows your first Twitter [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 12:02 pm[...] My First Follow – Find out who you followed first on Twitter. Note that you need to be logged in to Twitter (but when are you ever not logged in, huh?) [...]
April 21st, 2009 at 6:23 pmThis is killer, thanks for the post!
May 1st, 2009 at 8:58 am[...] Bueno, hoy en Sitio Geek me encuentro con otra herramienta para renovar la nostalgia por los primeros días del “¿Qué estás haciendo?”: My First Follow. [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 9:50 am[...] ¿Quién fué la primera persona que seguiste en Twitter?dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/ por Jonarano hace pocos segundos [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 2:07 pmHi:
My Twitter user is “wizard”, I added and the first nine are good but the tenth is the last I added (today): not corresponding to one tenth added in 2006. Any logical reason?, Can you fix it?
Thank you, Good tool!
May 4th, 2009 at 2:44 pm[...] My First Follow ti dice qual’è la prima persona che hai seguito in Twitter quando hai iniziato ad usare il famoso servizio microblogging. [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 11:32 pm[...] My First Follow est un service une bidouille qui permet de voir qui sont les personnes qu’on a suivi en premier. C’est légèrement inutile mais, ça m’a permit un peu de voir ce qu’avaient suivi quelques gros utilisateurs de twitter. [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 10:50 am[...] vez mais aparecem scripts legais para interagir com o Twitter, a bola da vez é My First Follow. Ele lhe mostra qual foi o seu primeiro Follow e também uma lista com os seus 10 primeiros [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm[...] My First Follow es un sitio web con el cual puedes sentir esa nostalgia de tus primeros pasos en Twitter, sólo con ingresar tu usuario te mostrará quien fue la primera persona a la que seguiste. [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 7:57 pmHello! Great and simple script! Congratulations!
I did my own version here: http://twittas.com/first/
and added “inspired by” link to here, hope you don’t mind.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:50 amCheers from Portugal
[...] De aici – link [...]
May 7th, 2009 at 12:51 am[...] My First Follow [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 5:17 am[...] My First Follow – Pega os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir. (busca e análise) [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 6:15 am[...] Para saber os seus, vá até este endereço My First Follow [...]
May 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am[...] My First Follow – This application will tell you who you first followed on Twitter. I’m not sure what this shows you, but people do seem to use it! [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 7:30 am[...] SEGUIDORES: qtwitter, friend or follow, less friends, twitoria, new follow notify, does follow, twiterless, twitblocker, untweeps, tweepdiff, who follows whom, tweetergetter, aumentar seguidores, tweet penguim, tweet-rank, twittersnooze, twitRand, my first follow [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 2:33 pm[...] a questão que faz as vezes de nome: desde quando você está no Twitter? Da mesma forma, o My First Follow indica quais foram os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir assim que entrou no [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 8:01 pm[...] ¿Quiénes fueron las primeras personas a las que seguiste? [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 9:43 amQuero conhecer o twiter
May 28th, 2009 at 2:04 am[...] ¿Quiénes fueron las primeras personas a las que seguiste? [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 am[...] see them right in your stream without having to click through every link your friends post. 29. My First Follow Find out who you followed first on Twitter. Note that you need to be logged in to Twitter (but when [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am[...] a questão que faz as vezes de nome: desde quando você está no Twitter? Da mesma forma, o My First Follow indica quais foram os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir assim que entrou no [...]
July 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm[...] a questão que faz as vezes de nome: desde quando você está no Twitter? Da mesma forma, o My First Follow indica quais foram os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir assim que entrou no [...]
July 19th, 2009 at 7:54 pm[...] My First Follow – Pega os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir [...]
July 21st, 2009 at 5:46 am[...] a questão que faz as vezes de nome: desde quando você está no Twitter? Da mesma forma, o My First Follow indica quais foram os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir assim que entrou no [...]
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 am[...] 1 – My First Follow [...]
July 27th, 2009 at 3:01 pm[...] a questão que faz as vezes de nome: desde quando você está no Twitter? Da mesma forma, o My First Follow indica quais foram os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir assim que entrou no [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 4:51 am[...] quem tem a memoria fraca é que existe o “My First Follow” ele simplesmente informa qual foi a primeira pessoa que você começou a [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 3:16 pm[...] 3) Le followfriday NOSTALGIE : faites le #followfriday avec les premières personnes que vous avez suivies. Pour cela allez sur My-first-follow [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 11:56 amMy first follow was @chatterboxpr. It was by accident as I was just clicking buttons attempting to figure out what was what with Twitter. Since Chatterbox is a PR Company that I’m familiar with I figured it couldn’t hurt to follow and learn how this Twitterville thing worked.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:54 am[...] My First Follow – Script to quickly tell you who first followed you. [...]
September 8th, 2009 at 11:45 pm[...] My First Follow – Ferramenta de twitter para descobrir quem foi eu primeiro [...]
October 6th, 2009 at 7:20 am[...] My First Follow – Ferramenta de twitter para descobrir quem foi eu primeiro [...]
October 18th, 2009 at 2:11 pmHi
October 28th, 2009 at 1:35 amI’m from Russia and I made service for Twitter: http://firstfollower.com (same functional as you done, but with funny phrases to tweet.
In Russia this is popular service: http://bit.ly/info/ffollower
I want do it for USA, maybe you can help me?) I don’t know english so much as I need.
[...] My First Follow – Pega os 10 primeiros perfis que você começou a seguir. (Busca e [...]
October 29th, 2009 at 9:24 am[...] via DCortesi . blog » My First Follow. [...]
October 31st, 2009 at 2:28 am[...] 42) My First Follow – Ferramenta de twitter para descobrir quem foi eu primeiro seguidor. [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 5:09 am[...] My First Follow – Ferramenta de twitter para descobrir quem foi eu primeiro [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 6:36 amNo, This doesn’t work correctly.
If you try it once, then hit the back button and try it again, it shows somebody else.
You’re just trying to get hits be creating an app that doesn’t even work properly….You must be desperate.
January 9th, 2010 at 6:16 pmKyle,
If you actually read the text above the submit button, you would know that Twitter changed their API and this doesn’t work properly anymore.
Thanks for stopping by, though.
January 10th, 2010 at 4:16 pm[...] now that you have know who was your first follower , you might also want to know, whom your followed first on twitter. But this app will only show the first person whom you are still following from the very [...]
January 18th, 2010 at 9:41 am