In 2007 there were only a few of us on Twitter but the volume of tweets and immense growth in new user registrations was stressing the bird out. It was a tweet like this One from Uno de Waal that sparked the @jfGi twitter bot idea.
@Unodewaal – ask google 🙂
— Rafiq Phi11ips 👐 (@rafiq) August 1, 2007
As more and more people started using twitter, back then twitter was just a chat contact in Google Talk, I noticed more and more of the people I followed asking questions that could be answered by just freaking Googling it. The fewer unnecessary tweets would cause us to see the fail whale less.
They should JFGI. First saw JFGI used on an Open Source Software mailing list in July 2006.
On Mon, 2006-07-03 at 15:35 +0200, ##### ####### wrote:
> Just FYI, there is Windoze XP Professional x64. This email was composed
> in Thunderbird on the above.Sorry, my mistake. I’m obviously out of touch with developments at
Redmond 😛
I’ll JFGI next time.
Registered the @jfGi Twitter Account in July 2008
those tweeple who wanted to build my twitter bot idea, @ me now please
— just for Giving it. (@jfGi) July 24, 2008
This conversation with a few developers then happened via email & Twitter DM…
Idea 4 twitter bot… Inspired by silly questions, twitter and just
freaking google it. A twitter bot @jfgi takes tweets received @||D jfgi
<search phrase> <twitterusernane> returns a tweet @<twitterusername>
link to google serp+<search phrase> from <@user who sent the tweet to
@jfgi>. This could be a funny lil bot used by many, if it doesn’t exist
already. Make sense? What do u think?
@takinbo replied:
Understood! A mashup of google search, twitter and a url shortening service. Can I have a sample of the jfgi status update?
To which I quickly hit back.
@takinbo hello wwwworld google.com/search?q=hello+wwworld from @rafiq
would be the bots tweet if i sent @jfgi hello wwworld @takinbo to the
bot from twitter. The google url needs to be shortened of course.
A quarter of a year later the @jfGi twitter bot idea was now a reality and a few tweeple tested it but this was nearly 10 years ago.
@jail4bail jail4bail http://bit.ly/3o823A from @rafiq
— just for Giving it. (@jfGi) October 20, 2008
2018: The evolution and rebirth of @jfGi nearly a decade later
Video playlist that is the #catalyst, forms the foundation of, why I exist ft @maxkaizen @sarahknight1984 @marissamayer @melrobbins @amishijha @connorgrooms @jasonquantum1 @garyvee @robinhanson @Zack_Hemsey @kanyewest @kevin2kelly 👐 #ideas worth stealing https://t.co/WcfoiHVdMq
— just for Giving it. (@jfGi) April 28, 2018
What is @jfGi going to be by the time the twitter account is 10 years old? We already know
Let me Google that for you 😉 (this domain was registered on 2008-11-19).
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