Jimdo Turns 11

With the excitement of Jimdo Dolphin and the future staring us in the face, we thought that the best way to celebrate our birthday was to look back on our journey. Sometimes you have to look back to see how far you’ve come.

So we asked a few Jimdoz about their experiences and memories from eleven years ago and how they compare it to today. Do you remember the music? Hairstyles? Cellphones? We certainly do! <cringe>

What was your mobile phone in 2007 when Jimdo started?

Maren (Art Director, Germany): Something from Sony?! I think a Walkman cell phone? But I could hardly fit any music on it. Especially compared to what cell phones can save these days. No touch screen…it had real keys! We actually pushed physical buttons! Basically, like living in the Stone Age…

Pascal (Trainee, Germany): Oh yeah, I remember that too! In 2007 I had a Sony Ericsson like everyone else. I think it was called w300i or something like that and it had an integrated mp3-player! The best thing about it was the game “QuadraPop”. My iPhone does not have that game ;)

Katja (Web Designer, Mexico): I had a Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, now I have an iPhone 6S. Before I just wasted my credit sending SMS texts!

Jeremie (Web Analyst, France): Mine was a Bic phone—it could open beers.

Katja: What’s a Bic phone? Oh wow, I just had to Google that. Yeah, it looks pretty sturdy… I guess that would work! I remember the internet was practically unworkable on my Nokia. Checking out a website was a nightmare… and now you can make a website on your phone ;-)

What social media platform did you use 11 years ago compared to now?

Frank (Flow Explorer, Netherlands): I hardly used social media back then and I’m back to that now. Back then social media was new and more about people. Now I just end up using direct messaging or video calling.

Barbara (Online Marketing, Netherlands): We had Hyves in the Netherlands, do you remember Frank? It was basically like an early version of Facebook, but more focused on people in high school instead of university.

Frank: Oh yeah! I remember we had to remove that from Jimdo’s Share Buttons once it finally stopped.

Maria (Comms, Russia): Since I lived in Russia, I used Vkontakte, a Russian analog of Facebook. It had tons of illegal content like music and videos. I also registered on Facebook and didn’t use it till 2010, when I went to study in Sweden.

Saskia (Social Media, Germany): I loved Myspace, Facebook, StudiVZ, werkenntwen and I started with Twitter. Which of them do I use today? Facebook and Twitter. Every other social media channel that was around then is pretty much dead! In 2007 everyone checked social media on their desktop, not mobile. That changed when the iPhone came out in 2007… but I think we still use social media the same as before. It’s all about looking cool to the outside world.

Who was the President/Prime Minister/Chancellor 11 years ago compared to now?

Saskia: Angela Merkel… nothing more to say!

Markus (Editor, Germany): Yep, Angela Merkel… What do I think about that? Well, that’s another topic. But I’m sure in eleven years we’ll have a different chancellor ;)

Jeremie: Sarkozy and Macron. Same politics really.

Frank: My country had a Harry Potter lookalike as Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende. But I feel like he never really used that as political leverage—which surely must be a missed opportunity.

What was your hairstyle eleven years ago compared to now? Do you have a photo? (Please say yes!)

Barbara: My hairstyle hasn’t changed much, except that I can afford a better hairdresser!

Pascal: I had a really crappy mohawk from 2005 – 2006. Then in 2007 I only styled the tip of my hair. It looked kind of weird but I think that it suited me quite well. Today I’m pretty lazy and have short hair with a baseball cap on most of the time.

Katja: Oh! I had a mohawk too and my hair had red highlights. That was pretty rebellious at the time! México has always been a pretty conservative country, so people tend to be shocked when someone tries something a bit different. Now, I just have my natural hair color and keep it short and curly.

Frank: Weirdly, my hair is almost the same…except the distribution of hair has changed. Hair from the back of my head has made a career change and reemerged as a beard…

What was your favorite computer game back then compared to now?

Maria: The Sims—forever!

Maren: The Sims made people do some very dark stuff :D I preferred Bejeweled but the browser version. There was no app back then!

Saskia: I was a World of Warcraft girl in 2007 but I changed from PC gaming to console. I loved to play shooter or strategy games. Today it’s more about adventure or roleplay.

Katja: I’ve never been a computer game fan but I used to play rock band for Nintendo Wii. Now I have a super Nintendo mini (back to basics).

Jeremie: Diablo 2 back in 2007… and Diablo 3 now.

Pascal: I was 11 back then, so I can’t be honest about this ;) Let’s just say it was Super Mario!

What was your favorite fashion trend 11 years ago compared to now?

Maria: High heels! I love my flats now :)

Katja: Hmm I still love my leather jacket, black shirt, jeans, converse. That hasn’t changed much I guess.

Saskia: Oh I’m with you! It’s all about black—like today. But with Vans Slip-On, black Jeans, band t-shirts and studded belts…. yep, emo stuff.

Pascal: I loved Vans! Vans Slip-Ons with the checkerboard—they were so cool! And cardigans. I would still wear the Vans but not sure about the cardigans.

Barbara: I was rocking the jeans with a slight bootleg, chunky skater sneakers (Vans, DC shoes) and a lot of black eyeliner ;) I also had a tongue piercing in 2007…

Maren: Ohh bell bottom pants!!!!! And vests! I still wear those actually…not the same ones you…and not everyday..but… I did get used to the skinny jeans at some point even though I did resist that trend for a long time.

Lina (31, Customer Support, Colombia): I used to wear straight jeans! I felt weird wearing skinny jeans too. Now I practically live in them ;)

Did you use MSN chat? ICQ? Java?

Lina: Of course! We still make fun of the sounds ICQ made when you wrote a message or the “ka ka” noise it made when you received a message. In high school, I always talked to my friends on ICQ. Later, when I moved Spain we started using MSN so I could talk to my friends in Colombia and my boyfriend who is German but we met in Madrid. We used to spend hours chatting on MSN. Good times! Now I used WhatsApp to talk to my friends in Colombia, Spain, and my boyfriend, of course, who I now live with ;-)

Maria: I used ICQ too in Russia. It was a total relationship breaker! If your boyfriend was online and didn’t text you for half an hour, it was a complete drama!

Saskia: Oh yes! I used ICQ more than MSN. It was nice to write “Hey, are you online tonight?” I miss those good old times when you didn’t have to respond within minutes. Messenger is everywhere today and it’s on all the time.

Barbara: I used MSN, a lot… probably too much. It was like the “slack” of high school.

Markus: MSN was the best! SMS messages cost cents in 2007 so it was the easiest way to communicate.

Katja: I used ICQ to communicate with my sister. She was living in Germany and I was in Mexico. MSN was more for chatting with friends or to see the guy you liked was online! And when they were online you didn’t know what to write haha. Now I use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Maren: A Java chat….but that was pre-2007. I revisited that chat again in 2017…it still existed…and some of the SAME people still hung out there! The Java system was still crap and crashed every 15 minutes or so. Seeing the “re-connecting please wait” message was always so annoying.

Pascal: I loved ICQ! It reminds me of chatting with friends, having my first crush over ICQ, playing games (Slide-a-Lama) and being silly!

We’ve made leaps and bounds in the past eleven years and we can hardly wait for what comes in the next eleven years. We hope you’ll join us for the ride!