In an effort to make sense of the rapid changes in social media, we took an entire year’s worth of links and announcements from some of the key players and wove them into a simple linear narrative.

What began as hundreds of blog posts and stories has been distilled down to 65 of the most memorable milestones. Our intent was to provide a glimpse of the progress and innovation that took place in the past year across six social media platforms. If you care to go a bit deeper, click any individual story to link to its source article.

We’ve had a lot of fun putting this timeline together and hope you enjoy it as you relive the key highlights of 2011.