Slide

Was one of the largest third-party application developers on Facebook and MySpace before acquisition and shutdown

Slide was a personal media-sharing service company founded by Max Levchin (PayPal co-founder) that specialized in creating widgets and applications for social networking platforms. The company became one of the largest third-party application developers on Facebook and MySpace, offering popular apps like SuperPoke!, FunWall, and Top Friends that allowed users to share photos, videos, and interactive content. At its peak, Slide's applications reached over 134 million users monthly across various social platforms. Slide was acquired by Google in August 2010 for an estimated $182 million, representing one of Google's larger acquisitions at the time as the search giant sought to strengthen its social networking capabilities. However, the acquisition ultimately proved unsuccessful as Google struggled to integrate Slide's offerings into its broader social strategy. Google shut down most of Slide's applications in 2011 and officially closed the Slide division in 2012 as part of a broader consolidation effort, with many employees leaving or being reassigned to other Google projects. Slide's legacy represents an important chapter in the evolution of social media applications and the widget economy of the late 2000s. The company demonstrated the potential for third-party developers to build massive audiences on social platforms, though its fate also illustrated the challenges of maintaining relevance as platform policies and user preferences evolved.