Surfin' Safari
March 6th 2008 09:30
Well, as a result of looking up Primera labels on the Net, I now know how much a Nissan Primera car is worth. Such is the joy of being led off in another direction while interknetting - yes, I know the term is surfing, but I like interknetting better – it’s kind of like knitting and netting rolled into one.
You have to wonder where words like ‘surfing’ come from in their Internet context. Well, actually you don’t have to wonder. The Internet is a self-referencing system, and here’s the information I’m looking for, courtesy of Brad Templeton, who seems to go in for this sort of thing.
“A bit of research seems to show that the term "net-surfing" originated with Brendan Kehoe, also known as the author of "Zen and the Art of the Internet," an early internet book.
In this thread from 1991 he uses the term to refer to somebody browsing telnet sites (there was no web at the time). Two messages later, Ron Newman talks about how he likes the term and wants to spread it!”
Okay, so that sounds clear enough, except that there are opposing views about the word’s use.
Templeton goes on to say: “Mark McCahil the Gopher developer (they used the metaphor a lot) and others back to the 80s talked about Information Surfing. Paul Saffo used the term "information surfing" in a 1988 magazine column and reports it was commonly used and "definitely already in the zeitgeist" before he wrote it. Even Marshall McLuhan used the metaphor of surfing data like ur-surfer Duke Kahanomoku.”
On another site, everything2com, we find some further explanation:
While agreeing with Templeton in essence, the writer adds: “Research does turn up an article by Paul Saffo in Personal Computing July 1989 in which he writes:
"If information is a wave about to engulf us, the solution is to become "information surfers" -- individuals who thrive in a world of hyperabundant information."
The writer, who as far as I can understand is called takemetoyourlizard, adds, “This is the earliest published use of this sense of surfing, but Saffo claims the word was in popular usage around Silicon Valley as early as two years prior to this. The actual phrase `surfing the internet' was first used online by Mark McCahill, creator of the Gopher protocol in 1992:
"... There is a lot to be said for...surfing the internet with gopher from anywhere that you can find a phone jack..."
The first publication to use this phrase was `Surfing the INTERNET: an Introduction' by Jean Armour Polly, published in Wilson Library Bulletin, June 1992.”
So there you have it. The etymology of the Internet!
You have to wonder where words like ‘surfing’ come from in their Internet context. Well, actually you don’t have to wonder. The Internet is a self-referencing system, and here’s the information I’m looking for, courtesy of Brad Templeton, who seems to go in for this sort of thing.
“A bit of research seems to show that the term "net-surfing" originated with Brendan Kehoe, also known as the author of "Zen and the Art of the Internet," an early internet book.
In this thread from 1991 he uses the term to refer to somebody browsing telnet sites (there was no web at the time). Two messages later, Ron Newman talks about how he likes the term and wants to spread it!”
Okay, so that sounds clear enough, except that there are opposing views about the word’s use.
Templeton goes on to say: “Mark McCahil the Gopher developer (they used the metaphor a lot) and others back to the 80s talked about Information Surfing. Paul Saffo used the term "information surfing" in a 1988 magazine column and reports it was commonly used and "definitely already in the zeitgeist" before he wrote it. Even Marshall McLuhan used the metaphor of surfing data like ur-surfer Duke Kahanomoku.”
This clever photo comes from Micah A Ponce, on Flickr.com
On another site, everything2com, we find some further explanation:
While agreeing with Templeton in essence, the writer adds: “Research does turn up an article by Paul Saffo in Personal Computing July 1989 in which he writes:
"If information is a wave about to engulf us, the solution is to become "information surfers" -- individuals who thrive in a world of hyperabundant information."
The writer, who as far as I can understand is called takemetoyourlizard, adds, “This is the earliest published use of this sense of surfing, but Saffo claims the word was in popular usage around Silicon Valley as early as two years prior to this. The actual phrase `surfing the internet' was first used online by Mark McCahill, creator of the Gopher protocol in 1992:
"... There is a lot to be said for...surfing the internet with gopher from anywhere that you can find a phone jack..."
The first publication to use this phrase was `Surfing the INTERNET: an Introduction' by Jean Armour Polly, published in Wilson Library Bulletin, June 1992.”
So there you have it. The etymology of the Internet!
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