Happy Birthday, Smilie

[Brad Adrian]

I was just reading an article in an IT trade journal when I came across this little blurb:<br /><br />"September 19, 2002 marked a milestone in the history of the Internet, according to a Reuters article. It was 20 years ago on this date that Scott Fahlman, an IBM researcher in neural networks, introduced the smiley face emoticon known as <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/smallsmilie.jpg" />. Two decades later, emoticons are as widespread as the network that conveys them."<br /> <br />Wow. Twenty years! I can hardly remember what communication was like before the smilie. I mean, how DID we convey happiness, sarcasm and anger before?

[welmoed]

Wow. Twenty years! I can hardly remember what communication was like before the smilie. I mean, how DID we convey happiness, sarcasm and anger before?

Let's see, we actually *smiled* because, more than likely, we were actually *talking* to people face to face and so could *show* a real emotion. :)
--Welmoed

[farnold]

http://ecards.ninemsn.com.au/images/Friends/sendasmile.gif

Brad, wasn't the original smiley just a ":" and a ")"?

[Pony99CA]

"September 19, 2002 marked a milestone in the history of the Internet, according to a Reuters article. It was 20 years ago on this date that Scott Fahlman, an IBM researcher in neural networks, introduced the smiley face emoticon known as http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/smallsmilie.jpg. Two decades later, emoticons are as widespread as the network that conveys them."

My memory could be slipping, but I thought Tech TV did a piece on this recently. I seem to remember something about researchers looking through old E-mail archives and concluding it was someone from Carnegie Mellon that created the smiley. Maybe the researchers were from CMU, though....

Steve