Happy birthday Smiley!
The Smiley face is a ripe old 25 years old today.
It was 25 years ago that Professor Scott E. Fahlman used just three key strokes to make a huge impact on the internet lexicon.
It all started with a colon, a dash and a parenthesis at Carnegie Mellon University, three characters that don’t make a lot of sense together unless you tilt your head to the left.
These three characters spread from CMU to other campuses across the country, then the world and gained popularity the world over.
Of course the smiley has gained more than a few relatives over the years. There are countless key combinations that have been termed ‘emoticons’
Incidentally, does anyone know this one? +/’\
Pittsburgh Post Gazette Article
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Derek Steen
