Hi all, Thanks to Sue for reminding us of how much we now take for granted! How much do you think the idea of having a "home" (spatial metaphor - placing and locating dis-[em]-bodies ) is based on practices from earlier social networking environments such as MOOs and MUDs where we built our homes - and what offline practices (situated/particular group cultures) do they privilege On Sun, May 6, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Marianne van den Boomen < M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl> wrote:
Hi Sue,
Intriquing question! I remember working with Mosaic and Cello back in 1994, and they both already had a home button (an online check for screenshots affirms this). As far as I can see Tim Berners-Lees first browser in 1991 did not have a home button (see http://info.cern.ch/** NextBrowser.html <http://info.cern.ch/NextBrowser.html>) neither did the 1993 version (see here http://info.cern.ch/**NextBrowser1.html<http://info.cern.ch/NextBrowser1.html>) Yet, the screenshot does show a page called My homepage (in the title bar called: Tim's home page). May be the home of the home button is just Tim's home page? ;-)
kind regards
Marianne van den Boomen
On 6-5-12 11:46, Sue Thomas wrote:
Hi
I wonder if anyone can help? I'm trying to track down when and why it was decided to use the term 'Home' and its accompanying icon in web browser design. Does anyone have any information on that?
We have got so used to it that it's almost invisible in our consciousness, but Home is not default in every part of the world. In the Middle East for example, that function is called the Main Page, not the Home Page. I'm thinking that 'home' is probably an American concept in this context.
I'd also like to collect more equivalencies from non-English speaking countries, so please do get in touch if your country's browser features something other than 'home'.
I'd be most grateful for your thoughts on the above. Please reply backchannel to sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk
Many thanks
Sue
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met vriendelijke groeten,
Marianne van den Boomen
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