History of 'Home' in internet browsers
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 _________ Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266 w: http://www.technobiophilia.com <http://www.technobiophilia.com/> Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk <mailto:sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk> t: @suethomas <http://www.twitter.com/suethomas> g: +suethomas <https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/>
Sue When I first started web surfing, in 1995, I thought of the word "site" as a "job site" because I was doing some renovation painting jobs. So my context for the word "site" was a work site. I know this doesn't answer your question and suggests another question. Peter Timusk at571@ncf.ca ptimusk@sympatico.ca web: www.crystalcomputing.net blogs www.cyborgcitizen.org -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Sue Thomas Sent: May-06-12 5:46 AM To: members@sigcis.org; aoir list Subject: [Air-L] History of 'Home' in internet browsers 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 _________ Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266 w: http://www.technobiophilia.com <http://www.technobiophilia.com/> Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk <mailto:sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk> t: @suethomas <http://www.twitter.com/suethomas> g: +suethomas <https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Greetings - Please see below for the abbreviated Call for Papers for the 2012 Workshop of the Society for the History of Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. Please contact me with any questions, and be sure to visit the full CFP at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop12. Thanks! Andy Russell College of Arts & Letters Stevens Institute of Technology --------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS SIGCIS Workshop 2012 Information Identities: Historical Perspectives on Technological and Social Change Sunday October 7, 2012 - Copenhagen, Denmark For the latest updates and the full Call for Papers, see http://www.sigcis.org/workshop12. DEADLINE for submissions: 15 June 2012 The Society for the History of Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS – http://www.sigcis.org) welcomes submissions for a one-day scholarly workshop to be held on Sunday, October 7, 2012 in Copenhagen, Denmark. As in previous years, SIGCIS’s annual workshop will be held at the end of the SHOT annual meeting on the day that SHOT has reserved for SIG events. For more information on the main SHOT program, see http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. SIGCIS invites proposals that examine the relationships between computer and information technologies and changes to individual and/or group identities, such as those shared by a nation, company personnel, or members of a virtual community. Such papers might consider: * Specific “information identities”—a term that we invite scholars to interpret broadly and creatively—that have been articulated in the recent or distant past * Relationships between information technologies and political change * The rhetoric and discourses of globalization that have been linked to information and computer technologies * National identity and its relation to information technology * National and transnational strategies for joining or creating an “information society,” a “network society,” an “information economy,” or related concepts * Transnational and international organizations, such as IFIP, UNESCO, the European Union, or standard-setting committees. * Ways in which particular information technologies acquired new meanings and fulfilled new roles through interaction with local practices and identities * The emergence of new kinds of community and identity around information technologies. SIGCIS encourages submissions along these and similar lines of inquiry, but it also maintains a proud tradition of welcoming all types of contributions related to the history of computing and information, whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is international and interdisciplinary, and our members examine the history of information technologies and their place within society. Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process based on abstracts. All submissions should be made online via the SIGCIS website, http://www.sigcis.org/workshop12. Limited travel assistance for graduate students and other scholars without institutional support is available. Questions about the 2012 SIGCIS workshop should be addressed to Andrew Russell (College of Arts & Letters, Stevens Institute of Technology), who is serving as chair of the workshop program committee. Email arussell@stevens.edu.
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) neither did the 1993 version (see here 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
_________
Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media
IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266
w: http://www.technobiophilia.com<http://www.technobiophilia.com/> Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<mailto:sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk>
t: @suethomas<http://www.twitter.com/suethomas>
g: +suethomas<https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/>
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- met vriendelijke groeten, Marianne van den Boomen Media and Culture Studies | University Utrecht Office: Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (room T2.13A) Mail: Muntstraat 2a | 3512 EV UTRECHT Phone: +31 (0)30 253 9607 M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl | www.hum.uu.nl www.newmediastudies.nl | www.vandenboomen.org
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
_________
Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media
IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266
w: http://www.technobiophilia.com**<http://www.technobiophilia.**com/<http://www.technobiophilia.com/>
Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<mailto:su**e.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk>
t: @suethomas<http://www.twitter.**com/suethomas<http://www.twitter.com/suethomas>
g: +suethomas<https://plus.**google.com/**110733806086330324299/<https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/>
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
--
met vriendelijke groeten,
Marianne van den Boomen
Media and Culture Studies | University Utrecht Office: Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (room T2.13A) Mail: Muntstraat 2a | 3512 EV UTRECHT Phone: +31 (0)30 253 9607 M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl | www.hum.uu.nl www.newmediastudies.nl | www.vandenboomen.org
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Radhika Gajjala Director, American Culture Studies Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies 101 East Hall Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
What about a metaphorical connection to the HOME key commonly found on computer keyboards (especially relevant to earlier text-based interfaces)? Janet Sternberg, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Communication and Media Studies Latin American and Latino Studies Fordham University Bronx, NY 10458-9993 USA 718-817-4855 voice | 718-817-4868 fax jsternberg@fordham.edu | janet.sternberg@nyu.edu http://www.media-ecology.org/
Sorry If I cannot directly answer your question, but I like to share an idea that can widen the context of the problem. I have always found that the use of spatial metaphors in organizing web content (especially early web content, a look at the early freenets, like the Cleveland freenet, provides a good feeling) may actually be linked to a deep-seated and long-running tradition in the Western thought: I am referring to the rhetorical theory of "loci" (places). "Memoria" (memory) was one of the five parts of classic rhetoric and classic readings such as Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero's De Oratore or later Quintilianus' systematic work all explicitly suggest spatial metaphor as a way to easily organize and memorize information. As Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory shows this tradition never died and has permeated many subsequent attempts to organize information in the history of ideas. I believe many early ideas in the definition of computer interfaces, such as the term "home", resonates this ancient tradition. Cheers, Mattia Miani Manager of Enterprise and Executive Education RMIT International University, Vietnam --- On Sun, 5/6/12, Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Air-L] History of 'Home' in internet browsers To: "Radhika Gajjala" <radhika@cyberdiva.org> Cc: "aoir list" <air-l@aoir.org> Date: Sunday, May 6, 2012, 9:13 AM 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
_________
Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media
IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266
w: http://www.technobiophilia.com**<http://www.technobiophilia.**com/<http://www.technobiophilia.com/>
Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<mailto:su**e.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk>
t: @suethomas<http://www.twitter.**com/suethomas<http://www.twitter.com/suethomas>
g: +suethomas<https://plus.**google.com/**110733806086330324299/<https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/>
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
--
met vriendelijke groeten,
Marianne van den Boomen
Media and Culture Studies | University Utrecht Office: Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (room T2.13A) Mail: Muntstraat 2a | 3512 EV UTRECHT Phone: +31 (0)30 253 9607 M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl | www.hum.uu.nl www.newmediastudies.nl | www.vandenboomen.org
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Radhika Gajjala Director, American Culture Studies Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies 101 East Hall Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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You also might want to check out Steven Johnson's Interface Culture. There is a specific chapter on the development of the computer UI and the desktop metaphor... On Sun, May 6, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Mattia Miani <katanankes@yahoo.com> wrote:
Sorry If I cannot directly answer your question, but I like to share an idea that can widen the context of the problem.
I have always found that the use of spatial metaphors in organizing web content (especially early web content, a look at the early freenets, like the Cleveland freenet, provides a good feeling) may actually be linked to a deep-seated and long-running tradition in the Western thought: I am referring to the rhetorical theory of "loci" (places). "Memoria" (memory) was one of the five parts of classic rhetoric and classic readings such as Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero's De Oratore or later Quintilianus' systematic work all explicitly suggest spatial metaphor as a way to easily organize and memorize information. As Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory shows this tradition never died and has permeated many subsequent attempts to organize information in the history of ideas.
I believe many early ideas in the definition of computer interfaces, such as the term "home", resonates this ancient tradition.
Cheers,
Mattia Miani Manager of Enterprise and Executive Education RMIT International University, Vietnam
--- On Sun, 5/6/12, Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Air-L] History of 'Home' in internet browsers To: "Radhika Gajjala" <radhika@cyberdiva.org> Cc: "aoir list" <air-l@aoir.org> Date: Sunday, May 6, 2012, 9:13 AM 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
_________
Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media
IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266
w: http://www.technobiophilia.com**<http://www.technobiophilia.**com/<http://www.technobiophilia.com/>
Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<mailto:su**e.thomas@dmu.ac.uk<sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk>
t: @suethomas<http://www.twitter.**com/suethomas<http://www.twitter.com/suethomas>
g: +suethomas<https://plus.**google.com/**110733806086330324299/<https://plus.google.com/110733806086330324299/>
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
--
met vriendelijke groeten,
Marianne van den Boomen
Media and Culture Studies | University Utrecht Office: Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (room T2.13A) Mail: Muntstraat 2a | 3512 EV UTRECHT Phone: +31 (0)30 253 9607 M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl | www.hum.uu.nl www.newmediastudies.nl | www.vandenboomen.org
______________________________**_________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/** listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org>
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Radhika Gajjala Director, American Culture Studies Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies 101 East Hall Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
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-- Thanks, Burcu S. Bakioglu, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media Lawrence University http://www.palefirer.com http://palefirer.com/blog/ -- "Come to the dark side, we have cookies." ~Anonymous
Thanks to everyone who replied to this on and off-list. I'll check out all your suggestions. And thanks Marianne for the links - long time no see! I agree with Radhika that for some of us, MUDs and MOOs made 'home' important, not just because we created homes there but also because of the simple command 'home' when you wanted to return to your base. I'd forgotten about that, and it confirms, along with a comment from Simon about the early hypercard 'home stack'. So I'm guessing its history lies in the history of code rather than of the internet - I hadn't realised that. Mattia's point about the resonance of home is pertinent because the piece I'm writing relates to the restorative settings described in The Experience of Nature by R&S Kaplan, and although their approach comes from a different discipline - experimental psychology - the emotions may be similar. Thanks again, you've helped clarify my thinking here Sue
(Thomas Haigh here...) This one I know the answer to. As I wrote in a footnote to "The Web's Missing Links: Search Engines and Portals" in *The Internet and American Business*, edited by William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008:159-200: The idea of a home page went back to Tim Berners-Lee and the origin of the Web. Berners-Lee had imagined that browsers would include integrated editing capabilities, so that each user would have a personal home page that he or she could edit to include links to pages of interest as well as public messages for other visitors. (Something rather like a blog). This explains the dual meaning of the term home page as both “the default start page for someone’s browser” and “the main page holding information about a person or company.” James Gillies and Robert Cailliau, How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 193-4. Remember that TBL's original browser could edit web pages as well as display them. (This was easy to implement on his NeXT computer because of its library of powerful, reusable object tools). In his original scheme the home page would fulfill the same function that bookmarks were used for in later browsers, but would be shared with everyone on the web. Thinking about how the web would have developed if this integrated editing capability had been retained is an interesting exercise. In fact the edit capability vanished from Mosaic, the first widely used browser. Browsing and editing were done with different tools, and bookmarks were private. Browser makers configured home page defaults to point to their own websites. Many early personal home pages really did include a mixture of links to recommended sites and information about their owners. You could argue that making this list of favorite pages public prefigured more recent social media innovations such as the "like" button. TBL discusses his original browser at http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html, including a screenshot<http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif>. He writes The "Link" menu you can see. "Mark all" would remember the URI of where you were. "MArk selection" would make an anchor (link target) for the selected text, give it an ID, and remember the URI of that fragment. "Link to Marked" would make a link from the current selection to whatever URI you had last marked. So making a link involved browsing to somewhere interesting, hitting Command/M, going to the document you were writing and selecting some text, and hitting Command/L. "Link to new" would create a new window, prompt for a URI (ugh - it should have made one up!) and make a link from the selection to the new document. You never saw the URIs - you could of course always find documents by following the link to them. However the ability to save the edited page directly to the web server was not implemented. It would browse http:space and news: and ftp: spaces and localfile: space, but edit only in file: space as HTTP PUT was not implemented back then. More on the history of web browsers in Thomas Haigh, "Protocols for Profit: Web and E-mail Technologies as Product and Infrastructure" in *The Internet and American Business*, edited by William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008: 105-158 (preprint online)<../Writing/ProtocolsForProfitDRAFT.pdf>and on the history of web navigation in "The Web's Missing Links: Search Engines and Portals" [in the same volume]:159-200 (preprint online) <../Writing/WebsMissingLinksDRAFT.pdf>. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom On Sun, May 6, 2012 at 10:50 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) neither did the 1993 version (see here 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
_________
Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media
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--
met vriendelijke groeten,
Marianne van den Boomen
Media and Culture Studies | University Utrecht Office: Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (room T2.13A) Mail: Muntstraat 2a | 3512 EV UTRECHT Phone: +31 (0)30 253 9607 M.V.T.vandenBoomen@uu.nl | www.hum.uu.nl www.newmediastudies.nl | www.vandenboomen.org
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-- Maria Haigh, Ph.D. mhaigh@uwm.edu Associate Professor University of Wisconsin Milwaukee School of Information Studies Northwest Quadrant Building B, Room 2585 P.O. Box 413 2205 E. Newport Milwaukee, WI 53211 Tel. 414-229-5397 http://www.tomandmaria.com/maria/
participants (9)
-
Andrew Russell -
Burcu Bakioglu -
Janet Sternberg -
Maria Haigh -
Marianne van den Boomen -
Mattia Miani -
Peter Timusk -
Radhika Gajjala -
Sue Thomas