Alternative names for the Internet

  • The Worldwide Web
  • Mine of Informationen
  • Informationen Mesh

So much of the internet has been branded, what’s interesting now is what different brands end up with as metaphors.

  • Cohen

Remote computing industry

  • Amazon called its infrastructure Cloud (2006)
  • Reverse chronological feeds were called Stream (2009)
  • Twitter was called global town square (2011)

Internet metaphors form the perception of concept but can also limit its use

  • Gmail broke Email’s mail metaphor with tags instead of physical folders

Metaphors about information are particularly powerful, as information is fairly formless

  • Facebook redefined the terms
    • Friendship for any connection
    • Newspaper for its home feed
  • Twitter is a global town square

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Tags:
Internet
Human language
Computer Language