Digital 'Smiley Face' Turns 25

Associated Press via MyWay.com ^ | September 18, 2007 | Daniel Lovering

[RayChuang88]

PITTSBURGH (AP) - It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) (YHOO), carries a $500 cash prize.

Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect.

[RayChuang88]

We've come a long, long way since the days I can only express emoticons through plain characters like :-) all the way to emoticons from other web pages referenced through HTML code:

[JRios1968]

[RayChuang88]

I think that emoticon of yours described Michigan fans after they lost to Appalachian State a couple of weeks ago. Isn’t it amazing how sophisticated emoticons have become?

[TexGuy]

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

Uh Oh! ... Challenge ... I think I might have typed that at the end of some my messages on the VAX/VMS system in the early 80s. I even used it in some of my homework on my Wilbur Acct. ... Where's OJ, I need to get some of my stuff back ...

[monkapotamus]

[RayChuang88]

Actually, this is my favorite smiley:

Kind of describes the hard Left crowd conflicting with the Democrats in Congress much of the time.

[Cagey]

;-)