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Who Coined "SURFING THE WEB" | The Answer is Here

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Real Estate Agent with Captain Bill Realty, LLC

Who Coined "SURFING THE WEB" | The Answer is Here

 

Andrew Mooers wrote a brilliant post about surfing the internet for real estate

Andrew Mooers blog post

 

In his post Andrew asked the question:

"Was the original computer savvy person that coined the phrase "surf the web" west coast, Maine coast, island born and surfing a big part of his or her life?"Surf the net

 

That question got my curiosity juices flowing. Since I lived near San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and there is a lot of surfing going on along the California Coast I thought maybe it came from there, so I decided to do some research to see if I could answer Andrews question.

Here is what I discovered:

Jean Armour Polly, in 1992 coined the phrase.

However, she got the idea from an Apple mouse pad. So one could say that it's part west coast and part east coast that spawned the term. The link above takes you to her netmom.com biography where she explains how she arrived at the term.

In brief, she was a librarian at the Liverpool NY public library and was looking for a title for an article she was contracted to write. At that time she was using an Apple  mouse pad that had a picture of a surfer and it said "Information Surfer" on it. That is how she got the idea for the metaphor which she coined - "Surfing the Internet"

In 2004 my family and I relocated from San Francisco area to the Phoenix area and more specifically to Val Vista Lakes, a lake community in Gilbert AZ. Then I elected to go back into the real estate business and help buyers search for homes for sale in Gilbert AZ as well as other cities in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.


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Comments(9)

Kathleen Lordbock
Keller Williams Realty Professionals - Baxter, MN
Keller Williams Realty Professionals

Apple is very inspirational -  LOL

May 27, 2010 03:25 AM
Bill Travis
Captain Bill Realty, LLC - Gilbert, AZ
Broker/Owner

Hi Kathleen, yes they are. I remember having one of the first Apple computers. Wish I had kept it.

May 27, 2010 03:29 AM
Andrew Mooers | 207.532.6573
MOOERS REALTY - Houlton, ME
Northern Maine Real Estate-Aroostook County Broker

Super explanation and thanks for the digging! Will link your post from what started this thread, questioning! Neat to know the origins of a word, the history of how the term got coined Val!

May 27, 2010 04:30 AM
Kathy Clulow
Uxbridge, ON
Trusted For Experience - Respected For Results

Val - my web guy hubby has what I call his "computer museum" in the basement where he stores all his old computers including an original appleII plus along with the green monitor and two floppy drives.

May 27, 2010 05:07 AM
Bill Travis
Captain Bill Realty, LLC - Gilbert, AZ
Broker/Owner

Andrew, glad you asked the question and that I could find the answer.

Kathy, it's great that he stored them. Yes I remember the green monitor and the spread sheet was so fast that you could see it calculating down each column. I was amazed at how fast it went. :-)

Bill

May 27, 2010 06:18 AM
Bill Gassett
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Hopkinton, MA
Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate

Interesting information Bill. It is cool to be able to see the origin of such a well know phrase.

May 28, 2010 01:13 AM
Joshua Zargari
MJ Decorators Workshop LI staging and home decorating - Lynbrook, NY
MJ Decorators Workshop

Good morning Bill!

Great information!

Thank you for sharing it with us...

May 28, 2010 01:26 AM
Kathy Clulow
Uxbridge, ON
Trusted For Experience - Respected For Results

Bill - apologies on the name ..... when time is limited and we speed read we sometimes miss the important facts ..... like a persons name

My brother, who first got Barrie interested in computers, had close to $14,000.00 including software  invested in his appleII plus ..... I imagine today you could but the whole enchalada in todays technology for around $3,000.00

May 28, 2010 07:06 AM
Bill Travis
Captain Bill Realty, LLC - Gilbert, AZ
Broker/Owner

Bill and Joshua, it was fun to look up.

Kathy, no problem, many others to that because that's where the first name is usually located, and Val is a natual first name.

For $3000 today you could buy a lot more than that I believe because prices have changed so much since then and technology has advanced so much.

May 28, 2010 11:42 AM