Google is a household name. The search engine is used so much that it has even become a verb, synonymous with searching the web for answers. Most of us do this every day: We google information. But what if instead of googling, we were googolplexing—or even googoling—information? It sounds strange to our ears now, but that could have been our reality if it weren’t for a typo.
Read More »The Happy Accident Behind Google’s Name
Wouldn’t it be great if there was punctuation that both elicited excitement and disbelief? Today, people use a combination of a question mark and exclamation point (“?!”) to express this in informal writing. But back in the early 1960s, the interrobang (“‽”) had its moment of fame thanks to advertising executive Martin Speckter. In 1962 Speckter introduced the interrobang as a “typographically eloquent way in which to end a statement that expresses excited disbelief, asks a question in an excited manner, or proposes a rhetorical question.” Due to its popularity, some typewriters included an interrobang key.
Read More »Interrobang: Excitement and Disbelief Combined