Google 1407 | Jerz's Literacy Weblog

Philipp Lenssen and I had a bit of fun imagining what an early, early draft of the Google home page might have looked like.

15 thoughts on “Google 1407”

Dear Sir, Madam, or other as appropriate,
I noted with some distress that you used “Ye Post” and “Ye Webb” in your clever, but small mock-up of That Which Shall Be Used For Searches.
Since it’s a pet peeve, I thought I’d take the time out from my busy schedule to chew your ankles lightly but firmly over this matter: It’s not ye, it’s ðe!
Use an Eth, Dammit! ð for the win! ðe Olde Webb II.0 needs more ð!
Youres insincerely,
Cuprohastes.

Hi Dennis,
i hope it’s okay that i use your picture at my blog. if not, send me a short message and i remove it.
greetings from Germany
seekXL
PS: Cool Pic !

Cuprohastes, I congratulate you on figuring out how to type an eth, which isn’t on my keyboard. You’re right, of course, but I hope nobody took this seriously. What I typed as “ye” really means “the,” and the y is an old way of typographically representing the eth. We do have better options now, as you have shown.
Seekxl, you are welcome to use the image.

Cuprohastes is partly correct, but instead of an ð (eth) the letter should be a þ (thorn).
When hand-written, a thorn looks a lot like a lower case y – which is where the y in “Ye Olde” comes from. It’s also why the letter y was usually made with a dot over it in medieval manuscripts.

It’s been a long time since I took History of the English Language, so thanks for the clarification, Doc. So the typed y emulates a manuscript thorn? That sounds right.

Google 1407

Google 1407

Hey Webmaster Dennis

I hope it is OK when I use the Picture for my University

Blog in Germany.

Thanks a lot, Nice Side !

Go ahead. Phillip actually came up with the artwork,so you should cite his blog. http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-10-03-n60.html

Hey Dennis,
it’s really interesting.
thank you for sharing .

Offcourse this is fun stuff :) but I am looking for real screenshots of Google through the years for my thesis research.
Many thanks for anyone who could help me further,
Nico

Try the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.

This is great.
I am writing a book about websites. Can I have your permission to use this amazing 1407 google in the book. I will of course give full credits to you.
If you agree I would like you to email me directly with the image and allow me to reply so that it would act as our agreement about the usage and credits.
Thanks.

I’m perfectly happy with you using this, but Philipp Lenssen did the graphics, so you should contact him directly.

Hey Dennis,
it’s really interesting.
thank you for sharing .

Haha, that design would have been nice. ;)

15 thoughts on “Google 1407”

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