Buddy Icons at IMBuddy.Net

Smilies & Smileys

Hey, its good news. This followed by two dots and a small semi circle to project happiness, a smiling face. This is an icon that has crossed boundaries and is popular the world over. You can see clothes, accessories, consumer goods all having the good old smiling yellow ball. This is the smiley. Smilies and smileys have been growing in popularity ever since they were first born in 1972. Franklin Loufrani was a journalist and it was he who created and trademarked the image that came to be known as the smiley. What started as a small and simple concept for European newspapers were in fact a revolution and a milestone for mankind.

Smileys Jump Onto The Internet

Not much longer after the birth of smilies, personal computers started to make in roads into the homes of thousands of people world over. With the advent of the internet, the smiley had found a new home. Now it could reach places faster than it had ever done before. Electronic mail was the best way for it to move about. So the smiley jumped on to the internet. It is rumored that the first email that was ever written and send had the smiley in its sideways avatar. So it never really had to jump in. It was always there in it right from the start. SmileyWorld

Along with the growth of the smiley, SmileyWorld has also evolved into a colossus. Now, it has developed the first series of Smiley alphabetical fonts that can be downloaded on to your computer and used with your word processor. So all you have to do is type alphabets and smileys are created instantly. This has further simplified the use of smilies and smileys and very soon they will be used like any other font on the planet.