Who thought and why about the term 'surfing' on net?

Question

Why do we say we surf the net ?

Answer 1

The term "Surfing" the internet was first used by 'Jean Armour Polly'.

Polly is credited with coining the phrase "Surfing the Internet", being the author of the first known appearance of the phrase in print, in an article called Surfing the INTERNET, published in the University of Minnesota Wilson Library Bulletin in June, 1992.

In an article Polly says the following about how she got the idea to use the word "surfing"
"In casting about for a title for the article , I weighed many possible metaphors. I wanted something that expressed the fun I had using the Internet, as well as hit on the skill, and yes, endurance necessary to use it well. I also needed something that would evoke a sense of randomness, chaos, and even danger. I wanted something fishy, net-like, nautical.

At that time I was using a mouse pad from the Apple Library in Cupertino, CA, famous for inventing and appropriating pithy sayings and printing them on sportswear and mouse pads (e.g. "A month in the Lab can save you an hour in the Library") The one I had pictured a surfer on a big wave. "Information Surfer" it said. "Eureka," I said, and had my metaphor. "

The image of her mousepad can be found on the second link below.

Hope this answers your question :)

Answer 2

Net-Surfing Etymology

The new USENET archive at google is a gold-mine for etymology. For example, a bit of research seems to show that the term "net-surfing" originated with Brendan Kehoe, also known as the author of "Zen and the art of the Internet," an early internet book.

In this thread from 1991 he uses the term to refer to somebody browsing telnet sites (there was no web at the time). Two messages later, Ron Newman talks about how he likes the term and wants to spread it!

However, others claim independent coinage, including possibly Mark McCahil the Gopher developer (they used the metaphor a lot) and others back to the 80s who talked about Information Surfing. Paul Saffo used the term "information surfing" in a 1988 magazine column and reports it was commonly used and "definitely already in the zeitgeist" before he wrote it. Even Marshall McLuhan used the metaphor of surfing data like ur-surfer Duke Kahanomoku.

In addition, the term "channel surfing" shows first use in January 91, and seems to have originated at the same time. Several of the early users of forms of the term claim they did so due to a love of real water surfing, so this appears to be a metaphor of many parents.

Answer 3

Ok, prepare for some poetry lol.
Because the internet is like the sea, it holds many websites (just like the sea has many fish) anddd when you surf you see the fish (websites)
Yeah i sound kinda strange, but those are my views =]

Answer 4

cause thats what you're doing is "surfing" through a mass amount of information which is much like an ocean. And it was probably made up by a surfer, hence "surfing" idk, i might be over thinking that though.....:P

Answer 5

History can not be traced.

Answer 6

Me ... just 'Go with the flow' ...