Search Engines will change the english language. January 10, 2008
Before the printing press, spelling was not important. Shakespeare spelled his name using 5 out of 41 differing ways commonly used. When the movable type printing press was invented by Johann Guttenberg in 1450’s two things happened with language: the spelling of words, became set, and the many synonymous words used to convey a meaning became few, or in some cases just one. The internet has not changed this: there are thousands of new words coined every year to cover new ideas, but the old language has not changed - but they will.