Have you ever wondered where this term comes from? Wifi Did you come from? Most people would logically think that this is a shortened version of a highly technical description of the technology that allows computers to access the Internet wirelessly. But those people would be wrong.
The term Wi-Fi is not shorthand for wireless fidelity, as many believe. Wi-Fi is a play on his Hi-Fi, which was coined by audio equipment manufacturers in the 1950s as a shortened version of “Hi-Fi.” But there is no such thing as wireless fidelity. It’s just a fancy name that marketers came up with.
TikTok account That’s niceregularly shares various fun facts and recently created a short video about the origins of Wi-Fi. HuffPost UK Looking at the comments on TikTok, many people seem surprised. Other commenters said they didn’t like the term when it first appeared, a sentiment that will be familiar to anyone who remembers the backlash against “.”podcastIn the 2000s iPad In the 2010s.
The idea that Wi-Fi actually means “wireless fidelity” has been circulating on the Internet since at least 2005. Boing Boing This myth was debunked. In fact, the term was coined by the marketing company Interbrand, which also came up with the brand name for the antidepressant. prozac and the computer company Compaq.
“The technical term was IEEE 802.11, but that alone is not enough,” Interbrand explains. its website. “The name has to be memorable; it has to be something universal that can be found in homes, offices, coffee shops, public transportation, and something that allows consumers to intuitively understand the concept. not.”
They landed on Wi-Fi by playing on the term Hi-Fi, which everyone was already familiar with in the late 1990s. Actually, there was a movie like this in 2000. high fidelity John Cusack stars as a young music fanatic who runs a record store.
But despite essentially meaning nothing, this branding was very successful in conveying the idea that you could use wireless Internet without cables. This was a radical idea for most American consumers in the 1990s, who were just beginning to connect to the Internet. Primary method.
“The name refers to the fact that Wi-Fi provides high-quality, lossless connectivity wherever you are, without the need for cables,” Interbrand writes. “Since its launch, Wi-Fi has become a global synonym for wireless accessibility everywhere. Seamlessly entered into languages around the world, whenever wireless internet is needed, he asks for Wi-Fi. .”
A version of this article originally appeared on Gizmodo.
