t's ironic that we call a trail to lead you back home "breadcrumbs", since
the term comes from the story "Hansel and Gretel" in which breadcrumbs were an
utter failure for back-navigation as the woodland creatures ate them all up.
If they hadn't used breadcrumbs, they wouldn't have gotten lost.
It is possible I heard the term elsewhere, but it is typical of the
whimsical sort of terminology I use when I am inventing vocabulary. I
suppose the issue of who borrowed from whom could be settled by
studying the way back machine records of websites at various points in
time. IIRC I introduced them to my website circa 2001.
It is not the wheel so I don't think it is worth the effort. It is an
obvious solution to an obvious problem. How else would you solve the
problem? (perhaps with a drop down). Often an idea's time just comes
and it appears independently in many places all within a year or two.
I just want to see sites provide such navigation aids so you don't get
lost in their rabbit warrens of menus.
My original metaphor was those "you are here" signs in ferries to
confirm your metaphysical Descartian existence, but it did not express
the trail of HOW you got to where you were.
Breadcrumbs are now on the curriculum of at least one university.
Eventually we may even seen them made a formal part of all HTML pages.
Perhaps we could come up with a hiking or spelunking metaphor for a
new name to overcome the implied fragility of breadcrumbs -- blazing
trees, tying ribbons -- though those have awkward political overtones.
In my era, all children knew a number of rhymes and stories. Kids
would harass their parents to tell them stories or read to them each
night. Today's generation might not get the reference to the Brothers
Grimm.
I would seem a very peculiar name without the knowledge of the tale.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com
"Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability,"
~ Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (born: 1930-05-11 died: 2002-08-06 at age: 72)