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Oh, downvoted! Love to you too.

Joseph Marie Jacquard was a genius and Google should not use his name without proper acknowledgement. Shame on Google, and on downvoters.



You're being downvoted because you're making a false accusation. The very fact that a multi-billion dollar company used by billions of people uses the name "Jacquard" is the biggest acknowledgement and recognition he could have ever gotten these days. Don't you think the scientists at Google are themselves big fans of his and decided to name their technology as a tribute? Besides, Google doesn't need to explain who Jacquard is because:

1) it's just a google search away :)

and

2) it will be mentioned by many articles and comments on the web, exhibit A being your comment :)

Anyway, I think you are both over-reacting and being needlessly negative. I mean, really, Jacquard is not the most marketing friendly name, they picked it because they love his work and now we're all talking about him so relax everyone.


"false"? Where in Google's product page is there a statement about Jacquard, the creator?


Really? Did you read the rest of my comment?

Seriously though, do you actually believe scientists at Google or even managers want to cash in on an obscure scientist when they already have adword and adsense? How would that make any sense? This was obviously a tribute, come on. There may be tons of reasons to criticize Google but this is not one of them.


How do you feel about Pascal, Ada, Erlang, Haskell, Python...?


Both Blaise Pascal and Lady Ada Lovelace were honored explicitly when these languages were named after them. (I got my programming start with UCSD Pascal!) Their creators --Niklaus Wirth and Jean Ichbiah-- never dreamed of using these names without explicit tribute, since the naming was intended as a tribute.

The other programming languages you mention I don't know as much about -- Python users do seem to be regularly paying homage to Monty Python, so I'm quite happy with their intellectual and cultural honesty.

As for Turing, how could it ever be acceptable for someone to name a product after him and not explicitly mention him, his work, or his importance?

I love computers, software, and the people who made it possible, from Jacquard to Turing via Babbage and their heirs, friends, emulators, and more. I include a number of Ancient Greek philosophers in the lot. We have a responsibility to honor history and our ancestors; Google should, too. It's not a difficult proposition. Not doing it is unbecoming.


What about all the people who made great contributions that go unrecognized? Is it not more of a shame that the project was not named after one of them?




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