Satnav is a word

By: Gerry McGovern

Date: Wednesday, 24. January 2007

Did you know that "satnav" is a word? Yes, it means satellite navigation.

According to Google Trends, satnav only began to be used as a word in late 2004, but from then on has shown rapid growth.

The use of satnav was not driven by some major advertising campaign, or regular usage in the media. (According to Google Trends, satnav is hardly ever used in the media).

Satnav just happened. People first looked at the words "satellite navigation," and decided that those words took too long to type. They started using "sat nav" instead.

And then for some reason those two shortened words came together to make "satnav.".

The Web is changing how we write and read and the words that we use. It is also changing our ability to understand language, and the impact that various words have.

The Web is a vast laboratory of words. There are advertisers who create hundreds of variations of their 15-word Google ads, searching for the optimal combination that will have the maximum impact.

Today, in 2007, we witness the basic word at the height of its power.

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