Emojipedia is an emoji reference website[1] which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters[2] in the Unicode Standard. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia[3] or emoji dictionary,[4] Emojipedia also publishes articles and provides tools for tracking new emoji characters, design changes[5] and usage trends.[6][7] It has been owned by Zedge since 2021.[8][9]
Jeremy Burge[12] created Emojipedia in 2013,[13] and told the Hackney Gazette "the idea came about when Apple added emojis to iOS 6, but failed to mention which ones were new".[14]
Emojipedia rose to prominence with the release of Unicode 7 in 2014, when The Register reported the "online encyclopedia of emojis has been chucked offline after vast numbers of people visited the site"[15] in relation to the downtime experienced by the site at the time.
In 2015, Emojipedia entered its first partnership with Quartz to release an app that allowed users access previously-hidden country flag emojis on iOS.[16]
Emojipedia told Business Insider in early 2016 that it served "over 140 million page views" per year, and was profitable.[17] In mid-2016, Emojipedia "urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon" citing cross-platform confusion.[18]
In 2017, The Library of Congress launched the Web Cultures Web Archive[19] which featured a history of memes, gifs, and emojis from references including Emojipedia, Boing Boing and GIPHY.[20]
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the site served 23million page views in October 2017.[21] Total page views for 2013–2019 were said to have reached one billion by February 2019.[22]The New Yorker reported Emojipedia served 50 million page views in April 2020.[23]
In August 2021, Emojipedia was acquired by Zedge for an undisclosed amount.[24]
In February 2022, Keith Broni became Emojipedia's editor-in-chief, taking over from founder and chief emoji officer Jeremy Burge.[25] The Washington Post described Broni as having "spent years researching social media sites to better understand how people employ emojis".[26]
In July 2022, Emojipedia added multi-language support for the first time by localizing the site into five languages.[27] In October 2022, support for 13 more languages (including India's most spoken languages in celebration of Diwali) was introduced.[28]
In 2017, after Google CEO Sundar Pichai pledged to "drop everything" to update Android's burger emoji,[32] Emojipedia revealed[33] the cheese layering issue had been resolved.[34][35][36]
In 2018, Emojipedia revealed[37] that Apple planned to "fix" its bagel emoji[38] design[39] by adding cream cheese,[40] following user complaints.[41]
A 2020 study by Emojipedia[42] found that U+1F637😷FACE WITH MEDICAL MASK[43] and U+1F9A0🦠MICROBE[44] were most used to represent COVID-19.[45][46] Also in 2020, Emojipedia revealed[47] that Apple's forthcoming iOS update would change the mask-wearing emoji[48] to display a smiling face.[49][50][51]
In January 2021, Emojipedia reported that U+1F602😂FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY had been declared an emoji "for boomers"[52][53] on TikTok, and in March 2021, it published analysis showing U+1F62D😭LOUDLY CRYING FACE had become the most used emoji on Twitter.[54][55]
World Emoji Day (17 July)
World Emoji Day is a holiday created by Emojipedia[56] in 2014[57] which is held on 17 July each year.[58] According to The New York Times, 17 July was chosen due to the design of the calendar emoji (on iOS) showing this date.[59][60]
Emojipedia used the second annual World Emoji Day to release EmojiVote as "an experiment in Emoji democracy".[61] In 2017–2020, Apple used this event to preview new emojis for iOS.[62][63][64] Emojipedia reveals the winners of the World Emoji Awards each year, with past announcements held live at the New York Stock Exchange[65] and National Museum of Cinema.[66]
Adopt an Emoji
Emojipedia launched Adopt an Emoji in September 2015 as "an attempt to make the site free of display ads" according to Wired.[67] This preceded a similar program by the Unicode Consortium in December 2015.[68]
The Emojipedia "Adopt an Emoji" program was shut down in November 2016, citing confusion for users and advertisers due to the similarity with Unicode's fundraising effort.[69]
Cultural impact
In 2018, Portland Maine's Press Herald reported that Senator Angus King had endorsed a new lobster emoji[70] but Emojipedia's design was called out as "anatomically incorrect" due to an incorrect number of legs.[71] The number of legs on Emojipedia's lobster design was subsequently fixed in a future release. Slate reported this as "a victory for scientists and lobster fans everywhere".[72]
Skater Tony Hawk criticized Emojipedia's skateboard design as being "'mid-'80s ... beginner-level' board 'definitely not representative' of the modern sport" and subsequently worked with the company to produce an updated design.[73]
In 2018, Emojipedia was presented in the Federal Court of Australia as "a reputable website in telling us how to interpret these faces" by a lawyer for Geoffrey Rush during a defamation case against Nationwide News. This was in the context of interpreting an emoji sent by Rush to a fellow actor, which Rush described as "the looniest emoji I could find".[75] Rush said he would have used an emoji of Groucho Marx or The Muppets' Fozzie Bear if they had been available.[76] Reports indicate Rush's lawyer "attempted to hand up to Justice Michael Wigney a printout of the emoji's meaning from Emojipedia" but a barrister for Nationwide News objected, stating it "doesn't matter what Emojipedia says the emoji is". Justice Wigney agreed that an emoji definition "is in the eye of the beholder": inferring the context within the message was more important than the Emojipedia definition.[77]
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