What the heck is “»” anyway?
You see it all over the graphics.com network, and if you surf other Jupitermedia sites, you'll see it there too. We've been using the symbol for quite a while now, but—I'm slightly embarrassed to say—it wasn't until it popped up on other sites (including one of the preeminent design blogs) did I wonder what the heck it is?
Microsoft has even incorporated the character into the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE 7):
For those of you who aren't familiar with the name of this chevron-shaped symbol, it is called the guillemet. According to Merriam Webster, the guillemet is "either of the marks « or » used as quotation marks in French writing."
According to Wikipedia's entry, guillemets are used in many languages to indicate speech, so perhaps many of you are familiar with the character (if so, I apologize for my ignorance).
The guillemet is rendered a few ways online. Some simply use two angle brackets, such as ">>", others use the ascii code equivalent », while a few even use ».
Web design usage seems to be consistent—an icon to help direct the reader to related content.
It's an appropriate, and even catchy, character for this purpose, but looking at some of the examples above, it seems dangerously close to being overused.
If you have more to add about this character that has achieved fresh ubiquity on the Web, do tell!
There may be a guillemet, but I'm guessing that in web page use the appearance of the icon for the fast forward button on a VCR or CD player is the true inspiration for its use.
Steve,
You might be correct about the true inspiration, but what got me investigating the origin of the symbol is the existence of an actual ascii character equivalent for it; therefore, there probably had to have been a prior linguistical context for it.
-Steve
In Québec, French is the official language. Our French originated from France over 400 years ago but has now developed into a language all its own with important variations in vocabulary, pronounciation, etc.
The symbol above » is used as our closing quotation mark, part of the « » quotation mark set (guillemets), with a space between each mark and the text. They are used in place of curly quotes.
Instead of straight quotes for inches, we use "po", the abbreviation of "pouces" which is inches.
Working daily with French and English keeps us on our toes because languages are constantly evolving and we have to keep abreast of changes.
I've seen it, and used it myself. In a web context, I think of it like an ellipse (dot dot dot) for those of you who don't know. An ellipse suggests a continuation in written language. So too, does the guillemet. In your browser, if you go to File or Edit you should see some ellipse in the menu. This suggests a dialogue box will follow. Something always 'follows' and ellipse. In a web context, the guillemet may just do the same. To me, It just means "there's more >>" So why use >> instead of ...? Well, the guillemet is balanced in the spine height of the line for most fonts (at least, far more than an ellipse is). So it's much more visible. Like it or not (I happen to) the guillemet has now found a new meaning -- don't "fight" it because it's different, it has been accepted for use in our dynamic language.
I haven't seen it used in print in the context of "more to follow". I think of it as a simplified arrow or VCR fast forward sign. Maybe that's what made it popular on the web. In the dark dial-up age of the Internet, tried to use graphics sparingly. A lot of sites were developed by programmers who weren't familiar with graphic design. I guess they simply used this symbol because it reminded them of the arrow or VCR sign, and it was easy to access.
Gramatically, an elipsis indicates that words have been omitted. It is only a continuation in the sense that often the ellipsis is used to eliminate words that follow automatically. It does not need to indicate a continuation. So, I don't think the guillemet is a substitute for it. I am inclined to agree with Steve.
Well the '>>' is understood by the audience because it looks like the double arrows on VCR, DVD, tape recorders etc. meaning 'go fast forward' . Simple as that.
If we only used a singe arrow or '>' brachet we would focus on the link it self. By using a double arrow and putting some urge on the matter we focus on the content that the link points to.
The guillemet is just used as a ligature for a set of brackets. It looks more nice and lesser as a HTML error.
I have also seen the symbol ">>" in magizines, not well designed ones, but they use it to symbolize that the story, or article continues on the next page.
I think the main reason for all the confusion, is that different cultures use it to mean different meanings. We here use it as a fast foward symbol, in Canadian French, it is used to mean quotations, and so on. Thus I think it would depend where the website orginates from to understand the meaning of it.