Emoji are a standard overseen by the Unicode Consortium. The web is a standard governed by bodies such as the W3C, WHATWG, and TC39. Both emoji and th

Read the Tea Leaves Software and other dark arts, by Nolan Lawson

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2024-11-17 20:30:03

Emoji are a standard overseen by the Unicode Consortium. The web is a standard governed by bodies such as the W3C, WHATWG, and TC39. Both emoji and the web are ubiquitous.

So you might be forgiven for thinking that, in 2022, it’s possible to plop an emoji on a web page and have it “just work”:

If you see a lotus flower above, then congratulations! You’re on a browser or operating system that supports Emoji 14.0, released in September 2021. If not, you might see something that looks like the scoreboard on an old 80’s arcade game:

If you see a face with spiral eyes, then wonderful! Your browser can render Emoji 13.1, released in September 2020. If not, you might see a puzzling combination of face with crossed-out eyes and a shooting (“dizzy”) star:

It’s a fun bit of cartoon iconography to know that this combination means “dizzy face,” but for most folks, it doesn’t really evoke the same meaning. It’s not much better than the robot barf.

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