Cover image via memecollection.netA December 2014 video by the Wall Street Journal discussing Asia's top Google search terms has let slip that the selfie stick was "started in Malaysia"
In this WSJ (http://www.wsj.com/video/selfie-sticks-google-hit-tech-searches-of-2014/56B05C92-52D3-471C-8748-DB4193153506.html) that discusses 2014's top tech terms that were searched on Google in Asia, WSJ's Ramy Inocencio and Google's Joyce How revealed with confidence that the selfie stick was started in Malaysia. Calling it a "homegrown Asian innovation", they said that the selfie stick was huge all over Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
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Let's keep in mind that this is the gadget TIME Magazine declared as one of the 25 best inventions of 2014…
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It was also the hottest Christmas gift in the United Stated in 2014.
It is also the same gadget Gizmodo says deserve a permanent ban
"I saw a group of four teens using one of these in the wild, in front of the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago. I considered asking if they just wanted me to take their picture, but clearly they didn't because they bought a stick specifically to avoid that kind of basic human interaction. There are so many different kinds of selfie sticks, yet no one has managed to invent one that doesn't automatically make the person holding it look like a huge dork," [Gizmodo](http://gizmodo.com/5-selfie-enabling-devices-that-deserve-a-permanent-ban-1640456802) writes on an article of selfie-enabling devices that deserve a permanent ban.
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So to say that the selfie stick is a Malaysian invention would make half the Malaysian population very proud and make the other half cringe in horror
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Were they right? Did a Malaysian really invent the selfie stick?
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We should, neigh, must find out if the selfie is indeed produk buatan Malaysia. It is our civic duty.
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Firstly, Promaster, a US company claims to be one of the first to sell selfie sticks but does not know who invented it
We then found Alan Cleaver in England who claims that his grandparents were the first person in recorded history to use a selfie stick. The 1926 photo has a stick protruding to the edge of the photo:
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On the other hand, we found a book of '101 Un-Useless Japanese Inventions' that was published in 2000, way before selfies exploded in our faces, featuring the one and only "Self Portrait Camera Stick"!
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The Japanese must be laughing now. You can buy the book of useless Japanese inventions on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393313697/ref=rdr_ext_tmb).
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With no other solid proof nor Malaysian connection to the invention of the selfie stick, it seems like the question of who created this ingenious gadget may remain as one of the world's unsolved mysteries.
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