Without a mouse pad, there is an maximizing curser accuracy. But enough technical mumbo-jumbo. A lot of people think that a mouse pad is a mouse pad is a mouse pad. You might be surprised how many computer owners don't even use them or like them. They use books, pieces of cardboard and even paper plates (and wonder why their computer is so slow). I'm not making this up. Others without a computer are certain a mouse pad is a small rental unit for rodents. (I am making that up but it might not surprise me. People can have vivid imaginations).

The mouse itself was invented in 1963 by a Stanford student named Douglas Engelbart. He called it "the bug" but it was later named to "the mouse". It was not made to be put on a mat or pad but held in one hand and the user would type on a five-key chord keyset with the other. This system was short-lived. The mouse pad is said to have been invented by Armando M. Fernandez when he worked at Xerox in 1977. He first named the mouse pad with separate words, mouse pad, and later fused the two names into a single word "mousepad". Xerox published his invention in 1979. Later advertisers, artists, cartoonists, and others begin to see the advertising and promotional potential in mouse pads.

Mouse pads, if designed properly, can be an ideal corporate gift. The trick to giving the right mouse pad, today, is to think of the end user, the beneficiary of the pad. Rather than the age-old "my company logo on your mouse pad", savvy businesspersons and entrepreneurs are giving "theme-related" mouse pads as gifts, and often humor or cartooning is incorporated. For instance, giving a mouse pad to a doctor? Why not one featuring a medical-related cartoon? To a scientist? A science-theme cartoon makes perfect sense. See the difference? It is what you might call "non-invasive marketing". With all the products on the market today, many of them very outdated, used to promote corporate awareness, the personalized touch is standing out. So giving a simple high-quality humor or cartoon-theme mouse pad that matches the interest of the one you are giving it to, not only makes perfect sense, it makes ingenius sense.

The person not only sees and uses the mouse pad every day, he/she remembers it came from you. It needn't even have your name and/or web address on it. The receiver will remember this gift. It will be very very different than other gifts received. If you've never tried it, simply try it. It works, and it works like nothing else you've ever seen in the "how do I get my name out there" world of marketing.

Kids market were the first noticed in the mouse pad world. Big firms like Disney and others had their characters like Mickey Mouse and Goofy and others on a mat. These continue to be big sellers and can be found at places like Walmart and other major stores.

Probably one of the first to experiment with it in the corporate world was cartoonist Rick London, creator of Londons Times Cartoons, the top-rated cartoon on the Internet. He uses professional-themed cartoons onto high quality mouse pads targeting the corporate business and adult gift-giving market. His themes include everything from dentistry to pro-sports to lawyers to veterinarians. He sells them at his various cartoon gift shops including Just Funny Mouse Pads, an Internet icon of a website.

People are looking for originality and the more original, the more memorable. The name of the game is to forget "corporate etiquette" when corporate gifts are being sought. Seek originality. People will remember and do business with you.