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Global Study: Top 10 Most Confusing (yet widely used) High
Tech BuzzwordsGlobal Study: Top 10 Most Confusing (yet widely used) High Tech Buzzwords:
HTTP, Megapixel, Plasma, WORM and Emoticon Cited Among Leaders. Worldwide
Internet & Media Analysis by Global Language Monitor
Danville, CA (PRWEB) March 23, 2005 -- In a worldwide internet and media
analysis, The Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) found the most confusing yet
frequently cited high tech buzzwords to be ‘HTTP’, ‘Voice Over IP’ (VoIP), and
‘Megapixel’. Closely following were ‘Plasma’, ‘Robust’, ‘WORM’ and ‘Emoticon’.
The study was released earlier today; the complete results can be found at www.LanguageMonitor.com.
“The high tech realm remains an incubator of great ideas and, at the
same time, mass confusion. The industry, with rare exception, has never mastered
the basics of translating new products and services into everyday language: It
is obvious that the High Tech industry has failed in its basic language
proficiency test.”
The PQ Index© (Predictive Quantities) Index is a
proprietary algorithm that tracks specified words and phrases in the media and
on the Internet. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their
frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. This
analysis was performed in early March of 2005.
The Global Language
Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word
choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture. The GLM is
supported by a worldwide assemblage of linguists, professional wordsmiths, and
bibliophiles to help monitor the latest trends in the evolution (and demise) of
language, word usage and word choices.
The Most Confusing Yet Frequently
Cited High Tech Words with Commentary follow: 1. HTTP – HyperText Transfer
Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. Not to be confused
with text on too much Starbucks. More than 1 billion references to HTTP on the
web alone.
2. Voice Over IP – VoIP, (pronounced voip rhyming with
Detroit). Voice over Internet Protocol. Simply put: web telephony.
3.
Megapixel – A really big pixel. No, one million pixels (that’s a lotta pixels)
OK, what’s a pixel? Computer-ese for ‘picture element'.
4. Plasma – As
in Plasma TV. Are we talking Red Cross Drives here? Rather, a flat, lightweight
surface covered with millions of tiny glass bubbles with a digitally controlled
electric current flowing through it that causes the ‘plasma’ inside the tiny
bubbles to glow.
5. Robust – No one quite knows what this means, but its
good for your product to demonstrate ‘robustness'.
6. WORM – A virus,
right? No, a ’ Write Once, Read Many’ file system used for optical disk
technology.
7. Emoticon – A ‘smiley’ with an emotional component (from
emotional icon). Now, what’s a ‘smiley’?
8. Best of breed – Not to be
confused with the Westminster Dog Show. A personalized ‘solution’ made of
components from various manufacturers; a sort of high tech ‘mix-and-match’.
9. Viral marketing – Marketing that Freezes your computer? Actually, a
high tech marketing fad that theoretically results in a geometric progression of
one’s marketing message. Sometimes stealth. Always irritating.
10. Data
migration – Nothing to do with pre-historic mastodons or, even, global warming.
It’s where the data in your present software programs can move to newer (or
older) versions of the programs or, better yet, into competitive ‘solutions’
without causing much of a fuss. A highly unlikely result.
Other terms
being tracked included ‘client/server,’ ‘solution,’ Paradigm,’ hypertext,’
‘backward compatible,’ ‘best of breed,’ and the STUN protocol.
For more
information, go www.LanguageMonitor.com.
About the Global Language
Monitor The Global Language Monitor documents, analyzes, and tracks the
latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various
aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis on global English. Worldwide
print and electronic media have come to rely on The Global Language Monitor for
its expert analysis on language trends and their subsequent impact on politics,
culture and business, including the PQ (Political-sensitivity quotient) Index,
analysis of media coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics, the Republican National
Convention, Workplace lingo, Hollywords, Telewords, the English Language
WordClock, among many others.
The GLM has been cited by CNN, MSNBC, The
Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Associated Press, United Press International,
Knight-Ridder, USAToday, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Chicago
Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The
Charlotte Observer, Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Jose Mercury, New York Post,
NPR, FoxNews, ABC, NBC, CBS, The National Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The
BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Company, The Canadian Broadcasting Company, The
Cape Town Argus, El Pais (Madrid), The Daily Mail (Scotland), The Hindustan
Times, The Gulf News (Qatar), and various electronic and print media on six
continents.
The GLM is supported by a worldwide assemblage of linguists,
professional wordsmiths, and bibliophiles to help monitor the latest trends in
the evolution (and demise) of language, word usage and word choices, and their
impact on the various aspects of culture.
For more information, call
1.925.367.7557, send email to e-mail protected from spam bots or visit Http://www.LanguageMonitor.com.
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