Prompt's TechBlog
Technology by any other abbreviation would smell as sweet
05 October 2006
Posted by Dave Wilby
Okay, so you've found our blog, but do you really know what a blog is, and where the term blog originates? What about RSS? Or VOD, or PVR? Or even IM?
According to a story on BBC Technology News, there's a chance that even extremely sophisticated blog browsers such as yourselves may not have a complete grasp on the techy terms you might hear bandied about daily. "Britons are increasingly tech-savvy but are still bamboozled by tech jargon", the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation - yes!) claims.
All this FUD (if you don't know, you probably don't need to) has been caused by new research from Nielsen/NetRatings which has revealed that although British people love buying cutting-edge technology they often don't understand the terms that describe what their shiny new toys are actually capable of.
So, for example, while 40 per cent of people online receive news feeds, 67 per cent didn't know the official acronym RSS stands for really simple syndication. Likewise 75 per cent didn't know VOD was video-on-demand, or that PVRs were personal video recorders. Mind you, 57 per cent didn't even realise IM was short for instant messaging.
Oh and by the way, for the 34 per cent of respondents that had heard the term blog but weren't sure what it meant - it's a contraction of web log, can be used as a noun or a verb, and refers to a periodically updated website written in a journal style. Usually.
According to a story on BBC Technology News, there's a chance that even extremely sophisticated blog browsers such as yourselves may not have a complete grasp on the techy terms you might hear bandied about daily. "Britons are increasingly tech-savvy but are still bamboozled by tech jargon", the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation - yes!) claims.
All this FUD (if you don't know, you probably don't need to) has been caused by new research from Nielsen/NetRatings which has revealed that although British people love buying cutting-edge technology they often don't understand the terms that describe what their shiny new toys are actually capable of.
So, for example, while 40 per cent of people online receive news feeds, 67 per cent didn't know the official acronym RSS stands for really simple syndication. Likewise 75 per cent didn't know VOD was video-on-demand, or that PVRs were personal video recorders. Mind you, 57 per cent didn't even realise IM was short for instant messaging.
Oh and by the way, for the 34 per cent of respondents that had heard the term blog but weren't sure what it meant - it's a contraction of web log, can be used as a noun or a verb, and refers to a periodically updated website written in a journal style. Usually.
# posted by Dave Wilby at 3:20 PM 
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