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Bold tech & web commentary

TechFold is technology discussion, commentary, reviews, and opinions from well outside the valley. There's no koolaid to drink here, and TechFold is not in SL, or on Twitter.

Most annoying words on the internet

A funny article on the most annoying words on the internet (according to Britons at least) - things that make you feel like a goofball to talk about, like “wikis” or the “blogosphere.”

There is no way I’d put “blogosphere” into a conversation with a group of non-technical layperson friends - its easier and less silly sounding to just say “the web.” Apparently I’m not alone in this feeling.

I’d also like to nominate “webinar” for inclusion. Just call it a bloody conference or seminar, which happens to use the internet for remote attendees. A “net conference” would do well - much like we call it a “conference call,” not a “phoninar” (though I guess “teleconference” sounds ok).

Anyway, the whole discussion struck a nerve for me - see “Gaboogie and the truth about Web 2.0 names” for reference. Its really hard to balance attention-getting, descriptiveness, and market appeal when selecting a name, or creating a new descriptor for an entirely new service (like “wikis”).

Webomatica’s response points us to their “weblogisms” page which is a good compendium of often painful geek-blog terms. The Online Media Cultist offers his own take on some of the words, and CybernetNews is making me hungry with their cookie clipart. The Guardian’s post is notable for the funny words that are coming out in the comments.

BTW - have you notice my posts are sporadic and generally weak? I’m up to my eyeballs in craziness this week. ProBlogger had a post today that mentioned keeping a bunch of written posts in reserve for times like this - but to do so requires the time to build a store of written posts… which I don’t have. So it goes!

2 Responses to “Most annoying words on the internet”

Webomatica | June 21st, 2007 at 3:14 pm

Argh - yeah webinar is rather a groaner. I forgot about that one!
Rod | June 24th, 2007 at 9:43 pm

Yes - its amazing how the tech industry - full of inventive, creative, amazing people - can consistently come up with painful ways to describe great concepts.