Tech Lingo Still Confuses People

Posted on October 5, 2006

A British study found that many people are baffled by the onslaught of new tech terms. Some people are using the technology but they are not familiar with the technology's word or acronym.

Britons are increasingly tech-savvy but are still bamboozled by tech jargon.
According to research from Nielsen/NetRatings, people are buying cutting-edge technology but often don't understand the terms that describe what their device actually does.
So while 40% of online Britons receive news feeds, 67% did not know that the official term for this service was Really Simple Syndication.
Terms such as podcasting and wikis are still meaningless to many.

Here is a list of some of the tech terms many people still don't understand.

VOD - video-on-demand

Wikis - Collaborative technology for editing websites

IPTV - internet protocol television

RSS - Really Simple Syndication alias automated news feeds

PVR - personal video recorder

Web 2.0 - user-generated content phase of internet

Triple-play - internet, TV and phone in one subscription

VoIP - voice over internet protocol

IM - instant messaging

Blogging - frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts on the web

Podcasting - internet broadcasting for playback on MP3 players