Global Study: Top 10 Most Confusing (yet widely used) High Tech Buzzwords

Danville, Calif. 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 to 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 info@LanguageMonitor.com or visit Http://www.LanguageMonitor.com.